Our vendor is refusing to help us out with damp problem

feesh

ARRRGH I could scream!

We've been through a very long process since putting the offer in for a house, which we finally went in to sign the contracts for on Thursday night.

We're in a very short chain. My partner is selling his flat to a 1st time buyer and we are buying an empty house, becaue the vendors have already moved into their new place. So there's only 3 of us in the chain.

Its been dragging on for months (due to our management company taking ages to answer our buyer's queries). In that time the vendor's estate agent has been giving us loads of grief, telling us to hurry up or the vendor would pull out (which we shrugged off as we were pushing things as hard as we could and she was being downright rude at times).

So, finally contract signing day came around last week. We were the last in the chain to sign.

But we found out in the solicitor's office that there is a clause on our mortgage agreement saying we will need to have the damp in the dining room investigated and fixed (if necessary) within 6 months.

This was a bit of a shock. We knew there was a possible minor damp problem but we were prepared to live with it, its an old house, we expected it. We'd even had an independent damp specialist look at it and he said it needed further investigation but was probably nothing we couldn't live with, but if we really wanted to fix it we would be looking at about £4k.

So we decided to go ahead and sign the contracts, but not exchange them until the vendor agreed to put £4k in retention funds should further investigation reveal that the work would need doing.

But the vendor (who is a city trader, and very hard nosed businessman - my partner knows his wife) just said a flat NO to our request. He said he would rather put the house back on the market than 'mess about with contracts at this stage'.

The chances are we won't need his money, as (a) there is an existing damp course under guarantee and (b) we will probably get the same company to do the investigation survey - that way they are highly unlikely to recommend that further work needs doing. So the chances are he would get it all back after its been in retention for 6 months.

But we would like to have had our backs covered - we're in the process of saving for our wedding and we just couldn't realistically find £4k within the next 6 months.

So now we're stuck. The vendor won't even negotiate. We can't afford to fix this damp problem. My partner doesn't really want to pull out but I don't really mind pulling out as I would be happy to rent for a bit instead.

I just don't know what to do. We need to make a decision by tomorrow morning as if we don't exchange by tomorrow, we won't be completing on Friday (and we would HAVE to complete by Friday as I am going into hospital for an operation next week). Part of me thinks we should just pull out and look to buy again in a few months time (as I am having 1 minor and 1 major operation in the next 8 weeks).

I don' t know what to do with this stubborn vendor! I am sure that we must be in a stronger position than him....surely he doesn't want to have to find a new buyer now, at this time of year, when the house was on the market for months before we came along.....does he????

Please could anyone offer any advice?

pawpurrs

If he wont budge, then its up to you to take the risk or not. You were happy before the mortgage company started with this buisness.
If I was the vendor dont think I would budge either (sorry), but no house is perfect, even the damp man has said there is no major problem. I doubt the building society will check in 6 mths, if they do the damp man has said there isnt really a problem, I bet if you get the reduction, you wont even do the work!
Hes proberbley fed up that the process has taken so long, and feels he has been more than patient.
Mortgage companies seem to be getting increasingly over eager to put retentions on houses at the moment for what are in effect fairly minor points.

silvercar

The chances are we won't need his money, as (a) there is an existing damp course under guarantee and (b) we will probably get the same company to do the investigation survey - that way they are highly unlikely to recommend that further work needs doing. So the chances are he would get it all back after its been in retention for 6 months.

If you really believe this, why are you worrying.

If you don't buy now, how much have you already spent on this house that is not recoverable? How much rent will you be spending over and above your expected mortgage payments before you do buy? Are there many houses on the market at the moment that you like or is this one special?

Entertainer

I can see the vendors point here- it's dragged on and now the buyer wants to have £4000 knocked off the price just before exchange. Did he make the point that he wasn't going to negotiate on the price after a survey? I would probably do the same in his position. It is basically up to you how much you want it. Building societies can be overzealous when it comes to prescribing works to be done, in reality I've known it to get somewhat forgotten 6 months later.

Doozergirl

The damp guy has said it's nothing that can't be lived with and the mortgage company haven't actually retained any money from the loan, so you're basically clear. We've had exactly the same put in a mortgage offer recently. Whilst we will be giving the whole property a major facelift anyway, our mortgage broker tells us that he has never seen a mortgage company follow up on something like this.

If you're still worried, the fact that there's no major damp problem and a letter from the damp man to your mortgage company saying so will keep them quite happy.

Really, if the damp man needs to investigate further, there's no obvious issue is there? They either turn up and say there's a problem, or there isn't. He's hardly going to diddle himself out of work!

dkny_2

If you proceed to buy the house and in future any damaged caused by the untreated damp, you will not be able to claim on your house insurance if it is a direct consiquence of the remidial work not being completed.

There maybe future buyers who will buy the propety who only have a basic mortgage valuation carried out with no further investigation until it is too late. He had probably thought you were not going to investigate this and thought he was plane saling to the bank.

If you have already exchanged contracts then unfortunately then you stand to lose a large amount of your money but if you have only signed the contracts and these are being held at your solicitor you can back out and only lose your search fees and a nominal amount to cover the solicitors input.

If you have not exchanged then i would look at some other houses in the same area and say to him if you do not neagotiate a deal with the work to be carried out with the Damp suggest a 50:50 deal. £2000 each to proceed to completion. If not state you are willing to lose £600 on solicitors fees to find a property with no defects, and that i have found another property and will make an offer today and instruct my solicitor to pull out of the sale, and proceed with searches on the new offered property.

Hope that helps

pawpurrs

Glad your not my buyer DKNY!

feesh

We went ahead anyway but thanks everyone for your advice, I really appreciate it. Like you say, the chances are we won't need to get it done anyway (and I doubt the mortgage company will follow it up) but if we do, my partner's parents have kindly offered us £5k to help us out if we need it, as there is no way we would be able to afford it otherwise.

I am still peed off that this vendor has been so hard-headed about it, when he is very well off and has probably made a fair amount on this property while we are struggling to get everything together just to buy it.

But I know we will be in his situation one day and I can be hard headed too where money is concerned, in fact it is my stubborness that made me so reluctant to back down to him rather than anything else!

But I decided last night I was being too proud. We're moving in on Friday!

Thanks again everyone

Careful_girl

Bet my damp problem is worse than yours!! But it is drying out!! My surveyor said "you could always knock the cottage down...."
Good luck and hope you are happy in your new house!!
CG:beer:

AndrewSmith

Live with it.

They mortgage company have not requested a retention of any money and, as such, they feel that the property in it's current state is worth what you are paying for it.

If you want a property that has no existing general maintenance issues such as 'possibly fixing damp in 6 months time' then buy a new house with a 10 year guarantee.

I would also respond in the same way as the seller I'm afraid especially as there is a guarantee for the existing damp proof course in place. Why should the seller pay for something that is guaranteed anyway and has not been made a 'neccesary or conditional' repair of the mortgage offer?

I would suggest that given the fact that the property has not been downvalued by the survey, the price you are paying reflects any possible work that may be needed.

Why have you left it until the day of exchange to raise this issue? Have you not read you survey report before this?

feesh

AndrewSmith wrote:

Live with it.


If you want a property that has no existing general maintenance issues such as 'possibly fixing damp in 6 months time' then buy a new house with a 10 year guarantee.

We don't care about the damp, we expected something like this, its part of the character of the house. We just don't have £4k to spend on making unecessary repairs to please the mortgage company (not that they are likely to even bother checking but you never know....we had to plan financially for the worst case, that's how I operate all my finances.

AndrewSmith wrote:

I would also respond in the same way as the seller I'm afraid especially as there is a guarantee for the existing damp proof course in place. Why should the seller pay for something that is guaranteed anyway and has not been made a 'neccesary or conditional' repair of the mortgage offer?

The guarantee is not worth the paper its written on - our solicitor has been trying for 2 months to get the vendors to obtain the full guarantee so that it can be transferred to our names. As it happens myself and my partner have managed to track down the damp man via Google and we have his word that he would honour it (which I am not naive enough to think he will) but that is as much as we could get legally out of our vendors.

AndrewSmith wrote:

I would suggest that given the fact that the property has not been downvalued by the survey, the price you are paying reflects any possible work that may be needed.

I hope so, I really do - we put the offer in based on the property being in generally good condition. We wouldn't have been so rude as to try and use the survey as an excuse to blag a discount on the house. We only brought it up as an issue when we knew that we were facing a possible problem in our purchase, a couple of months after we originally found out about this minor damp 'problem' (its not likely a problem in real life, except in the eyes of the mortgage company).

AndrewSmith wrote:

Why have you left it until the day of exchange to raise this issue? Have you not read you survey report before this?

As I said, I have learnt a lot from these boards including the fact that damp is not the big problem everyone thinks it is, and to expect it in older properties and not to be so rude as to try and use it as an excuse to try and blag a further discount on the house in the later stages of buying.

Also as I said before this did come up in the survey 2 months ago and the surveyor said it was minor, likely to be only condensation and not worth worrying about. We got an independent damp specialist in (who doesn't do any damp work himself therefore had nothing to sell) for an independent 2nd opinion - he said it was most likely minor, but the only way to be sure would be to get a couple of holes drilled in the wall, which we wouldn't have bothered with before but we will now have to to please the mortgage company. He said a new damp course could cost up to £4k IF the damp was found to be serious.

The fact that this supposed damp was an issue with the mortgage company was only brought to our attention on the day we saw the solicitor to sign the contracts. That changed things, because it meant we might HAVE to get the work done, even though it wasn't necessary for us to be happy living there.

Anyway all is well, we're moving in on Friday, you live and learn!