Emergency Advice!

Adam86_2

Good evening,

Me and my partner are first time buyers, and have recently being running through the process of buying our first house.

We found a house we both loved a couple of months ago, made an offer and had it accepted. Had surveys carried out etc and have been progressing through with everything.

The reason for my post is because on one of our visits to the house with the estate agents (the property is not lived in) we found that the conservatory door would not open, it is a french style opening door, so you open the first half, and then to unlock the second half you undo a latch at the top and bottom. Unfortunatley the bottom latch doesnt work, thus the door will not open.

We immediately raised with the estate agents/solicitors (as we had received the paperwork saying if we knew any issue with the property, we must raise it as soon as possible). Our solicitor notifed the vendors solicitors and they came back with a letter giving the instructions on opening the door!) I told them that this was incorrect and that the door was actually faulty!

The solicitors said we must raise it via the estate agents, so we did (again...) and they arranged for me and my Dad to go up to the house, and look at the door again, with another estate agent, who would make note of the issue. This came in handy, because we got to look at other aspects of the house and there is now something else we have raised too.

So me and my Dad looked at the door, which still wouldnt open, so the estate agent made note, and said he would sort it. We noticed that the garage had been emptied, so I took a look in there, and found a big concrete block - and I am not exagerating, it couldnt be picked up - there is no note of this on the fittings/fixtures/contents inventory form. So I said to the estate agent, that I hope this be removed prior to completion.

A couple of days later, I contacted the estate agents to see how we were getting on, and they told me the EA who had come out with us was off sick - so I explained the door and the concrete again to her.

Last week, I chased it up, and was told the vendor was looking into it. And I chased it up again yesterday, was told to leave it with them.

Anyway, today, me and my partner have had to go to the solicitors to start signing some papers and going through some stuff, as the house is meant to complete THIS Friday. The solicitor asked if I got anywhere with the door, and I filled her in, she explained it might be worth us asking the Estate Agent to allow us up to the house the day before completion and seeing if it has been fixed and the concrete has been removed etc. Luckily the estate agents is next door, so we went in and explained.

They have booked another viewing, then called the vendor to notify them. And when she came off the phone, she said that the sellers Dad is going to look at the door that afternoon, and if WD40 doesn't fix it (which I doubt it will) then they are not going to fix the door, and because his Dad is 70, they will not remove the large block of concrete either, apparantly the vendor actually lives down South) as they feel we are getting the house for a very good price!!!

Me and my partner are fuming, and the estate agent has told us they will give us an update in the morning. The estate agent suggests we get a sledgehammer onto the concrete! but we would be busy enough with the other 101 things to do when we get the keys!

We want to know where we both stand with both these issues, and just for information, we have a gifted deposit, which was suggested by our mortgage advisor, as it helps us out, our mortage advisor explained everything to the vendor about a gifted deposit when they accepted our initial offer - as originally we were not going to ask for a gifted deposit, but I dont think this would have any effect on getting these 2 issues sorted out anyway - cause if the seller wasnt happy with it they wouldnt have accepted it in the first place - but I'm just mentioning it incase any of you think they could use it to their defense?

So basically, they have known about the issue with the door since about 8 weeks ago, and they have known about the block of concrete since about 3+ weeks ago - in my opinion, plenty of time to arrange someone to remove the junk - and thats what the concrete is. And I don't know what getting the house at a good price has to do with anything!

I hear all the time about houses being sold, and items not been listed on inventories and sellers getting charged for technically storing their belongings.

Please can someone help? sorry this is such a long message.

Thanks

jackomdj

IMO neither of these are deal breakers that I would be worrying about. Get a window doctor in to fix the door, probably under £100. Like the ea said hammer for the boulder!

JQ.

Seriously - if that is your big emergency, then you're doing really well, and I'd just relax. A stuck door and a block of concrete is nothing major in the scheme of things. £100 to get the door fixed (or do it yourself for free) and £50 to get a "man with a van" to take the concrete away.

daisygrabber

I agree with the two comments above. These are not things to get worked up about & allow to ruin your big moving day. Although you could persue them even after you move in. We ended up (STUPID ME!) contributing £50 for a new bath in the house we had sold as the woman was so persistant that the house was not fit for living in because the bath was cracked (even tho crack was in bath for years & only leaked when she removed our repair tape.....!!!)
Enjoy your moving day, hope all goes well & congratulations on your first house :-)

vax2002

The guys wife is not missing is she, concrete and all that..

Adam86_2

Its not a deal breaker and we know it's not a major thing in the grand scheme of things, but we were asked to raise any issues like this by the solicitor weeks ago, so why bother if the seller isn't going to do anything about it? What we need to know is SHOULD the seller fix the door, and SHOULD the seller remove the concrete? Arte they responsible for these things because they are aware of them? We have a copy that they have signed to say they will remove all the items in the house that they haven't ticked to leave on the inventory ,and there is no mention of a blumming great lump of concrete! So why are they going to leave it? And why should we have to fork out more money to fix something that at the moment still belongs to them, we are going to be a tad skint once we move in and busy!! It feels like the solicitors have asked us pointless questions, so should we push the matter further? Just because its a bit of concrete, it shouldn't be left, what if it was something else like a piece of furniture that they couldn't be bothered to remove when they said it would be on the fixtures and fittings form.....very frustrating when your esate agents don't help you especially when we haven't done any of this before so have no experience!

Doozergirl

You're about to take on home ownership. Dealing with a stuck patio door and a big lump of concrete is like training.

Seriously, if it isn't done on Friday, are you really planning to hold yourself up for that? It is an inconvenience, but it isn't a deal breaker. You can understand how it might be difficult for a family member to organise it from afar. Presumably this house isn't coming with a developer's agreement to do the snagging. If it were me, I wouldn't have even given it a second thought after 'I need to sort that'.

You've got to put it into perspective. Do you want to put all your plans on hold to wait for someone else to organise something that it really wouldn't be that hard to organise yourselves?

Adam86_2

Maybe we should take a sledge hammer to the concrete to beat out our frustrations lol!

Doozergirl

It's all about negotiation. Should people fix broken things? Well no, they don't have to. It doesn't matter if they know about it. It sounds like the actual vendor isn't able to do anything himself so you need to appreciate that they're trying to sell it as it is and that it isn't easy for them to be fixing things because you're asking them to. Some people can't do it.

If you want to negotiate the price downwards, then you can do so, but it doesn't affect the intrinsic value of the house, so it may be viewed as being petty. It's up to you, but t's not going to cost £100 to fix even. Houses do need maintaining and unless this house is being sold by Barrett or similar, there is no obligation for them to do anything.

Really, it's just one of those things and you're ultimately pretty lucky if that is the big worry. it isn't intended to sound flippant, sorry.

Adam86_2

The point is though, should we have to do it or should the seller have done it, why does the solicitor ask if there are any problems in the first place if nothing is goint to be done. We assumed if they ask this then it meant the seller should sort it, obviously they haven't been very clear with us about this.

jjlandlord

Adam86 wrote: »

why does the solicitor ask if there are any problems in the first place if nothing is goint to be done.

Well, perhaps that when he asked the solicitor had more substantial problems in mind...