Advice required - first time buyers been through the mill

kjrbetts

Hi guys

Looking for a bit of advice, really...

We're a couple of first time buyers who seem to be having a bad run of luck.

We had an offer accepted 18 weeks ago on a flat. (Paid £122,500, list price was £125,000) and instructed solicitors etc. Unfortunately, it has taken a lot of time to get this far (right near exchange) and we have chased everyone and everything for it to even get this far.

Anyway, to make matters worse, we received a call today from our solicitors saying they needed to inform us that on our block (purpose built, 3 floors), there are due to be £16,000 or so worth of maintenance upgrades that are not within our maintenance costs. This will be shared between the 10 flats.
We weren't informed of this early, and the vendor actually did not tell anyone. They received notice of it, but failed to inform the estate agent, and their own soliticors. They only found out because another client in the same block told them.

These costs (so about £1,600) will be imposed upon us if we agree to exchange and complete without doing anything about it. We're first time buyers and don't have an awful lot of disposable cash.
In your opinions, do you think we are within our right to be annoyed at the vendor and suggest they should pay half (at least?!) towards these costs? If we knew they were to happen, we would have adjusted our offer accordingly right at the start. Should we stand our ground? Do you think they will say yes to paying half?

Opinions much appreciated. Or indeed questions if I have missed anything out.

Regards

Kev

Bufger

Stand your ground but not offensively. Mention that its something you would have taken into consideration in the offer and you would like to reduce your offer by that amount. Wait for a reply and they might offer to pay half etc. Dont just do nothing and end up paying the full amount. Its a game of poker now and if they think you're going to go all in, rather than lose out they will want to make a deal.

bryanb

As you offered to buy without these upgrades, and the fact that they are not done yet, I imagine the vendor might expect you to pay for them. After all only yourselves will benefit from them.

ukmaggie45

Why should you pay half? If vendor knew of these charges and neglected to tell you (or the EAs) I don't see why they shouldn't pay the full amount. They'll have to if you pull out and they have to stay there after all.

Maybe I'm just being crabby (just had a bad experience of a house purchase turning sour) but I really think they should pay at least half.

I would certainly try and negotiate the price down, and also be prepared to walk (which is what we ended up doing though our story is different - it was the drains).

Good luck!

Maggie

DVardysShadow

kjrbetts wrote: »

These costs (so about £1,600) will be imposed upon us if we agree to exchange and complete without doing anything about it. We're first time buyers and don't have an awful lot of disposable cash.

Your cash position is irrelevant

In your opinions, do you think we are within our right to be annoyed at the vendor

Yes

and suggest they should pay half (at least?!) towards these costs? If we knew they were to happen, we would have adjusted our offer accordingly right at the start. Should we stand our ground? Do you think they will say yes to paying half?

I would expect them to pay the lot, because as you say you were not given any indication of these issues. They should not be in a better position now than iff they had declared the costs up front

kjrbetts

Thanks for the input, folks. It's at least improved our confidence in what we are doing is right.

My big annoyance is that the vendor seems to have witheld this information from everyone - including his own solicitors, and it was only the searches that brought them up. As I said before, we would have negotiated a better price had we known!

ukmaggie45

Just found out more detail on our failed purchase that I am very angry about. :mad:

Please make sure you get any surveys done that might be iffy. Yes, it's expensive, but in the long term it will save you not only cash but stress.

In our case we went for a drains CCTV survey as there are a lot of trees on the site. As recommended by our surveyor.

Today OH in touch with our drain surveyor, as we haven't had bill (or survey) yet. Prob to do with the mail strike stuff?

Anyway, it seems that drain man shows vendor the stuff as he does it, and there are probs with tree roots getting into drains,

Vendor then asks if it is possible for him to not tell us in the survey! The survey that we have spent money on... AAaarrrrggghhh!

I no longer am feeling guilt from withdrawing from the purchase.

Good luck to you, be careful! :-;

Maggie

poppysarah

I am suprised you can't get copies of stuff via email.

who told you the vendor asked that?

ukmaggie45

poppysarah wrote: »

I am suprised you can't get copies of stuff via email.

who told you the vendor asked that?

Hi Poppysarah, OH spoke to the drain surveyor yesterday. Survey and bill have been posted signed-for, but it hasn't arrived yet. We were worried he would think we were just being slow to pay up. It was the drain surveyor who told OH that vendor had asked him not to tell us.

OP, good luck with your negotiations!

Maggie

homehunter

Argh, I can't stand it when people 'beglect' to inform solicitors etc of developments and potential hold-ups...

We have just signed our contract (FTBs), handed a 10% deposit to our solicitor, and our seller has signed her contract. All parties agreed to a completion date in less than 3 weeks time (was about 5 weeks when agreed) - we have that in writing. And just as we are about to exchange....our seller's seller (if you see what I mean) informs us indirectly that she is only moving if her relative sorts out a mortgage for the place she's buying, as that person is moving in with her relative. So there is a whole other chain that we didn't know about which has a direct impact on our chain! Our solicitor certainly didn't know about it, and I know that if we were aware of this we would not have handed in notice on our rental...we've got to be out in 3 weeks and we still don't know what's happening. It was all sorted!!! I'm certain that the person 2 rungs up has not spoken to the solicitor at all, so communication between that solicitor and our seller's solicitor has been inadequate to say the least. And the EAs have been next to useless in all of this, not a peep.:mad:

So, still chasing to find out if we are going to be homeless in 3 weeks....:(

bryanb

Is your seller's seller a party to the written agreement? If so there could be some pressure brought to bear there, depending on the written agreement.