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Metal Security Shutters - cannot get full access for survey

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The house I am trying to buy has metal security shutters on the external doors and windows as well as the side gate leading to the back garden. It has a cellar which can only be accessed via the back garden.

The estate agents are able to open the front door but not the back door or side gate, so I have not been able to view the house from the rear or the cellar.

So far I have had no luck in getting the sellers to remove enough shutters (temporarily) to allow full access to me and a surveyor, even though I have offered to pay for this. :mad:

I am pretty much ready to exchange so this is the only thing holding it up.

My solicitor is now on the case.

Has anyone come across this situation before? Were you able to come to some agreement regarding the shutters? What else can I do?

I really don't want to lose the house - it ticks every box and there are very few houses in the area that do. On the other hand, I don't want to be lumbered with a house that's about to fall down!
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Comments

  • poppysarah
    poppysarah Posts: 11,522 Forumite
    Is there a reason why they don't want you to see the cellar?
  • Not that I've been told. It's a repossession - they said they will not add any fees to their client's account, which is understandable - but I have offered to pay for this.
  • poppysarah
    poppysarah Posts: 11,522 Forumite
    Either buy it or don't then. Repo company can be as arsey as they like and usually are.

    Offer loads less than asking price and state it's because they won't allow shutter removal.
  • Can you get to or view the back garden by climbing over a neighbour's fence (maybe the neighbour at the back, from the next street?, if you asked nicely.) Binoculars from back neighbour's upstairs window? Would a neighbour let you look at their cellar so you can get an idea of what might be in the house?

    Then offer loads less because most buyers will be put off, and you may get a bargain. Or it may all go horribly wrong.
    A kind word lasts a minute, a skelped erse is sair for a day.
  • scottn
    scottn Posts: 166 Forumite
    do you have a big screwdriver or an angle grinder?
  • GDB2222
    GDB2222 Posts: 26,243 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    The key issue is whether your surveyor is going to down-value the house because he can't get access? If so, whoopee, show the report to the sellers and ask for a further discount.

    Do you need a large mortgage to buy this place?
    No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?
  • GDB2222 wrote: »
    The key issue is whether your surveyor is going to down-value the house because he can't get access? If so, whoopee, show the report to the sellers and ask for a further discount.

    Do you need a large mortgage to buy this place?

    It's not the mortgage valuation that's a problem - that's been done and has come back at the offer price. It's a structural survey that I'd like to have done - and obviously on the whole house, not just part of it!
  • clutton_2
    clutton_2 Posts: 11,149 Forumite
    folks who have been repoed are understandably not cooperative as they have been deprived of their home - for whatever reason... could you find him and offer him £50 to let you in ? cash in hand as it were ?
  • GDB2222
    GDB2222 Posts: 26,243 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    It's not the mortgage valuation that's a problem - that's been done and has come back at the offer price. It's a structural survey that I'd like to have done - and obviously on the whole house, not just part of it!


    Hmm, difficult then. How did the mortgage valuer get access? Or didn't he?
    No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?
  • VIGILANT22
    VIGILANT22 Posts: 2,516 Forumite
    another one trying to buy cheap with no idea as to what is involved............
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