Pulling out of house purchase - sell structural survey to vendor?

derekpegg · 29 May 2007 at 10:47AM

We had a full structural (buildings) survey carried out on a property we wanted to buy but there were a host of problems that came up on it and we are now walking away. The estate agents are now asking if we can give a copy of the survey to the vendor so they can see the problems for themselves. As we are now around £1k out of pocket after the survey and other costs, I was thinking we could sell it to the vendor rather than giving it to them as this seems fair.

Does anyone have any experience of this and if so, what may be a suitable cost do you think. We paid around £650 for the survey.

Thanks in advance for any help.

icklejulez · 29 May 2007 at 1:42PM

My solicitor reccomended 50% to us but in the end I realised at the end of the day it was my decision to progress with the survey and the problemns that came up on the survey would of been impossible for the vendors to know about before hand so just faxed it to them.

hollyblue · 29 May 2007 at 1:43PM

I can't see what benefit there is to the vendor in selling it to him. He'll only be interested in seeing it to see what the defects are and the likely cost of either repairing them or alternatively what to knock off the price.

It's the next person who's interested in buying the property who's more likely to want to buy it, however, you won't necessarily know who that is.

If anything you could mention to the EA that you are willing to sell your survey to someone, however, they may not be too keen to pass that info in in the hope that the next person doesn't bother getting a survey and therefore a higher selling price and bigger fee for the EA possibly.

derekpegg · 29 May 2007 at 2:06PM

Thanks icklejulez & hollyblue.

Think the vendor has had other buyers pull out in the past and there are some things which showed up on the survey that will need doing before they realistically get anyone to buy it (or get a lender to lend against it). Guess the answer is to try. If they say they're not going to pay for it, then it's no big deal for us. We just feel a bit aggrieved as we are pretty sure the vendor new things were not quite right but let get into this thinking all was OK.

irnbru_2 · 29 May 2007 at 2:14PM

derekpegg wrote: »

We just feel a bit aggrieved as we are pretty sure the vendor new things were not quite right but let get into this thinking all was OK.

£750 by cheque, £650 for cash

wnb · 29 May 2007 at 2:20PM

I would go for it and sell it to them, no harm in trying.

derekpegg · 29 May 2007 at 2:27PM

Thinking maybe ask for £200. Everyone's a winner! Thanks!

silvercar · 29 May 2007 at 2:38PM

I sold a survey to the people that gazumped us! Got half the value.

Running_Horse · 30 May 2007 at 4:41PM

We had a purhcase fall through twice last year thanks to idiot buyers and gave up, but posted the survey free to our vendors on the basis that it would be more use to them.