First time buyer question.

jjh161

-Deleted post-

Thank you all for your advice, I think we will just cut our losses and hope something else comes along.

Pixie5740

If there was genuinely no usable kitchen then the lender would not have offered any mortgage at any amount because the property has to be habitable.

You don't have any evidence as to why the previous buyer pulled out. It could well be that their survey came back with a valuation of £120k but you have no way of knowing. Furthermore, the survey would belong to the buyer just the same as your survey belongs to you, not to the seller. The seller(s) may genuinely believe that the property is worth more based on recent sold prices. Have you shown them a copy of your survey to prove that it has only been valued at £120k?

One of the sisters might work at the estate agency but is she acting as the estate agent for this sale?

csgohan4

England or Scotland?


England you have no recourse to claim anything before exchange




Chalk this down to experience and find something else, they are potentially gazumping you, the vlendors that is

Pixie5740

csgohan4 wrote: »

England or Scotland?


England you have no recourse to claim anything before exchange

It won't be Scotland. The vendors pay for the Home Buyers report which would show the valuation to the vendor and buyers. Offers would also be made via the solicitor.

Davesnave

jjh161 wrote: »

Would I be able to take them to an ombudsman for the lost costs or their deceiving behavior? .

"I'm sorry, but having seen the house late yesterday, I've decided the situation is so good, I'm prepared to offer £133k for it. I have this in cash, so I won't be needing any lender's valuation.

Worth every penny in my opinion. It'll be a cracker when I've renovated."

Is the above a possible scenario? If it is, even if not probable, you don't have a theoretical case to present, let alone any other.

Move on and find something else. It'll be better than that one.

davidmcn

csgohan4 wrote: »

England or Scotland?England you have no recourse to claim anything before exchange

Pixie5740 wrote: »

It won't be Scotland. The vendors pay for the Home Buyers report which would show the valuation to the vendor and buyers. Offers would also be made via the solicitor.

And you have no recourse to claim expenses in Scotland pre-exchange anyway - not sure why people keep giving the impression that you would.

davidmcn

jjh161 wrote: »

Would I be able to take them to an ombudsman for the lost costs or their deceiving behavior?

No. You thought it was worth £132,500, you agreed a price, and the fact you don't have enough cash to make up the difference doesn't mean the sellers or agents have done anything "deceiving".

In markets where prices are going up sharply (don't know whether that's relevant here) then this always happens, as surveyors will only work on the prices available from completed sales (i.e. agreed possibly six months previously). So you need to have enough cash if you want to be competitive.

juniordoc

If finished similar houses are worth 150k then this was never going to be worth132 with the amount of work you say it needed doing.

You can leave what is now effectively an offer of 120 on the table but you need to walk away and start looking at other properties with more realistic sellers!

Pixie5740

The Original Post before it was deleted....

jjh161 wrote: »

Hello everyone!

First time buyer and first time poster so please bear with me its a bit long and complicated!

My husband and I finally found a house we liked. We were looking for a bit of a project and found a three bed semi which needs a lot of work doing (no central heating, wood-chip wall paper everywhere and practically no usable kitchen). Done up nicely the other houses in the area sell for about £150,000 and it was up for £135000.

When we were looking round the estate agent informed up the sellers wanted to find a buyer ASAP as the house belonged to two sisters (one who works at the estate agents who are selling the house) who were looking to sell after their mother had died and they it had previously sold but the buyers could not get the mortgage to complete the sale- so they had all the information on their side ready to pick up with a new buyer for a quick sale.

This was on a Saturday and on Monday morning we call up to make an offer but someone else had beaten us too it. They essentially told us the other party had offered £130,000 so to beat them we would need to offer higher and send in a copy of our mortgage in principle before they would send our offer to the buyer. So we put in our offer of £132500, sent in our mortgage in principle and it was accepted.

Now we are getting to the complicated bit. We have paid for all the surveys etc and the mortgage survey has come back saying that the value of the house is only £120,000 with all the work that needs doing. Our mortgage broker arranged for the estate agents to send information regarding other houses in the area to contest but the mortgage surveyor will not budge and the bank will only offer a mortgage of £120,000.

Our Broker advised that it is not likely that any other mortgage provider will lend more so if we wanted to continue with the sale we would have to make up the difference- which we don't have- or get the buyer to reduce the price. Our broker also advised that the estate agents would have known that the property was not worth what they were asking as this was probably the reason the previous sale fell through and that anyone else who applied for a mortgage will be in the same boat.

So we asked them to lower the price- which they are refusing to do. The have claimed that they had received a higher offer in cash and that they turned it down for our offer and lots of other random stories (which we told them we don't believe) so we have said to them they have until Monday (tomorrow) to give us the lowest offer they will go to -and we stressed there was pretty much no wiggle room on £120,000 - or we will have to pull out.

My question is- if they turn round and say no (which we very much think they will) where do we stand? We have spent about £1000 in fees so far when the estate agents would have known they were asking too much and would be an issue from the previous attempt at sale. Would I be able to take them to an ombudsman for the lost costs or their deceiving behavior?

We are very prepared that we will have to just cut our losses but we are worried they may try to pull the same stunt with the next people that try to buy the house.

saajan_12

There is no recourse here, as noone has done anything wrong. The seller can ask for as much as they like, it doesn’t have to be a ‘fair’ or ‘realistic’ price. Its up to you to decide whether its worth that much to you and choose to do any due dillience (legals / surveys) needed by you or your source of funds.

glasgowdan

Asking too much isn't immoral or wrong, it's hopeful. Therefore you cannot ask anyone else to cover the costs that you have incurred.

This sounds like a common thing to happen when house buying in England/Wales.