Previous sale fell through due to survey. Should we offer?

machofairy

A few months ago, we saw a really beautiful house and was on the verge of putting an offer for it when we were told that the vendor had already accepted an offer.

Then today, I found out from the same estate agent that the house is going back on the market as the sale fell through due to the survey and that the bank would not lend the buyer the money due to it.

However, the EA did say that "it was not to do with the building, which is sound. It's just that these houses were built in a funny way back then..". She did not provide any further info.

As we really loved the look of the house, would it be wise for us to make a conditional offer now and go through the whole process, taking the risk that we may pay for a survey on a house we do not end up buying? Or worse, our survey comes through fine, and we will always live with the thought of why it had a bad survey previously.

Ideally, we would like to know what was on that survey.. would this be possible at all?

Thanks in advance.

pawpurrs

I would make an appointment to review the property and if the vandor is doing the viewing explain how interested and genuine you are and would like to know exactly why the previous sale fell through. Or ask the agent outright, say you want to offer but obviously dont want to encounter the same problem incurring both yourself and the vandor more cost.

sallysaver

Hi,
The sale fell through due to the survey but nothing to do with the Building!!!
Thats not ringing quite true. A survey IS everything to do with the Building. If you are still keen on this property, you are risking your survey fee without question. I know what one surveyor picks up on, another one misses, and so on, but the Estate Agent will know what the negative points are and why the buyer has withdrawn, but unfortunately is not at liberty to discuss it with you. Be careful if you haven't got money to throw away. Sally

Oddgy

How strange, I spoke to an Mortgage Advisor this morning about a similiar scenario to this. He had a client that sold his house, the buyers got a survey, and the report come back with a 10k retention!! Everything went pairshaped, the buyers pulled out and then his clients coulnt afford to move with one thing or another.
2 Months later, the clients mother somehow got a large deposit together to give to her son to enable him to afford to move (as mentioned he had financial problems so this is why deal went pairshaped) so the house went back on the market. So new buyers came along, new lenders came along and so did a new surveyor.
The mortgage offer comes trundling along, but this time with only a 1K retention!! Yes thats a reduction of 9k and the vendor did nothing more!!

At the end of the day its down to the opinion of that particular surveyor. You think in your line of work, what different opionions you have to your colleagues about things. It all comes down to the hope you dont get a pedantic surveyor!!

Carter_2

Oddgy wrote:

At the end of the day its down to the opinion of that particular surveyor. You think in your line of work, what different opionions you have to your colleagues about things. It all comes down to the hope you dont get a pedantic surveyor!!

If it wasnt picked up by the second surveyor I would be concerned though and would really want to know what it was on the first survey that resulted in the retention. I would view it, ask the vendors and if not satisfied I wouldnt proceed further with it.

Sumostar

If the survey has come back with a potential problem then it is only reasonable that you are told what that problem is. You can then take some inital advice and decide wether or not you want to continue with your own survey.

lynzpower

Is it concrete slab construction or something like aasbestos or something. I have heard most lenders wont touch these.

tonyivb

This sounds similar to a situation we were in a few months ago...

We viewed a great looking house, our offer was accepted and we had a survey done.

The survey highlighted several problems, the major one being that the flank wall was bowing and would need to be tied in.

We went back to the vendors with the survey and they would only take £5000 off the price (the offer was for £335k), so we walked away.

I'm not sure when, but the asking price was reduced by £5000 at the EA and it now has a 'Sale Agreed' board outside... I can't wait to see how much it did actually sell for!

Ivenofinmoney

I thought - and somebody please correct me if I am wrong, but if you ask a specific question then the buyer is obliged to answer it, but the buyer is not obliged to reveal anything you don't ask about ??

Therefore is you ask them something like "are you aware of any items which may fail a full survey inspection ?" they are presumably obliged to telll you the answer

machofairy

Ivenofinmoney wrote:

I thought - and somebody please correct me if I am wrong, but if you ask a specific question then the buyer is obliged to answer it, but the buyer is not obliged to reveal anything you don't ask about ??

Therefore is you ask them something like "are you aware of any items which may fail a full survey inspection ?" they are presumably obliged to telll you the answer

Seems so obvious, now that you mentioned it. Its the EA who handles all corresppondance, so I hope they will be elaborate on the problem when I ask again.