Buying ex-council house

Smodlet

You don't say what you want to use the house for, OP. If you want to live in it long-term its being non-standard construction may be more of an issue than if you want to rent it out. As mentioned above, there are several types of non-standard housing, though most of them are concrete. As far as I know, the worst ones from a maintenance point of view are the ones built on a metal frame as this can rust, buckle and conceivably bring the whole lot down with it. If you can see rust stains on the outside of the house, I would walk away now.

It might be an idea to get a building survey done but these are not cheap on non-standard construction houses. I think, if you go up into the loft and look at the rafters and they are metal, that is the metal-framed kind of house. Personally, I would not touch one of those with a barge pole.

There are other kinds where the concrete is poured into wooden shuttering (tall, thin boxes, basically) which have fewer issues because there is less or no metal involved.

Again, as mentioned, it is usually more difficult to get a mortgage on non-standard properties. There may also be issues with buildings insurance, or there may not. There may be high maintenance costs down the line, or there may not.

Do not take this as gospel as I am going from memory of a conversation I had with a surveyor several years ago. Do your own research. HTH.

ETA: Just found this link which might be useful - Mods, it is not intended to be an advert for this firm of surveyors, OK? It is an article about non-standard housing.

http://www.peterbarry.co.uk/blog/houses-of-non-traditional-construction-common-property-defects-6/

Also googled "Spooner" and it seems they are the timber-framed ones, so not the worst kind of non-standard construction.

Davesnave

Spooner construction is timber frame and may be mortgageable, but whether at rates you'd consider reasonable is something that you'd need to find out via a specialist broker.

Poniato

Thank you, Guys! We have decided to retract our offer. It seems too much risk to buy that type of house.

Smodlet

Thanks for letting us know, hope we helped. You will find somewhere else.

glasgowdan

hazyjo wrote: »

They're playing you. Where are the other offers? Don't bid against yourself. The valuer will possibly down-value it if you pay on or over the asking price.

That's really not the best advice. When we were house buying we lost out on a few houses that we were told were going to best offers on a closing date. The EA doesn't tell every buyer who else is offering, do they? We placed offers significantly over the asking prices and still lost out to highers offers.

To the OP, you have to think for yourself. Was it hard to book a viewing? How aware were you of other viewers? You can stick to your 125 and hope that's the best offer, you can take a gamble and raise it a bit, but if you have your offer accepted, \are you going to sit and wonder if there really were other offers, or will you be perfectly happy to have the house?

This is house buying in areas where people want to live! All quite normal.

hazyjo

glasgowdan wrote: »

That's really not the best advice. When we were house buying we lost out on a few houses that we were told were going to best offers on a closing date. The EA doesn't tell every buyer who else is offering, do they? We placed offers significantly over the asking prices and still lost out to highers offers.

To the OP, you have to think for yourself. Was it hard to book a viewing? How aware were you of other viewers? You can stick to your 125 and hope that's the best offer, you can take a gamble and raise it a bit, but if you have your offer accepted, \are you going to sit and wonder if there really were other offers, or will you be perfectly happy to have the house?

This is house buying in areas where people want to live! All quite normal.

It didn't sound as though there were other offers on the table at that time. Unless there is actually an offer from any other interested party, it's all just pretend. EAs in England stretch the truth. Going to 'best offers' from several parties is very different to saying 'lots of viewers/interest but no offers'. I have always been told when there are other offers on the table. Why wouldn't they say? It's in their best interest to.

Smodlet

It's all moot for this house as the OP has informed us they do not wish to buy a non-standard house.