Unreasonable to ask for another viewing/assurances

Slinky

We insisted on a viewing just before exchange. We live over 100 miles away so it's not like we were just round the corner, the house could have burned down since our previous visit for all we knew. In all I visited 5 times before completion. Initial visit, then second visit so husband could view it (he hadn't seen it before offer was accepted), third visit to look at some things thrown up by the survey, fourth visit to enable an electrian/plumbing company to quote for work were going to do immediately after completion and final fifth visit days before exchange to check the house was in the condition we were expecting it to be, as always advised by people on these boards!

The vendor dragged the sale out for 6 months, it was a probate property and the agents had keys. They were pretty good in letting us view. About the only thing they were any good at.........

hazyjo

I bought an empty house the one before I'm in now. The EAs were horrible to the point of nasty. I wanted to take a builder round as was changing the back of the house and wanted to know I could afford it, and wanted to check it hadn't flooded/burnt down (like yourselves), but they pretty much refused viewings.


They'd had me in tears when trying to offer as they were vile and wouldn't take me seriously - kept telling me to call back in 2 weeks or so as all the prices were going up and someone else would buy it in the meantime'. I did get quite a chunk off in the end as nobody else did buy it in the 4 or so months it was on the market.


In the end I just gave up with them and bought the damn thing (turned out to be the loveliest happiest home I've had). I know it was hundreds of thousands, but it just wasn't worth the stress after having two years and complete and utter hell in my life. I knew that house was the one for me.


Don't cut your nose off to spite your face. I know you ought to view, everyone says so, and I try to but not always. Can you at least take a walk/drive past it to make sure it looks like it's still standing with no signs of life in it? Maybe speak with neighbours to see if anyone's been in and out of it - good excuse to see what they're like.

Nadeshkarine

Hi all,
So to update we followed advice here and the solicitors and ignored the EA until the paperwork came through this week.
We then asked for another viewing, and he asked "why?!", we pointed out that we hadn't seen it in 6 months and he then was fine with it!

So my husband went and saw it this morning and noted that there are a few more hairline cracks than before but the thing that's concerning us is a new damp patch, at head height in the living room in the alcove at the front (so the wall adjoining the neighbours)
It's maybe 6 inches.

Should we be concerned or should we get over it and exchange? We've waited so long we don't want to delay any more.

m0bov

Could be anything, has it been recently decorated? Could they have hidden something? Leaky gutter? Leaky roof?! Leaky windows?

Nadeshkarine

These are photos of the patch

Not sure why that didn't work, these are the urls

https://ibb.co/jWv8vS
https://ibb.co/cALxpn

It's not that visible in the wider shot, just shows that it's not huge and the context of the placing.

This is a Victorian house.

m0bov

Sorry cant see anything

Nadeshkarine

They did a whole house rewire and decorate in early 2017. So when we first saw it was maybe 3 months after a paint job, and now is more like 9 months.
It's not next to the window, and the outside gutter looked clear.

m0bov

Can you get a friendly builder to have a quick look for a drink?

m0bov

Is it near the chimney breast? If so, is this a older property? Chimney capped? In good condition?

Nadeshkarine

It's the wall adjoining the front of the house so away from the chimney stack. Don't think we could get a builder round - both a lack of knowing one and whether they'd let us go around again!

Hmm what's the worst case scenario - a leak from something in the neighbours or the guttering? Could it be a symptom of something that would take 1000s to fix?
Neighbours weren't in for us to ask if they'd had issues. This is a Victorian house and we'd already been told had 'rising damp' by surveyor but there were no other signs. This patch is head height though so seems unrelated.