Is our buyer being cheeky! 31 March 2017 at 4:19PM edited 31 March 2017 at 4:21PM in House buying, renting & selling 9 replies 2.1K views

lisamarie2017

I wonder if anyone could offer me their thoughts on this.

We're selling our house that has had a tenant in for 4 years so we can buy a house where we now live (in a different area)

We had a cheeky offer from someone very quickly who offered to do all the work on the house if we'd sell at a discount (as opposed to us doing the work and then selling once tenant had moved out) so it was ideal as living in a different area makes thing difficult.

We're now 8 weeks into the sale an we're hoping to exchange next week, and the buyers solicitors are asking for documents our solicitors deems uneccessary and which we don't have and will cost £100's of pounds to get and possibly take 2 to 3 weeks to get. Ontop of these the buyers solicitors are very slow.

The searches they are asking for relate to original building regulations and planning permission which we never got when we bought the house from the original buyers (it's a 16 year old house)

My argument is the buyer is getting the house at a huge discount a price we could easily achieve if we go to market, so if his solicitors want them he should pay! (details of searches they want are below)

1. Letter of consent for the original construction of the property (or provide an indemnity policy)
2. The planning permission for the original construction of the property
3. The Building Regs Certificate for the original construction of the property
4. Gas Safe Certificate (or CORGI) for the installation of the central heating system.

Are we being a bit unreasonable or too soft considering he's knows we live away from the area and things we just want to get rid of the house for ease?

thanks in advance

jeanzbeanz

We made the mistake of buying a house (from family) without going through the proper processes of getting all the documentation of building regs, boiler services, land registry checks etc (we were a cash buyer so no mortgage provider to insist on it) and we are now having a nightmare selling it, 18 months later. Turns out the previous owner didn't get building regs certification for some alterations so we have had to have an inspection and make some changes (replace windows etc), the boundary wasn't where we were led to believe it was so we have had to get a land transfer from Land Registry (thankfully the owner of the land which we thought was ours didn't mind us having it and didn't charge us for it! PHEW!)

Of course this has all been at our own cost, frankly we were negligent when purchasing not to have got everything thoroughly checked out. Moral of the story - don't skip ticking boxes when you buy because you will struggle to tick those boxes when you sell!

I don't think your buyer is being cheeky - I would imagine that their mortgage provider will insist on all that documentation (discount or no discount!). That's certainly the situation with our buyer. We are still waiting for our final certificate of building regs (for work that was done before the house was ours) and then we can exchange.. hopefully next week!

Thrugelmir

lisamarie2017 wrote: »

Ontop of these the buyers solicitors are very slow.

Your buyer is obviously in no rush.

ACG

Ask them or offer to pay for indemnity policies. I have had to pay for one on my house for some windows I have had done and a wall which was knocked down before I bought the house - £40. To me it was not worth arguing about so I paid it.

ThePants999

If the house is let, you already have a gas safe certificate, right?

juniordoc

Sounds like your buyer is being sensible and doing their homework.

Davesnave

lisamarie2017 wrote: »

My argument is the buyer is getting the house at a huge discount; a price we think we could easily achieve if we go to market, so if his solicitors want them he should pay!

I have corrected that for you.

There is one way you can test your belief. You know what it is, so why aren't you doing it?

scriv

Having just sold a property, we had to provide all such documentation. Think it's the norm regardless of whoever you sell it too.

Fosterdog

When I bought last year my mortgage provider insisted on either the documentation or indemnity policy for everything. It is the norm for the vendor to supply and or pay for these.

davidmcn

lisamarie2017 wrote: »

My argument is the buyer is getting the house at a huge discount a price we could easily achieve if we go to market, so if his solicitors want them he should pay! (details of searches they want are below)

1. Letter of consent for the original construction of the property (or provide an indemnity policy)
2. The planning permission for the original construction of the property
3. The Building Regs Certificate for the original construction of the property
4. Gas Safe Certificate (or CORGI) for the installation of the central heating system.

Any discount on the price had been agreed presumably because of the condition of the property, not because you were lacking paperwork. How long ago did you buy, and why didn't you get any of the above at the time? They're pretty normal things to expect for a 16yo house, even more so if it was only 12 or fewer years old when you bought.

Can you check online if the planning/building regulations exist? If so then it's just an admin fee for getting copies, hardly worth quibbling about.