Warning: house buying is expensive

MushyPeas

Hi Jorgan

Thanks for your message and advice. I will look into this now, I'll chase this up.

Miss_Penny_Pincher_2

Good luck MushyPeas - it really sickens me the way EA get away with lying so blatantly!

The first house we put an offer on we were so excited and felt we would be able to move straight in and not need to change much for years. Paid £410 for valuation and home buyers survey and this came back as quite damning! In the summary the surveyor had written that he would advise caution about buying this property! I phoned and spoke to him and he basically said we should look at other houses in the area instead. It was really hard for us to let go of it as we thought it was a bargain and £410 seemed a lot of money to us too.

The property came on the market in March last year and was on for £100k, then dropped it to £95k. We had offer accepted for £94k. The survey valued the house at £92k. But the amount of structural work would have cost us around £20k or more!!! They disbelieved our survey!!! They actually went and paid for their own to be done! Their EA chose the surveyor that they should use and kept telling us how terrible our surveyor was... hmm... our surveyor was one chosen by Nationwide! We went in to see the estate agent about this and he gave us loads of patronising spiel etc.

It was very scary being first time buyers and we didn't really know what to do. They only offered to drop the price to £91k so we walked away. Well guess what? They now have it on with a different EA for £85k! Just noticed it has an offer on it after 15 months! Poor buyers - I wonder if they will have a homebuyers survey and realise the extent of the problems...needs new roof, possible asbestos, terrible ventilation so probably has dry rot, damp, dangerous back garden walls, bay area needs replacing etc etc. Here it is if anybody is curious:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-7458616.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy&ep=via_sl

I think we had a lucky escape and I know it's cold comfort but maybe that will help you to think that too MushyPeas? The house we have now is nicer and the survey came up with only a few minor problems and no issues with the sale at all! We were so much more cautious putting our second offer in! The dream house will be out there for you! Please don't lose heart x

Jorgan_2

Miss_Penny_Pincher wrote:

The property came on the market in March last year and was on for £100k, then dropped it to £95k. We had offer accepted for £94k. The survey valued the house at £92k. But the amount of structural work would have cost us around £20k or more!!! They disbelieved our survey!!! They actually went and paid for their own to be done! Their EA chose the surveyor that they should use and kept telling us how terrible our surveyor was... hmm... our surveyor was one chosen by Nationwide! We went in to see the estate agent about this and he gave us loads of patronising spiel etc.

The buyers may have disbelieved your survey as they were living in the property & couldn't/wouldn't believe there were so many problems with their home. Surveyors will at some point have to use their discretion & opinion on a property, show one house to 20 surveyors & you will get 20 different surveys back.

Miss_Penny_Pincher_2

You are probably right Jorgan - this was the first survey we had read so we didn't really understand the seriousness of it because I had heard that all surveys come back with loads of problems. Everybody told us though that this was much worst than most. Some of the issues that were brought up in our survey which were easy to fix and only 5 minute jobs e.g. clear leaves from drains etc were still included as problems in the second survey. I would have thought they might have made a bit of effort to spruce things up

Neither of the two surveys mentioned the fact that the window in the back door had a hole/big cracks in it - is this because they assume that the vendor has spotted this?

The survey on the house that we eventually bought was done by a different surveyor from the same office and was several pages shorter with nowhere near the level of detail, didn't pick up on old, leaking guttering etc but maybe we needed that so we wouldn't be scared out of buying :rotfl: Still love this house though

Jorgan_2

A surveyor shouldn't assume the vendor has seen anything. Your first survey was done for you & your lender, not the vendors benefit. Glad you like your house.

Miss_Penny_Pincher_2

Jorgan wrote:

A surveyor shouldn't assume the vendor has seen anything. Your first survey was done for you & your lender, not the vendors benefit.

Sorry - meant to say buyer there!

tawnyowls

lynzpower wrote:

wait for hips, wait for hips...

But as mentioned in the papers today, they won't cover things like risk of flooding or subsidence, and banks will still insist on doing a full valuation if you borrow more than 80% of the value (which applies to a lot of buyers). Plus, would you trust a survey done by the buyer rather than you? HIPs seem to be just another way of the chancellor grabbing money - to do one will cost the seller more and won't necessarily be trusted by the buyer or accepted by their lender.

MushyPeas

Hi all again for your positive vibes - thanks Miss Penny Pincher, it does give me some hope for the future.

I had been planning to move to a small village, but now not so sure where I want to live - I've wandered around local EA but nothing has taken my fancy yet. I think I need to recover from losing all this money first - trying to by the second house has been very stressful! And now I don't even have it....oh you have to laugh! :rotfl:

lynzpower

tawnyowls wrote:

But as mentioned in the papers today, they won't cover things like risk of flooding or subsidence, and banks will still insist on doing a full valuation if you borrow more than 80% of the value (which applies to a lot of buyers). Plus, would you trust a survey done by the buyer rather than you? HIPs seem to be just another way of the chancellor grabbing money - to do one will cost the seller more and won't necessarily be trusted by the buyer or accepted by their lender.

Dont want to overkill on the HIPs thing here but my understanding would be that both of OPs fall throughs could well have been avoided by Hips.

prop 1- how can anyone get away with lying if the hips say that mundic block is there?

prop 2- maybe the vendor might have taken putting on the market more seriously if shed have actually had to pay for something. As it is she wont have EA fees, nor any reason to resist pulling out.

MushyPeas

lynzpower wrote:

prop 1- how can anyone get away with lying if the hips say that mundic block is there?

prop 2- maybe the vendor might have taken putting on the market more seriously if shed have actually had to pay for something. As it is she wont have EA fees, nor any reason to resist pulling out.

Hiya lynzpower

prop 1 - I niavelly (sp!!) thought that people couldn't lie - but there you go.

prop 2 - The only thing that makes me feel slightly better is that she must have some costs with solicitor fees, though I don't know as I've yet to become a seller. The EA are also fuming as they have wasted a lot of time with this seller. Apparently they have never experienced anything like this before, pulling out on exchange