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Exchanged contracts, but buyer needs another survey done!

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TheKeymeister
TheKeymeister Posts: 101 Forumite
Eighth Anniversary Combo Breaker
edited 12 July 2016 at 8:30PM in House buying, renting & selling
Hi,

I'm selling my house to a first time buyer, and I'm buying from someone who's then buying a new build (but going into temp accommodation until it's ready). Nice and straight forward, but there was a big rush on exchanging due to the vendor's developer setting a deadline to exchange. The day finally came today and contracts were exchanged this morning.

I was shocked to receive a phone call a little while ago from my buyer, saying he has just been told by his solicitors that he needs to get another survey done as something came up on the original one about a 1st floor door not being supported correctly or something. This is a condition of the mortgage and they won't release funds until they know the repair costs (I think that's what he said). He's arranged another survey for Thursday morning that cost him a load of money and was hard to find someone to do it apparently. Based on this I'm guessing it is a structural engineer.

Now to my knowledge there isn't anything wrong with any of the doors, I've just discovered one of them catches slightly due to new skirting boards which I suppose could give the impression something is amiss but that would take me about 10 minutes to put right. The original survey was done early in June, and neither me nor the buyer seem to have been made aware of any issues.

I don't foresee any major problems coming up over this door problem, and the buyer is hoping the surveyor doesn't pick up on any other problems that the first one didn't see that will cause further issues (not that there should be any!), but I just wondered what sort of position this now puts me in, I had a mini celebration as the contracts are now exchanged and thought everything was pretty much finalised but now it seems not.

Any advice much appreciated.....
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Comments

  • bigfreddiel
    bigfreddiel Posts: 4,263 Forumite
    You've exchanged contracts, nothing to worry about. Regardless of what the survey uncovers, the buyer is committed to paying the agreed price or walk and lose their deposit which you keep, nice innit!
  • walwyn1978
    walwyn1978 Posts: 837 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 500 Posts
    You've exchanged contracts, nothing to worry about. Regardless of what the survey uncovers, the buyer is committed to paying the agreed price or walk and lose their deposit which you keep, nice innit!

    Pretty much this. You're in a win win situation unless your chain would collapse if your sale went under.

    However, buyers deposit passing to you may sweeten that deal.
  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I was shocked to receive a phone call a little while ago from my buyer, saying he has just been told by his solicitors that he needs to get another survey done as something came up on the original one about a 1st floor door not being supported correctly or something. This is a condition of the mortgage and they won't release funds until they know the repair costs (I think that's what he said).

    You've exchanged contracts, so he has to go ahead with the purchase. I suspect that the lender have said that they're going to withhold part of his mortgage unless and until he can demonstrate that the problem - whatever it may be - has been resolved, so he's hoping to get this surveyor to say "No, no problem there at all."
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    The buyer has a problem with his mortgage offer and should not have exchanged..... big mistake by him!

    He has exchanged so is legally commited.

    The problem is that if for some reason his mortgage lender not refuses to grant the mortgage, he may be unable to Complete, unless either he has a whole load of other money stashed away, or he applies for, and gets, a mortgage elsewhere in time for Completion - unlikely.

    So either

    a) the new survey satisfies the lender and all goes ahead
    b) the new survey does not satisfy the lender and the buyer fails to Complete due to lack of ££££

    If b) you can
    i) keep the (10%?) he paid you at Exchange, and also
    ii) sue him for any/all your costs resulting from his failure to Complete
  • Wyndham
    Wyndham Posts: 2,614 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    While it can sometimes be useful to talk directly to the buyer, something like this should be going through your legal representatives.

    If there is a problem, and their solicitor/conveyancer has let them exchange, then you really don't want to get involved.
  • I've just emailed my solicitors about it to see what they say, I imagine it will be similar to what everyone has said above - thanks very much.

    The buyer has said he will be coming along with the surveyor, and asked me to be present as well, which I suppose will be beneficial as I can explain the construction of the stud wall that the door which I think is in question is mounted to, as I saw it being built when the bathroom was re-done.

    Hopefully this will satisfy the surveyor and everything will carry on as before, although if I was the buyer I'd certainly be taking things further with his solicitors! I saw the same solicitors he used come up when searching for conveyancing quotes (online conveyancers, based in the north west, lots of bad reviews...) and I'm glad I decided to go with a local company instead for about £50 more!
  • david1951
    david1951 Posts: 431 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Bit gobsmacked that the solicitor has exchanged contracts with a condition outstanding. That could cost them a lot of money.

    I would be slightly suspicious, although I don't really know why...
  • I had a reply from my solicitors basically saying if he can't get the money to pay for the house, it will put him in breach of contract, and then put me in the same position due to needing the proceeds of the sale to buy the next one. I'm in a slightly better position I think, as the people we're buying from's new build house isn't actually ready until October/November, so if I offered to delay completion while I find another buyer they'd probably be happy as it means they haven't got to go into temporary accommodation and put their stuff in storage.

    The structural engineer came round this morning, had a look at the door in question, and agreed it was not a structural problem and was just an ill fitting piece of architrave with a repair cost of £100 to plane down the door and repaint. He did come up with a few other minor things, all superficial, which the buyer didn't have any sort of a problem with anyway, not that it would make a difference at this stage. He assured us there were no major defects with the property, and advised he will submit his report on Monday, so hopefully there is still time for the bank to review and accept this report ready for completion on the 29th.

    The buyer also came with his mortgage offer, and I now understand how it happened. The survey did indicate movement around the door frame on the first floor bathroom (as mentioned above it was just poor architrave), and the bank added a condition that a structural report was required before they would release funds. This was printed right at the bottom, and it had been printed on headed paper, so was obscured by text from the headed paper on the bottom. I can understand how a buyer would possibly miss this, but I would expect better from a solicitor! The buyer has said he will be taking this further, but after completion so as to not cause any further problems. Apparently the issue was only raised because the bank contacted the solicitors and said they hadn't received the structural report, so thank god they picked it up now rather than on completion day!

    Fingers crossed now, everything will come together. I thought this was going to be a simple transaction given the very short chain, this has been the most stressful experience of my life so far, and it's all been caused by things/people totally out of my control. I thought I was long shot of anxiety problems but it's back with a vengeance...
  • sheff6107
    sheff6107 Posts: 451 Forumite
    I had a reply from my solicitors basically saying if he can't get the money to pay for the house, it will put him in breach of contract, and then put me in the same position due to needing the proceeds of the sale to buy the next one.

    Well make sure you don't exchange contracts on your own purchase.
  • All contracts were exchanged on Tuesday...
This discussion has been closed.
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