Seller refusing to fix problems, shall we ask for a reduction?

AppleCore

Hi all,

We had an offer accepted on a house back in August and we're hoping to exchange soon. When we first looked around the house we noticed the electric shower had been taken to bits and had been left in the cubicle along with a few power tools. The vendor told us they were in the process of fixing it. This was 3 months ago so we asked the ea if this had been done and the ea came back with the answer 'no and they have no intention of fixing it.' They're also not going to have the boiler serviced which is concerning, especially as we'll be moving in in the middle of winter and I'm worried that it could be unsafe.

Where do we go from here. Do we demand these things are done or we won't exchange or ask for money off to pay for it ourselves? Are we being unreasonable expecting these things to be done? Our offer was lower than the high asking price but I certainly wouldn't say we got a bargain, houses in the area have started dropping their prices dramatically recently.

Any advice would be appreciated.

BitterAndTwisted

I think in your position I'd rather not have the current owners bodging this shower and plan to have it repaired myself. What would your estimated cost be for getting this done? A grand? Two?

Perhaps you could arrange with the vendors to have the boiler serviced at your own expense for the time being so you know what you might be liable for once you buy. Then, you can negotiate a possible reduction in the price to reflect this. It's entirely possible that there's nothing wrong with the boiler at all.

g_attrill

When was the boiler last serviced? If it was within the last year then it's not really reasonable to demand, since it's essentially paying for your tests that it works. If it is more than a year, then it is probably reasonable. Regarding the shower - assume it doesn't work, and assume that it will need a new cable run, so £250-750? (Yes, I know you can get a shower for £99 and a bit of cable for £10 but assume a decent shower, an electrician and pulling up carpet and floorboards).

AppleCore

The boiler could be fine but it must be at least 10, maybe 15 years old and they're refusing to get it serviced which makes me a bit suspicious. The cost of replacing the shower would only be a few hundred max, I wouldn't kick up a fuss to get extra money off, I only want the cost if the repairs back.

Should I tell the ea we'll get a plumber round for a quote and we expect a reduction based on this?

Thanks for your advice about not insisting on the vendors doing the work, I didn't even think about them botching it!

Ulfar

Simple work out the cost of having them replaced and reduce your offer accordingly. You made your original offer on the basis that they were going to fix the shower and the boiler works.

You could also ask to go and view the property and request that the boiler is on so you can see it working.

If they say no to your revised offer find somewhere else but leave the offer on the table, they are going to have a problem getting offers when people view a cold property in winter with a shower in bits.

The house I am currently in the vendors tried to conceal that the gas boiler wasn't working by putting on the immersion heater and lighting up the gas fire. I didn't even need to test it to see there was a problem so knocked 5k of the asking price, I sit here nice and toasty now with a brand new Worcester combi boiler which cost £2000.00 to have installed.

pararct

g_attrill wrote: »

When was the boiler last serviced? If it was within the last year then it's not really reasonable to demand, since it's essentially paying for your tests that it works. If it is more than a year, then it is probably reasonable. Regarding the shower - assume it doesn't work, and assume that it will need a new cable run, so £250-750? (Yes, I know you can get a shower for £99 and a bit of cable for £10 but assume a decent shower, an electrician and pulling up carpet and floorboards).

And the fact it will need the correctly rated cable its own RCD/RCBO on the board and compliance with Part P.

The legislation around domestic showers and their installation has been tightened considerably in recent years. It is usually no longer within the remit of DIY to install one.

AppleCore

Thanks for all your advice on this - so helpful.

Well my partner has arranged to go and have another look tomorrow to check out the shower and boiler and to see the heating/hot water working. There is also a large patch on the main bedroom ceiling was where there has been a leak at some point. My partner thinks that given the location of the leak this may have been caused by the shower pump failing, hence why the shower had been disconnected. He will give this a good check over tomorrow but I fear this may be quite an expensive job so will definitely be asking for a fair reduction in price once we have quotes from a plumber. We have emailed our solicitor to let him know of our intentions.

Seems a shame really, if the vendor had just fixed the shower like they said they would we would have been none the wiser and paying the full amount offered. Now we are going to ask for a price reduction to cover the cost of a professional doing the work because we feel they cannot be trusted. Seems like they have shot themselves in the foot really.

BitterAndTwisted

Maybe their current finances are so tight that they can't spare the funds to address this shower issue. Most normal people would have got it fixed by a professional and made good the damage to the ceiling.

poppysarah

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Maybe their current finances are so tight that they can't spare the funds to address this shower issue.

That's not a good reason to pay over the odds for someone's house though.

AppleCore

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Maybe their current finances are so tight that they can't spare the funds to address this shower issue. Most normal people would have got it fixed by a professional and made good the damage to the ceiling.

Possibly, who knows what their financial situation is. All I know is that they are making a fair profit on the house, they bought it new in 1996 for 111k and are selling to us for 346k so unless something has gone very wrong along the line they should be able to spare a few quid to fix the shower and service the boiler.

goldbyron

AppleCore wrote: »

Hi all,

We had an offer accepted on a house back in August and we're hoping to exchange soon. When we first looked around the house we noticed the electric shower had been taken to bits and had been left in the cubicle along with a few power tools. The vendor told us they were in the process of fixing it. This was 3 months ago so we asked the ea if this had been done and the ea came back with the answer 'no and they have no intention of fixing it.' They're also not going to have the boiler serviced which is concerning, especially as we'll be moving in in the middle of winter and I'm worried that it could be unsafe.

Where do we go from here. Do we demand these things are done or we won't exchange or ask for money off to pay for it ourselves? Are we being unreasonable expecting these things to be done? Our offer was lower than the high asking price but I certainly wouldn't say we got a bargain, houses in the area have started dropping their prices dramatically recently.

Any advice would be appreciated.

To be honest its not worth the hassle. Of course they don't want to fix it as they are moving. Just line up a boiler service yourself for when you move in....many people don't bother having a service anyway. As for the shower - if there is a bath then don't worry. If not just fix it when you move in. Its a pain I know but there is no point losing the home you love over a broken shower or a boiler which is probably working fine.