Best way to communicate with vendor?

[Deleted User]

We are in the process of buying a house- the survey last week threw up a couple of issues, nothing major but they do need looking at. We have informed our solicitor and said we want the vendor to either fix them himself, or we would get quotes for the work and negotiate on price. We also informed the agent of this.

What do we do now? There has been radio silence from both solicitor (who is useless anyway) and agent (who is fairly helpful normally) since then, and I don't want to be doing nothing if I don't have to be. Should I go ahead and get quotes? Or should I wait to hear back from the vendor? What's the best way to communicate with the vendor for such matters- via agent or via solicitor?

kellaree

[Deleted User] wrote:

Should I go ahead and get quotes? Or should I wait to hear back from the vendor? What's the best way to communicate with the vendor for such matters- via agent or via solicitor?

How can you get quotes without the vendor being involved? Surely, the workmen will need to go into the home.

How much work do you think needs doing? Did the valuation come back lower than your offer?

Surrey_EA

[Deleted User] wrote:

We are in the process of buying a house- the survey last week threw up a couple of issues, nothing major but they do need looking at. We have informed our solicitor and said we want the vendor to either fix them himself, or we would get quotes for the work and negotiate on price. We also informed the agent of this.

What do we do now? There has been radio silence from both solicitor (who is useless anyway) and agent (who is fairly helpful normally) since then, and I don't want to be doing nothing if I don't have to be. Should I go ahead and get quotes? Or should I wait to hear back from the vendor? What's the best way to communicate with the vendor for such matters- via agent or via solicitor?

It depends. If the agent is generally on the ball then the quickest way is usually to go through them. Going via the solicitors will almost certainly take longer - Your solicitor will write to the sellers solicitor, the sellers solicitor will write to the seller etc. etc.

Why not give the EA a call and ask them when they spoke to the seller and what their reaction was.

Written survey reports often have a tendency to make the problem sound worse than it is, so it could be the seller is looking in to the issues raised by your surveyor before responding.

G_M

[Deleted User] wrote:

We are in the process of buying a house- the survey last week threw up a couple of issues, nothing major but they do need looking at. We have informed our solicitor and said we want the vendor to either fix them himself,
withdraw this suggestion immediately. Do not go down this route.
or we would get quotes for the work and negotiate on price. We also informed the agent of this.

What do we do now?
instruct your contractors to go round to asses the work. Give them the estate agent's contact details and leave the contractor and agent to arrange a date with the vendor.
There has been radio silence from both solicitor (who is useless anyway)
not his job. He's a lawyer.
and agent (who is fairly helpful normally) since then, and I don't want to be doing nothing if I don't have to be. Should I go ahead and get quotes?
how else can you confirm your offer?
Or should I wait to hear back from the vendor? What's the best way to communicate with the vendor for such matters- via agent or via solicitor?

agent or direct with the vendor if you've met them and they seemed approachable

[Deleted User]

The roof needs the flashing repaired (as there is damp in the front wall) and a soakaway installed to the rear of the building (as there is damp on the back wall). We also need confirmation that they have building regs (confirmation/whatever it is that's required!) for the removal of the chimney breast in one of the bedrooms. The lender offered the full amount.

The agent has asked for further clarification of what the survey said, so I've sent them the itemised list we sent to the solicitor- although I am hoping the vendor has already had this via solicitors (although as previously stated, ours is rubbish!)

By getting quotes done, I meant arranging to have quotes done, I realise the vendor will need to provide access.

kellaree

[Deleted User] wrote:

The lender offered the full amount.
.

Keep this in mind when trying to negotiate a lower offer, the issues are not bad enough to make it worth any less than you've offered. The price that has been accepted will usually have been done so on the understanding that some maintenance etc will need to be done.

[Deleted User]

kellaree wrote: »

Keep this in mind when trying to negotiate a lower offer, the issues are not bad enough to make it worth any less than you've offered. The price that has been accepted will usually have been done so on the understanding that some maintenance etc will need to be done.

Well we certainly wouldn't risk losing the house over it, but it is going to cost money to fix so I don't see the harm in asking the vendor to contribute. The property has never had a soakaway- this isn't maintenance, but something that should have been there all along as I understand it. The garden is concrete so the water has nowhere to run at the moment.

We offered full asking price, so we're not trying to take him for a ride.

kellaree

[Deleted User] wrote:

Well we certainly wouldn't risk losing the house over it, but it is going to cost money to fix so I don't see the harm in asking the vendor to contribute. The property has never had a soakaway- this isn't maintenance, but something that should have been there all along as I understand it. The garden is concrete so the water has nowhere to run at the moment.

We offered full asking price, so we're not trying to take him for a ride.

The garden has no grass for drainage etc?

Go through the EA as they'll be the ones wanting the sale to go through but remember that they work for the vendor, not you.

You might be lucky and the vendor will knock a bit off but if it was mine and the house was mortgageable at that price, I wouldn't accept less now. What's to stop them finding someone else for that price? If you don't want to lose the house make sure you keep them happy too.

[Deleted User]

No grass, it's just concrete.

If they put it back on the market they'd have to find someone else and assume they wouldn't find the same issues with a structural survey- I don't think they're going to bolt just because we've asked the question. What's the point of getting a survey done if you're not going to do anything with the results?

But as said, we wouldn't risk losing the house (depending on how much quotes are).