how many surveys before buyer signs contracts?

crestdale23

We put our property on the market a large Victorian Mid terrace house of 2840 sq ft within 7 weeks we had a buyer and we agreed the price with them. The buyer and I had exchanged phone numbers (a definate no no) but they seemed such a nice couple and even wanted to buy any surplus furniture as we were downsizing. They had their building society survey done, which showed up a few minor things. He rang me shouting that his solicitor said that we had "rotten" floors, when I asked him where? He stated downstairs in front bay window, I replied very interesting, that is a new floor that was installed along with new wall plates and damp course..........he was looking £4K off the price. We done all the minor repairs to the property at our expense and forwarded him all the proof and certificates to him to forward to his solicitor. The Estate Agent phoned me to tell me they were celebrating they had got their mortgage at the weekend, but, the building society now say there are other issues. We paid to bring out a structural engineer and another professional damp expert, they said everything is fine, we sent them their full reports. We thought everything was good to go, and last week we got a call from our EA to say that the mortgage company where sending another surveyor. Last week I got a call from a surveyor who informed me that he was there to do a full survey on behalf of the purchasers and was not connected to the building society. As you can guess, we are all about stressed as far as we can go, my husband is elderly a heart condition and has an ICD fitted, but finding him sobbing his heart out because of all the stress nearly broke me. We have had enough! Their mortgage runs out on 28th April, but they say this can be extended, sorry, but our health is more important than stressing out with these people. If they don't sign for the property by Monday I am rejecting their offer and placing it back on the market. Has anyone else put up with this behaviour from a buyer? They had agreed the price of the house, but their initial surveyor undervalued our property to a ridiculous price for the area. We assume this is now going to be a prce dispute. We will not be dropping it one penny as our own surveyor has valued the property a lot higher than our asking price.

dc197

Other than you as sellers paying for the minor repairs, the damp expert and the full survey, none of the above sounds out of the ordinary.
Sounds like you have made up your mind with a deadline of Monday. Do the buyers know about the deadline?

MrJB

Your own surveyor has valued the property at a lot higher than the asking price? What type of surveyor was that? and when did that surveyor carry out his valuation? Was he/she a member of RICS? And if they concluded that market value was significantly higher, why are you marketing it a price less than that?

crestdale23

The surveyor we use is a highly qualified surveyor and a member FRICS he values and surveys properties.

Dan-Dan

so why ask a lot less?

crestdale23

The buyer has been awkward with us all along, stalling having to pay a mortgage as he is currently tied into a contract with the letting agency until end of August.

crestdale23

we put the property on with what we considered to be a fair price and wanted a reasonably quick sale as we have a deposit down on a new house, which we could now lose thanks to this buyer

Thrugelmir

crestdale23 wrote: »

The buyer has been awkward with us all along, stalling having to pay a mortgage as he is currently tied into a contract with the letting agency until end of August.

That's the nature of housing transactions. Everyone has their own agenda.

Hoploz

Oh dear I really feel for you. It is such a stressful time and you've not had an easy ride.

it's best if you let the potential buyer do their own surveys really, as even though they are of course independent, they will always think back to the report which said it was all falling down regardless. In some ways it might have been better to tell them to do one some time ago, but I completely understand why you have tried to keep it together. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

If you really do intend to give them the elbow, then what will happen? Will you get another buyer and still be able to buy the one you hope to? If not then you run the risk of cutting your nose off to spite your face. Even if you hate the buyers by now, they probably remain a means to an end. Is there any way you could refinance and buy without selling? It sounds like a new build. What are timescales - is it ready yet? How much time will the seller allow you?

The good news is, if you do go back on the market, you have all these good surveys already done to show your new buyer, so hopefully they won't bother getting their own done as well!

crestdale23

My husband is a pensioner I run a small business from home, we are using all our savings to finance the new house, if we lose the house we are after, it will take 2 weeks to complete, we will have to either 1. stay put, or 2. start looking for other property. Quite frankly we have had enough, my health has suffered too with these people, I have had to go on medication just trying to cope with the stress, what really irks me is the lies they have told us and their deceit. Our Estate Agent has never heard of surveys being carried out on a property before, neither has the estate agent we are buying through. They have all said they are the buyers from Hell. Their own solicitor lost certificates and we had to try and get copies. They have cost us our constinguancy fund with their messing around. I have had to sell my car to fund things.

Cakeguts

I don't know what your Estate Agent is talking about but the surveys all sound totally normal to me.