Cheeky to ask vendor if I can get some builders round to quote?

whoschuffed

Hi all, am in process of buying a house which I foresee we'll prob exchange/complete at some point mid-feb.

The house is a vacant possession which the vendor's Son is selling on behalf of his deceased Father. We met the Son at the house on Saturday and he gave me his phone number and said to get in touch with him if we ever wanted to go back to the house in the mean time (he lives less than a mile away afaik) which I thought was very good of him.

Now basically, we want some potentially structural building work doing to the house (walls removed/rebuilt, extension roof amendments), but we don't know to the extent of what we need doing without getting some builders in to advise.
Do you think it would be cheeky if I asked him if I could arrange to meet some builders there even though we haven't exchanged or completed?

We're both on course for signing over and I can't really forsee anything that is going to prevent the sale from going through, however I don't want to be an inconvenience to him and don't want to be seen to be taking the pee!

How would you feel about this request from a seller? My reasoning for doing this is because we're on holiday for the best part of a month in April and it would be good to get someone lined up to do the work whilst we're away!

Am I pushing my luck do you think or should we just wait till we've got the house?

Mojisola

whoschuffed wrote: »

Now basically, we want some potentially structural building work doing to the house (walls removed/rebuilt, extension roof amendments), but we don't know to the extent of what we need doing without getting some builders in to advise.
Do you think it would be cheeky if I asked him if I could arrange to meet some builders there even though we haven't exchanged or completed?

Perfectly normal request.

I was in the same position selling my Dad's house - our buyers had several builders in to get quotes and I was quite happy with that.

whoschuffed

Ah OK brilliant, not as cheeky as I thought I might be being! I'll get in touch with the vendor to see what he thinks!

stator

Completely normal, you should get as many surveys and opinions done as you need to feel comfortable buying that house. The seller will be very accomodating until the point of exchange. After exchange they can tell you to get lost because you have to buy the house

The only problem you might face is that surveys tend to be vague and usually hint at potential problems, so even the extra building surveys you have done might not give you the confidence you require. If they recommend some intrusive inspection/tests then the seller may refuse, that's when they need to do something that might slightly damage the property to take a look at the structural elements underneath, eg pull up carpets or remove part of the ceiling. When they recommend that you have to make some tough decisions about how much risk you want to take and how much you want the property.

Mickygg

It is fine to ask, but equally the vendor may say no. What if the quotes come in much higher than you thought? Could you lower the offer price to account for this?
These are questions I would be worried about as a vendor.

Mallotum_X

Normal request that should also help demonstrate that you are a serious buyer.

chickens11

My OH was a builder so he got his roofing mate to come round and give the place a good going over , we didnt need a structural survey that way either.........We did visit this place a good half dozens times before exchange of contracts, the seller was quite happy with it...
Its most probaly the biggest and expensive item you will ever buy in your life and its good to get it right ....

whoschuffed

Mickygg wrote: »

It is fine to ask, but equally the vendor may say no. What if the quotes come in much higher than you thought? Could you lower the offer price to account for this?
These are questions I would be worried about as a vendor.

It isn't building work that is dependant on the house sale going through or because something is wrong with the property.

Its for modifications we'd like to make to the interior of the property, but i'd like to have some idea of price and possibly people lined up prior to exchanging so that once we are in it might be a speedier process of getting them in to the do the work.

Mojisola

whoschuffed wrote: »

It isn't building work that is dependant on the house sale going through or because something is wrong with the property.

Its for modifications we'd like to make to the interior of the property, but i'd like to have some idea of price and possibly people lined up prior to exchanging so that once we are in it might be a speedier process of getting them in to the do the work.

Our buyers did the same - they got quotes from several builders for the alterations they wanted to do on the house so that they could get the work started quickly once the sale had gone through.

By doing that, they managed to get some work done before moving in.

whoschuffed

One of the things I don't want to do is to be a huge inconvenience to the vendor as they don't actually live at the property and have to come from their own house to let us in this one as it was his late Father's property.

Just dont want to take the pee asking to go up every other week with different tradesmen to quote. But part me also quite rightly thinks that i'm spending a shed load of money here and he could at least let me get a few builders round for quotes haha!

I guess I'll just bite the bullet and ask the question tomorrow, he seems like a very reasonable chap anyway so hopefully won't an issue.

Mojisola

whoschuffed wrote: »

One of the things I don't want to do is to be a huge inconvenience to the vendor as they don't actually live at the property and have to come from their own house to let us in this one as it was his late Fathers property.

Just dont want to take the pee asking to go up every other week with different tradesmen to quote. But part me also quite rightly thinks that i'm spending a shed load of money here and he could at least let me get a few builders round for quotes haha!

I guess I'll just bite the bullet and ask the question!

Do ask. We were quite happy to go and open up the house on several occasions for our buyers. It depends on how busy your seller's life is whether they will agree but at least ask them.