FTB advice needed:-( revising an offer

njh82

Hi, can anyone help

We had an offer accepted on a flat 9 weeks ago. So far all checks and surveys done and we are awaiting the solicitors report. There is no chain on either end but the property belonged to a lady who passed away so probate has held us up a lot.

We made sure that we got an electrical test as well as the usual Home Buyer Survey. The electrician pointed out that the communal fire alarm and door entry system were both wired to our fuseboard. Thus we would be paying the electricty for them (not a lot ) but more importantly he said if a fuse blew in out flat it would disable the fire alrarm system and if we were away that could be a real issue. However it will cost £1000+ to ammend.

We spoke to our solicitors asking if the vendors would sort it out and they said no. We approached the agent to suggest we may have to reduce our offer to cover associated costs and she said they would not budge as they already sold the flat under the asking price....shoudl we stand our ground or give up and accept tht we will have to pay out?

Thanks

lee636

How bad do you want the place? If your prepared to walk away then stick to your guns, make a revised offer and state that they have x amount of time to come back with an answer. If they still say no just walk away. If the place is worth more than the cost of putting the problems right then you may just have to put up with them not budging.

geoffky

get the sellers to fix it or walk away plenty of more fish in the sea...its a buyers market x10

G_M

However it will cost £1000+ to ammend.

But it shouldn't cost you £1000+. It will cost the management company for the block, so the 1000 will be split X ways (how many flats are there?).

Of course, you will have to persuade the management company/other flat owners that the work needs doing, but as a last resort you could disconnect the door system to focus their minds (leave the alarm - for safety reasons). Hopefully though, it wouldn't come to this, and once you've bought the flat you can persuade them to do the work.

njh82

Hiya

thanks for the replies. Although I do not 'love' the place it is certainly the best for the money we paid. We spent a long time looking and as ftb we are pretty priced out of the really good stuff as we live in the city and where my friends are buying 3 bed houses in the country we can only afford a one bed flat for the same price.
so we settled with what we could get for our ££. we are doing ti up though so hopefully will look better with fresh paint, carpets and a new kitchen.

Anyway, I spoke to the management company yesterday and they said I could raise it as an issue to be sorted at the next meeting. However, the front of our building is in need of some touching up and rendering and she has said at the moment they are nearly at the point where they can do that as have been saving for a fair few months. if we took £1000 out of that kitty it would set them back and we woudl like the kerb appeal to be addressed. So I guess we had to decide which is more important , we have gone with a letter from the company stating we are not soley responsible for any servicing or repair on the two systems just to cover our backs

G_M

njh82 wrote: »

Hiya

Anyway, I spoke to the management company yesterday and they said I could raise it as an issue to be sorted at the next meeting. However, the front of our building is in need of some touching up and rendering and she has said at the moment they are nearly at the point where they can do that as have been saving for a fair few months. if we took £1000 out of that kitty it would set them back and we woudl like the kerb appeal to be addressed. So I guess we had to decide which is more important , we have gone with a letter from the company stating we are not soley responsible for any servicing or repair on the two systems just to cover our backs

Why can't they do both the 'touching up and rendering' and the electricals? If there are, say, 10 flats in the block, that would mean an additional one-off payment of £100 each. Not really going to break the bank is it?

'kerb appeal'???

njh82

There are only 4 flats including ours. their rendering quote is £5000 and the monthly payment is £50 a month..so they have saving for some time! To take £1000 out of that would essentially be putting them back 5 months?