Please advise on repair dilemma!!!!!!

poodledoodledoo

My husband and I recently put an offer in on a house that needs a total refit. The house was on the market for £115,000 and we offered £111,000 which was accepted by the vendor. Similar houses in a reasonable condition generally fetch around £120,000-£130,000 in the same street. It basically needs everything doing to it (new kitchen, bathroom, double glazing etc) which we were aware of when we put in our offer.
The problem started with the HomeBuyers Report which stated that the roof needs replacing (£1600, flat roof) and a total rewire (£3000+).
My husband approached the agents today after gathering our quotes and the woman who dealt with him was really 'off'. She was saying that the reason we got is for the price we did was in view of the fact it needs work. My husband quite rightly pointed out that by paying for the extra repairs ourselves, we would be spending in total a lot more money on the house than it's worth and the vendor should pay for the roof (which we were told was OK prior to making our offer) and the rewiring. The agent got very defensive suggesting that we should pay half but i really don't think we should! We were lied to about the roof and should have been told about the wiring (the whole house is unearthed!).
Are we being unreasonable?

bs0u0128

ur getting a house worth 120-130 for 111 and you want the vendor to pay for the work to bring it up to the 120-130standard i assume?

doing the work u quoted there its still within profit

i think thats out of order personally yes

poodledoodledoo

Sorry, you misunderstood me.
If the vendor carries out the repairs we were unaware of (the roof and the wiring) and WE replace the windows as was our intention, that would bring the value up to £115,000. We are then going to have to replace the kitchen and bathroom OURSELVES and completely redecorate the whole house to increase the value to what it should be.
If the vendors don't contribute at all, we are going to be spending £25,000+ in total on top of the asking price of 111,000 and the house will only be worth £120-130,000.
Surely the agent doesn't expect us to do this?!

Debt_Free_Chick

poodledoodledoo wrote:

If the vendors don't contribute at all, we are going to be spending £25,000+ in total on top of the asking price of 111,000 and the house will only be worth £120-130,000.
Surely the agent doesn't expect us to do this?!

There are no rules over who does what; what the costs are and who pays. It's all part of the negotiation. You can't demand anything

How did you arrive at your budget of £25,000? Sounds rather high .....

MissSunshine

How old is the property?

I remember my parents 1960's property being rewired by the council in the 1980's, however my nan has a much older property that needs doing.

Should you have presumed the wiring was upto date?

poodledoodledoo

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

There are no rules over who does what; what the costs are and who pays. It's all part of the negotiation. You can't demand anything

How did you arrive at your budget of £25,000? Sounds rather high .....

Well the windows, roof and electrics will come to £11,000 alone, then there is the matter of a new kitchen, bathroom, replastering etc...The place really needs a lot of work.

mjdh1957

You can always threaten to withdraw your offer if the vendor won't negotiate and see if that makes them more amenable to making a contribution to the extra repairs. But there is no obligation on them to do anything.

Until contracts are exchanged, there is no binding agreement between you so you can just walk away and find another property (assuming you aren't in Scotland where the laws are different).

Debt_Free_Chick

Part of the problem here is with the finishing. Some of us could refit a kitchen for £2k .... whilst others would spend £20k on the same kitchen!! :eek: So, what would the vendor be expected to contribute? It's all down to negotiation. Buyers can't insist on the vendor meeting the cost of solid granite worktops, for example. (well, they can .... but what they get depends on negotiation with the vendor).

I would suggest that your budget for the windows, roof & electrics is "at the top end". How many quotes do you have? And is all this work absolutely essential or a "would be nice to do"?

Firstly, you need to split out the essential work from the "nice to do" or the "whilst you're at it, you might as well do ...".

Then, you need to establish the minimum budget to do what you need. No vendor is going to pay for your choice of expensive finishing, if that is what you've opted for.

If the EA is being "off" it's probably because they expected you to cost the minimum price of the work needed and to make an appropriate offer. Unfortunately for you, that's the way that house-buying works - it's for the buyer to decide what needs doing and what the cost is ... and then to make an offer.

HTH

poodledoodledoo

Yeah, i realise they are not obliged to contribute towards the repairs but the fact of the matter is that I wouldn't have put in such a high offer in the first place had i have known that the roof needs replacing. I actually asked him the first time i went to look round if the roof had been seen to recently and he said yes and that it was ok. This is completely untrue as the 2 roofing companies who quoted me said that the main roof has never been done and the extension roof is unfinished. One of the companies had been called out to the same property only a month ago by the vendor himself so he was aware that the work needed doing!!!
I think I would be willing to compromise a little on the electrics as I expected there to be SOME work that needs to be done but it came as a shock to discover that it needs a total rewire!!!
Anyway, I am pretty mad about the roof as the vendor blatantly lied to me.

poodledoodledoo

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Part of the problem here is with the finishing. Some of us could refit a kitchen for £2k .... whilst others would spend £20k on the same kitchen!! :eek: So, what would the vendor be expected to contribute? It's all down to negotiation. Buyers can't insist on the vendor meeting the cost of solid granite worktops, for example. (well, they can .... but what they get depends on negotiation with the vendor).

I would suggest that your budget for the windows, roof & electrics is "at the top end". How many quotes do you have? And is all this work absolutely essential or a "would be nice to do"?

Firstly, you need to split out the essential work from the "nice to do" or the "whilst you're at it, you might as well do ...".

Then, you need to establish the minimum budget to do what you need. No vendor is going to pay for your choice of expensive finishing, if that is what you've opted for.

If the EA is being "off" it's probably because they expected you to cost the minimum price of the work needed and to make an appropriate offer. Unfortunately for you, that's the way that house-buying works - it's for the buyer to decide what needs doing and what the cost is ... and then to make an offer.

HTH

We are only asking the vendor to pay for the roof and (a percentage of) the electrics as these are things that have been made a condition of the mortgage. We were totally unaware of the roof situation when we put our offer in as the vendor said that it was OK and this has turned out not to be the case at all. As for the electrics, well, I expected to have to do SOME work but I was unaware that the place needed totally rewiring. I am prepared to pay for some of it but i think it's only fair that he contributes too.

I think the budget I've established for refitting the actual house is quite modest really. I'm allowing at most 14 thousand and that has to totally refit the kitchen and bathroom, recarpet throughout and sort A LOT of plastering work among other smaller jobs. I really can't see me being able to do it for much less.

Debt_Free_Chick

poodledoodledoo wrote:

We are only asking the vendor to pay for the roof and (a percentage of) the electrics as these are things that have been made a condition of the mortgage.

In which case, a £4k "discount" on the asking price (£115k) doesn't seem too far out. £1600 for the roof and £2400 (80% of the total cost) for the rewire seems like a good deal

Am I missing the point (possible )?