Roof repairs before completion?

Christy053

Hello,

We are just coming to the end of buying our first house. We had a home buyers report carried out which flagged up a few things
-Roof repairs - hole in roof and ride tiling
-Window reglazing
-Damp/wood rot in kitchen
-Wanted gas safety cert as this was out of date and they have no installation cert
-No building regs for a chimney breast converted to take a stove
-Pointing
-Leaking gutter
-Poor roof insulation

Nothing flagged up was major issues that were going to knock thousands off the valuation but I still spoke to the estate agents to see if the vendors were willing to fix anything before completion. They declined everything including the gas safety inspection (have given us a out of date certificate from Dec 17), the estate agent actually told me that the vendors said they had "forked out for too much already" yet my solicitor says the only thing they have paid for so far is the indemnity policy for the chimney breast at £15! However they did say they would fix the roof. We went round to inspect the roof after he had carried out the work to find he had concreted the hole up but we could still see daylight coming through because of the ridge tiling. We have had a quote done for this work and its £220.
We have offered full asking price for the house, are we in the wrong to be expecting/wanting them to pay for the roof repairs? And if they continue to refuse what else can be done moving forward? Everything else is ready for completion it is just this that has been holding up for the past 2 weeks.

Thank you for any help and advice

Linton

It is not a good idea to rely on the vendor to fix a problem. There is no reason for them to put the money and time in to do a good job. £220 is a trivial amount to make a fuss about - you are going to get much larger bills for house maintenance at some time. Is it something you would pull out of the sale over? If not wait til you own the house and get it fixed to your satisfaction.

Slinky

How can an inspection certificate from Dec 17 be 'out of date'? It's only February!

Christy053

Slinky wrote: »

How can an inspection certificate from Dec 17 be 'out of date'? It's only February!

Sorry I meant this is the date it expired, the inspection was carried out Dec 16

ashe

If you're bothered about the inspection, get one done yourself. I've lived in my current home for 12 years and never had a gas service or inspection done, told the surveyor this, buyer is fine. Boiler is a battle-axe and is ancient but chugging away, if he wants to service it or get an inspection done he is welcome to but we aren't going to pay for one only to move out as its useless to us.

All your work needing doing, as has been alluded to above, get it done yourself where you have control over the quality and the tradesmen that do it.

If your homebuyer report and valuation indicated the house is worth what you are paying for it, its likely that the vendor is well ware of all those things but has priced it accordingly. They may have spent money fixing other issues prior to the move which may be what they mean by forking out. They aren't going to get any benefit for paying out, whereas you will, so if you need it, get it done. Our kitchen is very dated compared to rest of the house and a new one would make the whole house a lot better, but we would never get the money back that we would spend and the buyer may then just rip out and do their own thing, so whats the point?

If they continue to refuse you have two options:

Ignore them and buy it and do the work yourself

or

Pull out of sale and find another house.

Doozergirl

Christy053 wrote: »

Sorry I meant this is the date it expired, the inspection was carried out Dec 16

I think that is probably being pedantic. They have no obligation to provide you with that anyway. It's your responsibility to check the gas and electric alongside your survey. It does not form part of the surveyor's remit.

I agree with the others that have posted so far.

Christy053

Doozergirl wrote: »

I think that is probably being pedantic. They have no obligation to provide you with that anyway. It's your responsibility to check the gas and electric alongside your survey. It does not form part of the surveyor's remit.

I agree with the others that have posted so far.

Yeah maybe so, we were just hoping for a inspection to ensure the safety of the boiler with it having no installation certificate. I contacted Gas Safe and Corgi but no records. But we are going to get monthly boiler cover which will include a free service so thats resolved.

ashe

Christy053 wrote: »

Yeah maybe so, we were just hoping for a inspection to ensure the safety of the boiler with it having no installation certificate. I contacted Gas Safe and Corgi but no records. But we are going to get monthly boiler cover which will include a free service so thats resolved.

Just make sure you are definitely covered. Sometimes the monthly cover will only pay out if boiler is under a certain age, has been maintained annually, etc etc. Either way its unlikely the boiler went from certifiable to deathtrap in that time, and for private individuals its entirely optional to have them maintained and checked so I can understand why they are hesitant to pay out on it.