Buying a property - tenant now vacated

ian103

We are in the process of buying a house and the tenant has vacated, its still pretty dirty / grubby. We have discoved damp? / woodworm? and the tenant has left white goods in the kitchen / garden rubbish / and stuff in the shed. We will investigate the damp / woodworm issue but when would you bring to the sellers attention? The other stuff we just want removed as we are planning on gutting the place.

Wywth

ian103 wrote: »

We are in the process of buying a house and the tenant has vacated, its still pretty dirty / grubby. We have discoved damp? / woodworm? and the tenant has left white goods in the kitchen / garden rubbish / and stuff in the shed. We will investigate the damp / woodworm issue but when would you bring to the sellers attention? The other stuff we just want removed as we are planning on gutting the place.

It's probably being sold as seen.

Check with the seller/agent and make purchase offer as appropriate.

ian103

Offer already made as tenant was living there at the time - we think the tenant became a problem following our offer to buy. The damp was hidden behind curtains / furniture / stuff (theres no smell of damp) and we couldn't / weren't allowed into roof so the woodworm wasn't visable. Now its just a financial decision - we can let it run and drop the bombshell later with a price reduction or be more upfront.

N1AK

ian103 wrote: »

Offer already made as tenant was living there at the time - we think the tenant became a problem following our offer to buy. The damp was hidden behind curtains / furniture / stuff (theres no smell of damp) and we couldn't / weren't allowed into roof so the woodworm wasn't visable. Now its just a financial decision - we can let it run and drop the bombshell later with a price reduction or be more upfront.

Personally I'd be up front because I like to think I'm not the kind of person to string people along; though ultimately that's a personal judgement. If you bring it up now, do so politely and constructively with the intention of protecting your own interests not doing one over on the owner, then at least the negotiations might be amicable.

[Deleted User]

Surely you had a survey done which should have found the damp?

G_M

Just point out there is a lot off belongings/rubbish in the house.

Say that you will either

* expect theproperty to be cleared so that it is handed over empty except for what is agreed on the Fixtures/Fittings agreement or
* you will be happy to clear it yourself following Completion if the vendor drops the price by the cost of a skip and one labourer for one day.

ian103

We are undecided about a survey as they are normally full of exclusions / get out clauses etc. This survey fee will go towards the known rectification works.

The damp was previously concealed by furniture / stuff hence why I think some of it is condensation as that is a common problem round here.

I think what we are going to do is get a damp / woodworm specialist ( a paid survey rather than a quote for work) in rather than a surveyor as in reallity the survey will probably pick up the damp / woodworm and suggest we get a specialist in any way. Then we can be upfront with the vendor with the knowledge of any potential costs. [I would prefer to be upfront but sometimes it pays to wait and see how things progress]
Just point out there is a lot off belongings/rubbish in the house.

Thanks G_M I think that is what we will put to the vendor via our solicitor. I think we were just surprised at the rubbish left as the letting agent had bigged it up about the tenant cleaning up - we just want an empty shell with little clutter as the plan is to redo the inside anyway.