Renegotiating after survey / mortgage offer with tight deadline

csgohan4

poorcopies wrote: »

Thanks for all your feedback, I can assure you we aren't trying to screw over the vendor at the last minute, they are the ones pushing for completion by the end of the month (offer was only accepted 5 weeks ago and they only told us 2 weeks ago we need to complete by the end of the month or potentially they will pull out due to stamp duty regs). We only got our survey back two days ago, but have been hurrying the process along in order for them to complete (luckily, the sale of our house was 3 weeks ahead!)

As well as the building regs issue, there is significant damp on an extension wall, as the patio has been raised to meet house and is covering the airflow, all of the bay window units have failed and the windows upstairs do not open sufficiently to allow access in case of a fire (we have a small child, so something like this I consider of importance), chimney also needs repointing, some roof tiles fixed and also the electrics have not been checked or serviced since 2006. (boiler hasn't been serviced either). There are lots of other small issues, but as I said previously, we appreciate they are issues that come with a house of that ages (we are currently in a period property, so know the score, however we know we have carried out the regular maintenance needed to our property and I question that our vendors have!)

We do really love the house though, so as many of you have pointed out we need to weigh up if it's worth losing it over. I think we may just ask they carry out the gas / electric servicing (as I think this can be carried out fairly quickly) and just hope the damp is just isolated to the extension wall.

Gas/electric servicing should be done by buyer as part of due diligence. It's like asking the vendor to pay for the survey as its 100 years old.

If you do ask the vendor to pay, don't be surprised if you don't get the reply you want as to the vendor it appears your messing them around.

AdrianC

poorcopies wrote: »

(offer was only accepted 5 weeks ago

Wow, that's fast.

and they only told us 2 weeks ago we need to complete by the end of the month or potentially they will pull out due to stamp duty regs).

I'm not quite sure I understand that logic. You did mention it in your original post, but nobody picked up on it - perhaps you could elaborate a bit now?

poorcopies wrote: »

But, and this is the big but, the vendor needs to complete before the end of the month due to the next stamp duty laws coming into play so has been pushing this forward.

The vendor doesn't pay SDLT on a sale, the buyer does. So if there's an impact on this sale due to the change in SDLT regs, it's your problem, because of your circumstances, not theirs.

If they're trying to complete on another purchase, and need the money from this to do so... then unless it's an additional property to their current home, there's no impact - if this is their primary residence, then they're replacing it, so wouldn't be hit by the 3% rise, even if it completed after the threshold.

The only time I can see it coming in to play is if they need the cash to buy an investment property - either because they already own another property as their main home, or they've got two upward chains on the go - one to replace this property as their home, and one as a BTL. In that latter case, the risk of one of the three chain links failing to proceed is substantial. Either way, they really ought to be ABLE to cover the 3% SDLT hike, whether they're willing to do so is another question. But their position is clearly this sale before the deadline or no sale before the deadline - if your purchase falls through, they're either going to be keeping this place or paying the SDLT anyway.

My fear here would be that the SDLT hike isn't actually relevant, and they're using it as a nice handy excuse to steamroller through a fast sale in the hope you either don't spot a substantial issue with the property or decide to let it go rather than risk the sale.

Looks to me that the risk of losing or delaying the sale is larger for them than for you, putting the cards back into your hands, unless there's something I'm missing...?

poorcopies

AdrianC wrote: »

Wow, that's fast.

My fear here would be that the SDLT hike isn't actually relevant, and they're using it as a nice handy excuse to steamroller through a fast sale in the hope you either don't spot a substantial issue with the property or decide to let it go rather than risk the sale.

Looks to me that the risk of losing or delaying the sale is larger for them than for you, putting the cards back into your hands, unless there's something I'm missing...?

You're quite right, they already own a property, the one they are buying means they are looking at paying another 10k or so if they complete after 1st April. However, as you point out, that's really not our issue, but we do want the house put as you also pointed out, they could be using it to push it through to hide something. They only brought the house in 2013, which sets off another alarm bell.

Just spoken to our solicitor who is confident even if we revise our we should still be able to meet the deadline, our mortgage offer was back with her originally within 3 days of the bank valuation.

They aren't lying when they saying buying and selling property is one of the most stressful things you can do!

ThePants999

I agree with everyone saying that since the surveyor has agreed it's worth £X even with the faults, it's unfair to try to drop the price on the basis of the faults. However, I'd highlight that if you don't care about that, then the fact that the seller is desperate to complete this month to avoid £10K in extra stamp duty probably means they'd accept an offer that's <£10K lower.

harrys_dad

So what happened?