Stalemate over survey

choccyface2006

Hello,

I'm really hoping someone can help advise us.

Nearly four weeks ago after months of looking, we viewed a house that we loved instantly and the sellers were eager to move out as a sale had already fallen through and they were in a chain (we are not)

We exchanged number with the vendors and negociated between ourselves until we decided on a figure a few thousand less than the price they had agreed with the previous sellers. We formalised this through the estate agents.

We didn't have a mortgage in place, just a mortgage in principlal but we were approved for our mortage within a week, the searches were done and we were just waiting on the home buyers survey before transferring our deposit to the solicitors. Everything seemed to be going smoothly and quickly.

We thought the house was good value and the price was good so although we expected to have a few things to deal with in the survey, we didn't expect the house to be valued lower than the price we agreed.

But the survey has thrown up lots of real and speculative issues based on the age of the property (not sure of the age, between 1890-1910) But only a couple of these issues were affecting the money the mortgage company were prepared to lend us and they are withholding £2500 for the repairs.

So we have two choices. Either the vendors drop the price by £2500 and we have to get the work done within 3 months (we don't really have the extra money but might be able to find it as our deposit & stamp duty would be lower and it would knock a bit off our mortgage which might be better in the long run)

Or the vendors do the work and we buy at the price we agreed. Simple?

But the vendors say they haven't the money to get the repairs done and won't accept a lower offer so what do we do?

We don't want to lose the house we love so much but our hands are tied too, we can't borrow the amount we need if the repairs aren't done, so its a stalemate position.

Now I know why buying a house is so stressful

Any advice?

Sarah

princeofpounds

If the bid price doesn't meet the ask price, there can be no trade. It's just impossible. You will be best off withdrawing the offer (with a request that they contact you should they change their mind) and viewing other properties.

andy.m_2

Yes,
At present you either stump up yourself or walk away.
Sad but true.
The sellers will then suffer the same fate with ANY other interested party that require a mortgage to buy the property.

At the point you state you have no option save to pull out the sellers may well come back to you, they merely want to test your resolve.
Of course they may NEED the agreed amount to move, in which case they find somebody that doesn't require a mortage or who is prepared to do the work themselves (and has a larger deposit).

You say that you "love" the house and this is going to ultimately be your downfall.
I never did understand people getting so emotionally attached to a prospective purchase, or is it just a turn of phrase?

harrup

choccyface2006 wrote: »

So we have two choices. Either the vendors drop the price by £2500 and we have to get the work done within 3 months (we don't really have the extra money but might be able to find it as our deposit & stamp duty would be lower and it would knock a bit off our mortgage which might be better in the long run)

Or the vendors do the work and we buy at the price we agreed. Simple?

But the vendors say they haven't the money to get the repairs done and won't accept a lower offer so what do we do?

We don't want to lose the house we love so much but our hands are tied too, we can't borrow the amount we need if the repairs aren't done, so its a stalemate position.

Could you and the vendors find a compromise and meet in the middle? You absorb half of the £2500, and they absorb the other half?

Crucially here also - are you absolutly CERTAIN that the vendors truly understand that you are not merely trying it on at the 12th hour, i.e that this isn't an attempt to gazunder? Have you sent them relevant copies from your survey and/or mortgage appoval? Might be worth doing.

Finally, as you love the house, if the vendors won't or can't renegotiate ( it sounds as if they begrudingly accepted an offer for much less than they are comfortable with) my advice would be to find 2.5K from somewhere. A bridging loan, a loan from a family member, or scrape it together from several different family members... but it just isn't a significant enough amount worth losing a property you love. If you had said you LIKED the house, that would be different.

Good luck and keep us posted

choccyface2006

I wish we didn't 'love' the house but we do, and there was no diguising the fact as we both had goofy faces when we saw it.

We don't have much of a budget and all the other propeties we've seen at this price are no match in terms of accomodtion or character. We could buy a new box that needs no work for about the same money but we would probably never love it.

Sarah

choccyface2006

harrup wrote: »

Could you and the vendors find a compromise and meet in the middle? You absorb half of the £2500, and they absorb the other half?

As a last resort this is a possibility, we were talking about it last night and though neither of us like the idea it might be something to think about.

Crucially here also - are you absolutly CERTAIN that the vendors truly understand that you are not merely trying it on at the 12th hour, i.e that this isn't an attempt to gazunder? Have you sent them relevant copies from your survey and/or mortgage appoval? Might be worth doing.

Yes we have done this, they know the extend of the work that needs doing as we have sent them copies.

Finally, as you love the house, if the vendors won't or can't renegotiate ( it sounds as if they begrudingly accepted an offer for much less than they are comfortable with) my advice would be to find 2.5K from somewhere. A bridging loan, a loan from a family member, or scrape it together from several different family members... but it just isn't a significant enough amount worth losing a property you love. If you had said you LIKED the house, that would be different.

That is what our hearts and head are telling us too, we see this as our home for at least the next 10 years so its possibly a way forward rather than losing it.

Good luck and keep us posted

Thank you, I will

Mrs_Z

It would be a real shame to lose your dream house for the sake of £2,500, especially if you are going to stay there for a number of years. Is 0% credit card an option to fund the repairs? Not normally advising this sort of action but it could be a possible solution.

choccyface2006

Thanks, I supose we could do that if it came to it. We have found out today that the vendors current mortgage deal for the house they are moving to is about to expire so that might force their hand a little too

fudgecat

Could I ask what the remedial work is? Some surveyors of older properties protect themselves by mentioning repairs that not necessarily urgent - and there are always cheaper ways to carry out some repairs. For example our house is a Victorian cottage (sounds much nicer than it is and I DO NOT love it!) and we had money retained from the mortgage for roof repairs of 6000 pounds, but managed to get the place reroofed in slate for 3,500.
The solution may be a bit off the price and shopping around for solutions to the problems identified.

bagpussbear

I would ask to go halves on the £2500 repairs but say if that's not possible then you will have to withdraw as have no other funds, and see what they say. Given their mortgage offer is about to expire, i think they might go for it rather than lose you.

choccyface2006

fudgecat wrote: »

Could I ask what the remedial work is? Some surveyors of older properties protect themselves by mentioning repairs that not necessarily urgent - and there are always cheaper ways to carry out some repairs. For example our house is a Victorian cottage (sounds much nicer than it is and I DO NOT love it!) and we had money retained from the mortgage for roof repairs of 6000 pounds, but managed to get the place reroofed in slate for 3,500.
The solution may be a bit off the price and shopping around for solutions to the problems identified.

Yes sure, theres a question over dampness in the rear chimney. This is cause in part by a leaky downpipe and also the chimney pots have been removed and slabs of concrete have been put in instead so theres no ventilation which has made the dampness more profound.

On closer inspection of the chimney there was motar and flashing that need replacement and that will mean scaffolding going up, the roof specialist we had out yesterday said we should also get the rear roof retiled when the scaffodling was up too although we have said we don't want that doing at the moment.

The other issue is that the whole house needs to inspected for damp, that is the walls, floor and roof void, these were areas that the E.Surv chap couldn't gain access too, although the only damp noticeable was that around the rear chimney.