Buying house from messy tenants!

Jason74

londonmaiden wrote: »

@mrginge clearly you have read I am a first time buyer, I have been trying to buy for a year and have had one sale already fall through (not our fault), missed out on countless properties by being outbid by cash buyers and the whole process has been incredibly stressful. Maybe it would be more helpful to give me advice seeing as you are so wise rather then just telling me I am not living in the real world? It's hardly like we are asking him to paint the house in magnolia or we won't move in for christs sake.

@Ulfar, I know our mortgage offer is good for 6 months and we won't exchange until the tenants have moved out.

@Bantex, no I don't live in London, I am not sure if you are aware but part of house buying is called NEGOTIATION, if the vendor doesn't want to bother doing what we've asked then fair enough, that is part of the process. Where we live people are reasonable and EA was embarrassed about there being a dead mouse on the floor and said he would inform the vendor straight away. If anyone walks into a house and sees it full of crap and dead vermin, I think you'll find that is called being cautious and wise rather than 'hard work' as you put it.

Mean spirited and unhelpful all of you.

I understand that some of the responses wern't what you might have hoped for, and perhaps a couple were a little ott. But when asking for honest advice, calling people "means spirited and unhelpful" is unlikely to encourage others to provide you with help in the future.

In terms of the issue itself, in terms of cleaning generally, I would agree with those who have suggested that you are buying "as seen", and that a request for cleaning is unlikely to be successful. I think it is however reasonable to regard infestation as another matter. There may be a little bit of room for negotiation on that basis, either in terms of getting the vendor to deal with the problem, or with a little bit of money off. The only problem you have is that if you offered having already seen the moue issue, the vendor / EA might take the view that this was already factored in to your offer.

jjlandlord

Legally, I believe that 'vacant possession' also means that the property must not be left full of rubbish.
As such you would in principle be able to claim the costs of clearing it.

Bantex_2

londonmaiden wrote: »

Not where you live thank God!

Just being realistic.
Where I am prices are going up at a 15% per year.
If similar where you are the vendor can probably remarket (as is) and get 5 or 10 thousand more than your offer from a cash investor.
Is it worth the risk for the sake of giving the place a clean up?

SuzieSue

OP, it really depends on whether the property was priced to sell knowing that it was in a state. If the vendor knew it was in a bad state then he will probably have accepted a lower offer than if it was is a decent condition.

All you can do is reduce your offer to take account of the extra work required and see what the vendor says. I wouldn't ask the vendor to clean it as he will just use the cheapest cleaners.

cloo

Sorry some people have jumped to be snide.

I would worry a bit about whether these tenants will leave seeing as they've clearly not been very good ones, but I hope they will.

I would in your position see if I can push for cleaning (the LL ought to be able to take if off deposit if tenants leave place as bad as it sounds they will, perhaps?) so good luck with that.

Annie1960

londonmaiden wrote: »

Yes tenants still living there but have been served notice to vacate. The vendor lives in Australia and I'm sure would be shocked at the state of it. Cleanliness is one thing but a mouse infestation is another. I don't see why we should have to pay to have the house fumigated because the tenants have let it get into that state. I would assume if they want their deposit back they would want to leave it in a clean state anyway and why should we pay to hire a skip to remove all of their rubbish!!

Yes, we won't exchange before they leave and I think we will negotiate on the cleaning part, if the vendor is a reasonable human being I can't see how he would refuse. We not expecting it gleaming and shining, just without mouse crap everywhere!

Australia should not be a problem - can you (or the EA) take some photos and email them to the vendor? Maybe there are photos already on Rightmove? Come to think of it, the EA is required to get the vendor to agree all marketing information (including photos) so the vendor should already be aware of the state of the property, but maybe not the mice.

If the vendor is abroad, perhaps the best option might be to reduce your offer so you can get the work done yourself. That way you know it will be done to a proper standard as you can control it. In my view, there is a huge difference between the house being messy, and vermin. You are, after all, wanting vacant possession, and you won't get that if there are mice!

Do you know how many other offers have been made for the property? How strong is your bargaining power?

SuzieSue

londonmaiden wrote: »

Mean spirited and unhelpful all of you.

Just ignore them. They can't help themselves.

45002

londonmaiden wrote:

We've finally had some good news, had an offer accepted on a property but the property has been rented for quite some time and the tenants have let it get into an absolute state. On a second inspection we saw a dead mouse and droppings and the house is absolutely filthy and full of crap! We are not happy to buy the house unless it is cleaned, fumigated and removed of all rubbish. This is our first time buying so does anyone have any advice with regards to stipulating these conditions as terms of the sale? Can we reasonably ask this of the vendor?

londonmaiden wrote:

Yes tenants still living there but have been served notice to vacate. The vendor lives in Australia and I'm sure would be shocked at the state of it. Cleanliness is one thing but a mouse infestation is another. I don't see why we should have to pay to have the house fumigated because the tenants have let it get into that state. I would assume if they want their deposit back they would want to leave it in a clean state anyway and why should we pay to hire a skip to remove all of their rubbish!!

Yes, we won't exchange before they leave and I think we will negotiate on the cleaning part, if the vendor is a reasonable human being I can't see how he would refuse. We not expecting it gleaming and shining, just without mouse crap everywhere!

londonmaiden wrote:

@mrginge clearly you have read I am a first time buyer, I have been trying to buy for a year and have had one sale already fall through (not our fault), missed out on countless properties by being outbid by cash buyers and the whole process has been incredibly stressful. Maybe it would be more helpful to give me advice seeing as you are so wise rather then just telling me I am not living in the real world? It's hardly like we are asking him to paint the house in magnolia or we won't move in for christs sake.

@Ulfar, I know our mortgage offer is good for 6 months and we won't exchange until the tenants have moved out.

@Bantex, no I don't live in London, I am not sure if you are aware but part of house buying is called NEGOTIATION, if the vendor doesn't want to bother doing what we've asked then fair enough, that is part of the process. Where we live people are reasonable and EA was embarrassed about there being a dead mouse on the floor and said he would inform the vendor straight away. If anyone walks into a house and sees it full of crap and dead vermin, I think you'll find that is called being cautious and wise rather than 'hard work' as you put it.

Mean spirited and unhelpful all of you.

londonmaiden wrote:

Not where you live thank God!

Tennats dont have to vacate until bailiffs remove them with a valid possession order ....

londonmaiden

Can I ask.

What type of tenancy do the tenants have and

Do you know how long the tenants having been living there for, the date they 1st moved in ?

topdaddy_2

You might not have the tenants evicted before the six months on your mortgage is up

pimento

One man's clean is another man's dirty.

Perhaps the tenant is putting on a show for prospective purchasers to buy themselves some time.