paying for access for a survey???

whereschris

Hi

I am in the process of buying a house which has been repossesed and is being sold through an administration firm. We want a survey doing but the bloke in charge says he will only give us half an hour access to the house or we have to pay for any more time. He says it is £100 per hour!

Is this mad? It seems totally crazy to me. Has anyone ever heard of this before?

Thanks

mchu6am4

What???????????? Do they want to sell the house or not??? I've never heard such a ridiculous condition.

I don't know how these guys work but maybe someone else can advise.

Ash

whereschris

Hi

I'm glad it's not just me that thinks this is odd!

I must explain that we are potentially getting the house at a good price but this has left him calling the shots - and let me say that this is not the only odd thing he has said. Plus, he is an experienced, hard nosed business man and this is the first time I have bought a house in this way. Ultimatley, he has something we really want but how far do you let him push?

mchu6am4

From your viewings, does it seem like you need alot of 'building' work or does it seem ok - if it looks dodgy (structurally) then you are advised to have 'full building' survey done on it - that could last upto 3 hours plus the surveyors costs (if you had a word with the surveyor then they maybe able to cut that time (i.e. doing the internal survey 1st before you hand over the keys back and then he should be able to carry on the outside survey without the time charge penality.

whereschris

the house is a mess - hence the good price. My only concerns are the roof, timber as there is a little obvious dry rot and any subsidence problem. The rest we can deal with but I figure that these are the potentially expensive things to fix

Tiger_greeneyes

You could attempt to find out who the lender is and contact them - they may well share your concerns and override the administration firm. You could make the case that they won't sell it to anyone requiring finance if they can't get a survey done.

As for the defects - the dry rot could potentially be affecting an awful lot more of the property than you can see. It does sound that it's going to be a big and expensive project overall - are you really sure you want to take on something like that?

If you're not sure, get a mortgage valuation done first. You can always get a building survey done afterwards if you're happy with the findings.

You might find it useful if you can arrange for a damp & timber contractor to attend at the same time as the surveyor. There are plenty of companies who won't charge you to carry out a survey.

That's two reports for your free half an hour

whereschris

we've got a builder/ surveyor to do the lot in one go which is helpful. It's a cash purchase and we have a budget to put the place straight. I'm just getting worried that the guy is dodgy and what else is going to come up with? would you just walk away?

AndrewSmith

Tell him to !!!! off

whereschris

i'm thinking that. Is it just unheard of to ask for a fee for this?

Tiger_greeneyes

No, companies do make charges for their time - if there's an unscrupulous company who knows they've got you over a barrel, they they're going to fleece you blind - whether it's deemed right or not.

Andrew Smith has given the best advice on here! If you did tell him where to go, he might back down - they'll not want to appear useless to their client.

nollag2006

Does sound a bit dodgy, but if you need to pay a couple of hundred pounds to the guy, but are saving tens of thousands on the purchase price, then it sounds like you need to do it.

Getting the mtg co involved was a good suggestion, though