Vendor has changed the property post acceptance?

firsttimebuyer1985_2

Hi everyone,

Would really appreciate a bit of advice on a first time house purchase.

Bit of background:

We are buying a property that was previously Sold STC but became available again because the buyer's mortgage fell through (this is according to the 2 estate agent firms the property is being marketed by). We have offered full asking price, which was accepted, but the vendor refused to take the property off the market because he was messed around by the first buyer.

Current situation:

Our mortgage provider have confirmed they will offer us the full amount as long as the survey comes out ok. This was booked for last Friday, but having sent numerous emails to the estate agent on Friday, we were told it was postponed until Wednesday. The estate agent was unable to give a reason for the rescheduling as apparently the person who took the call was out of the office on Friday. However, I have since been told by my mortgage broker that it was in fact the estate agent who delayed the survey!

This is where things get interesting. We decided to go and take some measurements over the weekend, only to find that the floor had been ripped up in the living room, dining room and kitchen and fresh concrete had been laid. There was also significant damage in the second bedroom due to a leak.

My question is, should we be worried that the vendor is seemingly trying to add value to the property after we've offered full asking? Or do you think he might be doing this to ensure the property passes the survey? Our offer is £5 under the stamp duty threshold, so I can't imagine anybody offering a higher amount unless they do a deal like paying the vendor's legal fees?

I have tried contacting the estate agent again today but my contact is 'out of the office' and everybody else is doing viewings, which seems slightly worrying.

zorber

Sounds dodgy to me, why would anyone who is moving wish to invest more money into a house they they have already agreed a price on and so unrecouperable?

I think the first offer by the other buyer fell through due to failing the survey rather then the other reason given.

I would be worried by these developements and perhaps back out.

firsttimebuyer1985_2

Thanks Zorber.

We're reluctant to back out at this stage as we've already invested £99 for our mortgage broker and £95 for the actual mortgage application fee. The valuation survey is a free perk of the mortgage deal we've chosen so I suppose we wait to hear the results back from that on Weds before acting? Given the leak we are thinking that if the basic valuation comes back ok, we would want to conduct a separate homebuyers report. Obviously that's another £500 we'd be ploughing into this property. Seems like such a gamble.

spadoosh

firsttimebuyer1985 wrote: »

Thanks Zorber.

We're reluctant to back out at this stage as we've already invested £99 for our mortgage broker and £95 for the actual mortgage application fee. The valuation survey is a free perk of the mortgage deal we've chosen so I suppose we wait to hear the results back from that on Weds before acting? Given the leak we are thinking that if the basic valuation comes back ok, we would want to conduct a separate homebuyers report. Obviously that's another £500 we'd be ploughing into this property. Seems like such a gamble.

£194 is not a lot of money to walk away from if potentially losing £000's for buying a dodgy property

firsttimebuyer1985_2

Hi Spadoosh, - Yes I can see where you're coming from, but we might as well wait until the survey is done on Wednesday as this is performed at no extra cost? If the property fails the valuation then we don't get a mortgage offer and that's that. If it passes then we can get a homebuyers report to cover ourselves?

SAHD_Jim

firsttimebuyer1985 wrote: »

Thanks Zorber.

We're reluctant to back out at this stage as we've already invested £99 for our mortgage broker and £95 for the actual mortgage application fee. The valuation survey is a free perk of the mortgage deal we've chosen so I suppose we wait to hear the results back from that on Weds before acting? Given the leak we are thinking that if the basic valuation comes back ok, we would want to conduct a separate homebuyers report. Obviously that's another £500 we'd be ploughing into this property. Seems like such a gamble.

I guess your options are back out now and be £194 down or spend a further £500 and maybe you'll have to back out £694 down.

From what I can see, it comes down to how much you want this property. Personally I'd have alarm bells ringing and would want to speak to the selling Agent, or ideally the vendor for an explanation of what is going on. I would definitely want a more detailed survey as well.

You always have the option to retract your original offer and offer lower or walk away at any stage prior to contract exchange. With my first house, the survey came back with required work, estimated (by my builder) at about 5% of the purchase price. I immediately reduced my offer by this amount and this was accepted. It's a risky strategy, but I was prepared to walk away if necessary.

TrickyDicky101

A homebuyers won't cover you.

You need to ask yourself

1. Why have they put down a new floor - what are they hoping to cover up?

2. How serious is that leak and how bad may it get?

You need a specialist to answer both of those (probably different specialists).

poppysarah

firsttimebuyer1985 wrote: »

Thanks Zorber.

We're reluctant to back out at this stage as we've already invested £99 for our mortgage broker and £95 for the actual mortgage application fee.

£200 at stake?

Or a huge financial blackhole you could be stepping in to.

Why have they done this work. You need sensible answers to that.

BUT I would just go find another house and write the money off rather than go further down this mad road.

DVardysShadow

firsttimebuyer1985 wrote: »

Hi Spadoosh, - Yes I can see where you're coming from, but we might as well wait until the survey is done on Wednesday as this is performed at no extra cost? If the property fails the valuation then we don't get a mortgage offer and that's that. If it passes then we can get a homebuyers report to cover ourselves?

No, cancel or postpone the survey and get your free one done later. You should not let yourself be distracted by £194 for all that is at stake here.

As all the staff at the EA are on viewings or not available, you can assume they all know what is going on. This kind of situation is one where the EA and the seller need to be honest and up front about what is going on. Plainly, they are not, so you will never be confident about the house or about the way your deal is being conducted. It is to the discredit of the EA that they are behaving in this way.

Walk away, find another house.

Doozergirl

I don't think they're trying to up the value, I think they're fixing something. If there was a big leak then it's possible that it's insurance work that's being carried out. It could be that they are fixing something that a survey revealed. It certainly doesn't surprise me that a vendor wouldn't want a valuation survey being carried out whilst they had the builders in! They would have wanted it all finished.

People fix things in houses all the time, so whilst I wouldn't be considering pulling out simply because I didn't know what was going on, I would want to have a grown up chat with the vendor. People tend to pull out because vendors haven't done work, not because they had! Comments like 'how bad is this leak going to get?' or 'what are they covering up with a new floor' are a bit odd - you wouldn't fix the result of a leak without stopping it first... rescreeeding a floor isn't the sort of thing you'd do as a cover up, it's the sort of thing you'd do as a genuine fix. Plus, you know about this now, so you can tackle it, front on.

Have you ever met the vendor? Did they even know you were going at the weekend? Sometimes people don't want to worry other people and the upshot is that people end up more concerned than they would have been. You need to speak to the vendor himself or ask the agents to call him and explain to you what has happened/is happening.

firsttimebuyer1985_2

SAHD Jim - I finally got through to the estate agents and he confirmed that the vendor postponed the survey due to the leak. He was also unhappy with fitting of the floor as it had a slight bump in it (which we'd noticed when viewing but put down to poor laminate fitting).

I'm assuming specialist surveys for each problem will costs £1000's? Unfortunately, as FTB's struggling to scrape together a deposit, we wouldn't be able to stretch to that.

Perhaps it's because I'm completely in love with the property but I'm inclined to agree with Doozergirl. Surely it's a good sign that they're actually fixing the problems that have cropped up? They are really eager to sell the property so I'm (perhaps optimistically) assuming that they don't want to give the mortgage lenders any reason to stop the sale? The estate agent was aware we had the viewing but not sure about the vendor. I've never met the vendor but apparently once I have an official mortgage offer he has requested that we meet up face to face.

Thanks all for your input - much appreciated.