Asking vendor about squeaky floorboards

Fraise

G_M wrote: »

I'd be more concerned about the presence of a tenant!

When does their lease end?
Have they been given notice? What notice and served when, and how?
Have they indicated they will leave when asked?
do you believe them?
Might they change their minds?
Is their deposit protected (if not, the notice they were given is invalid)?

etc etc.

Why would you be concerned about having a tenant as a neighbour? I know of some very wealthy professionals who rent flats, and they're extremely courteous, quiet and law abiding. Just because you have a mortgage or own outright doesn't make you a good neighbour. Likewise, some very hard up people can be wonderful neighbours....whether they rent or own.

And when..or if...your neighbour moves you don't have a clue who will replace them!

Fraise

!!!!!! wrote: »

This is a no go. You need to forget that the vendor owns the flat upstairs as it has absolutely nothing to do with this sale. You need to treat the upstairs flat as being totally unconnected with the one for sale

How would you expect the vendor to approach his tenant and tell him/her that he wants to rip up the floors to stop the squeaks?

Firstly, it's a couple of hours work to screw down floorboards...so should hardly be a problem to the tenant. They'd probably be pleased too.

Secondly, although the flat above is separate to the one below, as they share the same building the owners of the flats are either co freeholders or have a management company which means they are liable to keep the property to a certain standard...and if moist floorboards are denying a tenant or owner of quiet and peaceful enjoyment, then the owner of squeaky board flat will be duty bound to fix the problem!

DRP

Fraise wrote: »

Why would you be concerned about having a tenant as a neighbour? I know of some very wealthy professionals who rent flats, and they're extremely courteous, quiet and law abiding. Just because you have a mortgage or own outright doesn't make you a good neighbour. Likewise, some very hard up people can be wonderful neighbours....whether they rent or own.

And when..or if...your neighbour moves you don't have a clue who will replace them!

presumably G_M is talking about the resident tenant in the flat OP is wishing to buy...

AlexMac

Lots of suggested solutions, but to address the original Q...
" does anyone have any advice about how we should approach the matter with the vendor and if this should be done through our solicitor or the EA? Our ideal would be that he has work done to fix the floorboards upstairs before we move in...."

there's no rigid rule, but generally, the only way you can be certain that a pre-sale issue will be resolved, is by getting your solicitor to negotiate it as a condition of sale. However, the vendor might well call your bluff by saying 'no- sort it yourself'. Which leaves you with the dillemma, will you then be prepared to say; ' no- this is a deal breaker- sort it or we walk away'?

So it's quite a tough one. Don't trust the EA to sort it either. In my experience they want a quiet life (the selling agent on our last purchase suggested their contractor bung a £50 bag of tarmac down a deep hole which opened up on the frontage between exchange and completion; our solicitor negotiated a £600 retention so we could fix it professionally).

So how hard are you prepared to push- initially through the EA, but then via your lawyer? I assume if your vendor is selling three properties in the block that they are a fairly hard-nosed businessperson, so won't be a push-over, so go in hard if you can't subsequently live with it.

One easier thing to ascertain is whether the lease prescribes carpeting on the floors of your flats; a common requirement in conversions - especially early -to-mid 20th Century properties with notoriously bad noise transmission through their hollow, suspended timber floors. If the lease was properly drafted it's likely that this will be the case; so ask if it's a feature of your lease, and also the one above.

And don't hope for the best and assume it will go away as a problem. We lived with the minor inconvenience of noise from above for several years in an 1850's mansion conversion with hollow floors as it was only their bedroom above our living room, and so, noise occurred mostly when we weren't in the room (apart from some occasional lively percussion when I was watching a late-night movie), until...

A hyper-sensitive new tenant moved in upstairs and got her husband to ring us at 9pm to say our TV was keeping her awake because it was too loud (we could barely hear it and had to use sub-titles...)!

Good luck