Buyers' Queries

tiggerkid

Morning all,

I have a question about buyers' queries during house sale process.

We keep getting letters from buyers' solicitors that are asking us to provide various certificates such as gas safety certificate confirming that boiler and fireplace are safe, electricity test certificate confirming all wiring in the house is safe etc.

The latest queries were:

1) please confirm all holes left after removal of curtain poles will be made good

2) confirm you will hire a certified electrician to remove all light fittings and replace them with a ceiling rose of flex

I don't know if I am being unreasonable here but whenever we bought any property, we always had to fill holes left from removal of curtain poles and it never occurred to me to ask if a certified electrician will be hired to remove light fittings and replace with a ceiling rose. I see these as simple DIY jobs and don't see why we should pay for these. Equally, I am not asking people who are selling to us to do this.

If anyone read my previous threads, it's the same buyers who wanted discount to paint fascias and soffits despite the fact that we only did last year.

I am getting to the point where I want to tell them where to go but I thought I'd gauge public opinion so to speak before I do anything like that. I don't want to be unreasonable but increasingly feel that our buyers don't know what reasonable is. Please could you share your experiences. Thank you in advance.

bebewoo

Well I can see their point in item 1), they don't want to move in to a place with holes in the walls, and it would be mean of you to not make them good.
Item 2) Are you removing all of the light fittings to take with you?
If so it would be nasty of you to leave them without any light fittings at all when they move in, possibly in the dark.

They seem to be asking for things that I would expect a reasonable person to do anyway, leave the house neat and tidy and pleasant to move into. Were you planning to strip the house bare of all fittings and not bother to remedy the mess you had made of the walls, ceilings etc?

hazyjo

Some solicitors will work from their own checklist - some will be relevant, some won't.

Your solicitor will advise. Unless you are renting the house out, or they are buying it as a rental, I can't see why you would need certs for boiler, fireplace, wiring, etc. Your solicitor should tell them to pay for their own tests if they want them.

You're meant to fill holes - they're maybe a bit miffed you're taking the curtain poles, lights, etc. Often these things will be left.

Basically, it's the solicitors (I expect) being pedantic, not the buyers. Some questions my solicitor asked the other side had me jumping up and down! Similar things like certs for stuff, and, even thought it came back not in a chancel repair liability area, they asked for an indemnity! I said don't worry and it never got chased up or mentioned again.

Reply to each, but query anything with your solicitor you feel is unreasonable.

I should imagine most solicitors would say an electrician should remove light fittings, gas engineer to remove an oven, etc...

Jx

ognum

Are you removing curtain poles - wouldn't you fill holes you have left? Seems reasonable to me.

Are you removing light fittings - wouldn't you want new fittings fitted safely?

I don't think this is unreasonable but I do feel that house selling is getting more and more detailed.

I would stick with it, your next buyers could be worse!

justjohn

I have been asked to do a roof ridge repair ...just in case water penetrated building(no sign of water ingress at time). Told them to go swing.

I have been asked for fensa certificate for 10 year+ windows. Told to go swing.

Sometimes a its an over zealous solicitor.

It all depends how bad you want the sale. And when you decide to stand your ground.

I was held to ransom in England with a buyer wanting 2k of the price of house at last minute.(I needed the sale so gave in)

Some solicitors/buyers also chance there arm. sold/advertised a property with pedestrian access down an alley they demanded vehicle access. (again told no way).

If I can, I tell them NO were possible.

Many of these queries come from the solicitor and not the buyer.

tiggerkid

bebewoo wrote: »

Well I can see their point in item 1), they don't want to move in to a place with holes in the walls, and it would be mean of you to not make them good.
Item 2) Are you removing all of the light fittings to take with you?
If so it would be nasty of you to leave them without any light fittings at all when they move in, possibly in the dark.

just for clarity: we are only removing lamp shades, not things like bulb holders; they want a qualified electrician to do this. We also did say that we will provide flex where needed ourselves but they want an electrician

They seem to be asking for things that I would expect a reasonable person to do anyway, leave the house neat and tidy and pleasant to move into. Were you planning to strip the house bare of all fittings and not bother to remedy the mess you had made of the walls, ceilings etc?

the holes will be filled with polyfiller but the things we can't do is to paint over them to make them look like they were never there because I simply no longer remember the shades of paint we used on the all walls. However, knowing our buyers, they would expect all walls to look like nothing was ever there

tiggerkid

Thanks, all. Just wanted to clarify that we advised the solicitors that where necessary removed light fittings will be replaced with flex by us as a DIY. I don't expect buyers to move in and have no light. It's just the fact that we are being asked to hire an electrician to do this. Personally I wouldn't expect our sellers to hire a qualified electrician to do this but could be just me.

Dukesy

tiggerkid wrote: »

Thanks, all. Just wanted to clarify that we advised the solicitors that where necessary removed light fittings will be replaced with flex by us as a DIY. I don't expect buyers to move in and have no light. It's just the fact that we are being asked to hire an electrician to do this. Personally I wouldn't expect our sellers to hire a qualified electrician to do this but could be just me.

NO NO NO! Do NOT mess with the wiring by yourselves, no matter how competent you think you are! If you are not an electrician, you absolutely should not be faffing with wiring, especially when it is someone else who will be on the receiving end of your DIY.

ValHaller

Dukesy wrote: »

NO NO NO! Do NOT mess with the wiring by yourselves, no matter how competent you think you are! If you are not an electrician, you absolutely should not be faffing with wiring, especially when it is someone else who will be on the receiving end of your DIY.

Rubbish. Do it and be damned if you are competent. For consistency, Dukesy, you should probably get the DIY forum on this site shut down.

Dukesy

ValHaller wrote: »

Rubbish. Do it and be damned if you are competent. For consistency, Dukesy, you should probably get the DIY forum on this site shut down.

Seriously?! For the sake of a hundred quid or so, I would always have an electrician in to sort this, largely in order to save issues down the line. If OP gets it wrong, the problems could be enormous - if they are supposed to make good, and the new owner electrocutes themselves or whatever as a result of the OPs electrical DIY, I would bet that OP will find this coming back on them. I REALLY think that people should not play with electrics.

Prothet_of_Doom

Dukesy wrote: »

NO NO NO! Do NOT mess with the wiring by yourselves, no matter how competent you think you are! If you are not an electrician, you absolutely should not be faffing with wiring, especially when it is someone else who will be on the receiving end of your DIY.

Yeah but no but ?!

I am not qualified to IET wiring standards edition 1 through 18 whilst I am actually a Chartered Engineer via the IET.

I do have a book on "Household wiring", and have replaced a number of ceiling roses with more funky lighting (including an Outside bulk head light in my son's bedroom, above the loft bed, which can not be broken by my head).

Technically it's no more complicated than wiring a plug *.

That said, if the seller had some nice lights and was insisting that they take them with them, I'd be insisting that they used a professional to replace them with a standard set up.

* on the other hand : wiring a plug is something that people don't seem capable of, which is why appliances have to come with them fitted, and is the main reason why house fires have decreased over the last 15 years.