FTB hell!

kai1

I think I'm about to see my third potential property fall through. I've spent approx £3000 to date on things that I've not got any benefit from.

IF anyone has some advice or tips on the situation below, I'd be most grateful.

I put in an offer 3 weeks ago for a Victorian conversion first floor flat. The vendor was just finishing renewing the lease, which she told the estate agent would be ready 'any day now'. (I subsequently found out one sale on the property had already fallen through because the lease renewal was so delayed).

Anyway, in the meantime, (and maybe a little naively) I got the survey done, on the expectation that the draft contract would soon be sent and that the property would then be taken off the market.

So here I am three weeks later, without a completed draft contract. The vendor's solicitors have been very slow and the vendor is apparently chasing them but I'm not sure whether to believe this. My solicitor has also chased.

Anyway, the survey has highlighted one major problem. This is in the ground floor flat directly below mine. It says there is a major damp problem and the surveyor advises we make sure I'm excluded from the dampproof costs and that I request that the problem is rectified (although this is apparently very hard to do).

The ground floor is currently under offer with the same estate agent and is owned by the same vendor.

This is looking like a complete nightmare. My solicitor thinks it is worth considering pulling out of because of the damp issues and the fact that the ground floor flat may not sell.

Should I pull out? At present, I've told the estate agent to tell the vendor that if we don't have the draft contract by tomorrow, I'll pull out. Should I start mentioning the issues identified in the survey at this stage, or wait until the draft contract comes through??

PasturesNew

Well, you could point this out to the vendor - and say it is in their interests to get the damp sorted out because any potential purchasers of the ground floor flat would have this showing on their survey too.

That will take time though. Time for them to think about it, get quotes, get the work started, finished, get proof/certificate off to your lender.

So you could just sack it off.

Yes, buying houses (well, trying to) can be a pricey business. I paid for 3 full surveys on houses before I bought my last one. Each survey showed up really expensive work that needed doing, so I pulled out of those sales based on the survey results.

I felt I was getting nowhere and spending a fortune.

Doozergirl

You need to mention the issues NOW. What is the point in letting (and paying) your solicitor do more work if things are likely to fall flat again?

kai1

Thanks for the responses. One other thing - does that mean that we can't exchange until they've remedied the damp? If so, won't that make me more susceptible to being gazumped in the meantime?

Dead_Eye_Jones

guzumped? lol seems unlikely given the state of the flat!

How did you manage to pay out £3k already?! Buying my house involved a £500 survey and a fixed solicitor fee of a couple hundred quid.

Dont be afriad to cut your losses. No point in throwing good money after bad... It doesnt have to be this hard! My purchase sailed through with minimal cost and no probs.

Good luck.

ps. soz but im still cynical about all the new posters with house buying horror stories!

kai1

Dead_Eye_Jones wrote: »

guzumped? lol seems unlikely given the state of the flat!

How did you manage to pay out £3k already?! Buying my house involved a £500 survey and a fixed solicitor fee of a couple hundred quid.

Dont be afriad to cut your losses. No point in throwing good money after bad... It doesnt have to be this hard! My purchase sailed through with minimal cost and no probs.

Good luck.

ps. soz but im still cynical about all the new posters with house buying horror stories!

No I meant I've spent £3000 on the two properties that already fell through (aborted solicitor's fee, valuations, searches and surveys) plus survey and partial solicitor's fees on this third property.

I've been prudent enough to spend extra money on full structural surveys, to make sure issues such as the damp showed up (if I'd asked for a home buyers survey, the surveyor wouldn't even have set foot inside the downstairs flat, only my own potential flat).

I don't know your location, but in much of London it is still very much a buyer's market and at the right price and with someone willing enough to do it, there will always be someone ready to gazump (happened to me once already - by an actual estate agent (!) - and have heard plenty of stories of gazumping happening to other people).

PasturesNew

kai1 wrote: »

Thanks for the responses. One other thing - does that mean that we can't exchange until they've remedied the damp? If so, won't that make me more susceptible to being gazumped in the meantime?

It depends if your lender has made the damp a condition of the lending.
But you wouldn't want to exchange until it was done really.

Doozergirl

I think that might all be slowing down a bit kai1, I can't imagine it not, really.

Do you want to buy a property with a damp problem for fear of being gazumped?!

I find it no surprise that people who have full surveys on period properties want to pull out of purchases. Everyone says how wonderfully built old houses are but when they see a copy of a survey report, they want to run a mile! The reports a petrifying to someone who doesn't 'do' houses. If I were a FTB I'd settle for the half-scary homebuyers report and be happy that the house wasn't falling down.

lynzpower

Isnt the issue as to whether the falt is being sold as a leasehold or share of freehold basis.

that damp, if not reoslved by the vendor, the OP moves in and the bottom flat doesnt sell, wouldnt the OP be liable for all the costs of the damp work- if sold as share of freehold?

kai1

Thanks, yes it is new 99 year lease but until I have the draft contract I can't even confirm that!

Hoploz

Do nothing at all until the new lease is through. You cannot push for a draft contract if this situation is not resolved - the lease forms an important part of the contract.

Personally I think there are too many issues and I'd probably walk away, but of course it is never as easy as that and you have more information than me about it.