Asking vendor to rectify problems prior to completion - what are my options?

BungayBound

Hi all,

We are FTBS in the process of purchasing an old property which requires a lot of work. The survey came back with quite a lot of things that need to be repaired and replaced aside from the things that need to be updated like bathrooms, decor etc which we already knew about but we have decided to wear these extra costs as we know it is a fixer-upper and will be our forever home.

The two main issues we do have are the boundary walls which need repair/rebuilding and an outside store which requires immediate restoration (it is listed so we cannot let it fall down!).

We have got quotes for the store and it comes in at around 4k to fix. We have decided that we will not ask for money off for this if the vendor will sort out the walls in conjunction with the neighbours as they have an informal agreement about who is responsible for what, though there is nothing in writing as per our solicitor. The vendor has baulked at this and said that we may need to sort it out with the neighbours but he is thinking about it. Our main issue with this is that we live overseas and don't know the neighbours or have ready access to them and it would be far quicker for him to do it and even if we do sort it out, he will still be liable for part of the cost of the repair.

So...am I being reasonable in asking for him to do this? And if I am not, what are the options for making sure we don't get lumped with the bill for all the walls post-completion if the neighbours don't agree to foot the bill?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks.

go_cat

I would be getting the solicitors ( if want it doing beforehand ) or estate agents (only if you are going to renegotiate price on the house ) to deal with this.

JQ.

Personally, yes I do think you are out of order.

You're buying a house that requires restoration, ALL the restoration costs should have been calculated before you made an offer. You should then have factored those costs into your offer. To expect the vendor to do some of your restoration for you seems very cheeky indeed.

I would also never ask a vendor to do work as a condition of the sale - they are very unlikely to expend a great amount of time and money ensuring the work is done to the highest of standards. I would always factor any works into the offer I made or renegotiate the price if the issue arose after the acceptance of the offer.

cattie

JQ. wrote: »

Personally, yes I do think you are out of order.
You're buying a house that requires restoration, ALL the restoration costs should have been calculated before you made an offer. You should then have factored those costs into your offer. To expect the vendor to do some of your restoration for you seems very cheeky indeed.

I think you are being unfair here, it is quite normal to try to renegotiate on price if a survey flags up urgent work, even on a property in need of renovation.

When I was buying my current house that needed an awful lot of work, costing in the region of £30k, the survey flagged up that the roof needed urgent repair, so I went to the ea and told them I wanted to renegotiate the price due to this. It was a cost I hadn't expected and the vendors met me just over halfway on cost. I'd have pushed for the whole amount as I knew they didn't want to lose the sale, and they had been aware that there had been problems with the roof, but my house was sold and I was anxious to get things done and dusted with this one.

BungayBound

Thank you for the replies. Our solicitor advised us to go through the EA so that is what we have been doing.

We did factor in the cost of renovations when making our offer but the survey brought up quite a lot of issues we couldn't have known about. As I said in my original post, we have decided to wear these as part of the renovation costs but we would like this one issue sorted out. We just don't want to be told that the neighbors split the cost of wall maintenance only to find after we have completed that the neighbors have no intention of honoring the unwritten agreement. If the vendors assurances about who has responsibility for the walls are true, he will only have to pay for half the costs of one of the two walls that need fixing as neighbors a responsible for the other. One of the walls is considered structurally unsafe and i have small children so I would like it fixed prior to us moving in.

Would it be worth asking them to make the unwritten agreement a legally binding agreement or would this be opening a can of worms?

sharpee

If I was the vendor I would think you were very cheeky asking and would say no.

But it is worth asking

BungayBound

sharpee wrote: »

If I was the vendor I would think you were very cheeky asking and would say no.

But it is worth asking

Is this in response to my original question or the one above about a legally binding agreement?

david29dpo

I would want written conformation that the neighbour is liable for half the cost or factor in the full cost in your revised offer.

casperlarue

BungayBound wrote: »

Hi all,

We are FTBS in the process of purchasing an old property which requires a lot of work. The survey came back with quite a lot of things that need to be repaired and replaced aside from the things that need to be updated like bathrooms, decor etc which we already knew about but we have decided to wear these extra costs as we know it is a fixer-upper and will be our forever home.

The two main issues we do have are the boundary walls which need repair/rebuilding and an outside store which requires immediate restoration (it is listed so we cannot let it fall down!). Is the whole property listed or just the store?

We have got quotes for the store and it comes in at around 4k to fix. We have decided that we will not ask for money off for this if the vendor will sort out the walls in conjunction with the neighbours as they have an informal agreement about who is responsible for what, though there is nothing in writing as per our solicitor. The vendor has baulked at this and said that we may need to sort it out with the neighbours but he is thinking about it. Our main issue with this is that we live overseas and don't know the neighbours or have ready access to them and it would be far quicker for him to do it and even if we do sort it out, he will still be liable for part of the cost of the repair.

So...am I being reasonable in asking for him to do this? And if I am not, what are the options for making sure we don't get lumped with the bill for all the walls post-completion if the neighbours don't agree to foot the bill?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks.

You're very brave to take on a (listed?) project as your first property purchase, you are aware of the amount of red tape you have to go through in order to carry out any type of repair or alteration to a listed property aren't you? Not meaning to offend but listed building projects have a habit of taking up huge amounts of time and money if you're not totally on top of the situation.

Regarding the wall, I would confirm with your solicitor whose wall it is and who is responsible for repairs etc. It may be shared between neighbours or the full responsibility may fall to only one owner.

BungayBound

We heard back from the EA that the owner will deal with the wall which he shares with the neighbour and we will get an agreement from the other neighbour to fix the structurally unsafe wall that is entirely on their land. So it looks promising...

casperlarue - brave or naive, I am not sure which yet! The whole house is listed and yes, I am aware of the listed building regulations but as this is a long term project and we will not actually be living in it for the first 5 years (at least) I am hopeful that it won't be too stressful. We won't be doing the work ourselves but we do have family in the area to keep an eye on things for us and we will be staying in it periodically throughout the year as a holiday property and will do what we can then. It is in pretty good condition structurally, just needs new bathrooms and some replastering, decorating etc. so we don't have any major works in mind.

Thanks for all the help everyone!