Is it reasonable to refuse buyers access?

prowla

If it's builders then that would suggest they want to plan some building work, maybe an extension.

Presumably they'd want to get some measurements and suchlike, rather than actually start wielding their sledghammers 'round.

So long as you make sure they wipe their feet, I can't see that it should be an issue.

powerful_Rogue

These kinds of posts always amaze me!

You want the buyer to spend £100k, £200k, £300k+ etc on your house and think think its unacceptable for them to get checks carried out.

Why is that probably the biggest purchase you'll ever make in your life and people want to limit the amount of times you can look.

If I was the buyer and you said no to the builders coming round to check out a few things, then i'd walk away from the sale.

Sky_

We pulled out of a purchase because the vendors refused to give us access for builder's visits to get quotes for required work. The survey threw up issues with the roof and some windows so we wanted to know how expensive the repairs would be. They thought it 'wasn't necessary' and was 'too inconvenient'.

We'd only disturbed them three times at that point (two brief viewings plus the surveyor's visit) so we felt that the vendors were being unreasonably obstructive and/or had smething to hide. They'd been difficult from the start so this was the last straw for us.

Ultimately, we found a better house at a lower price but the house we pulled out of was (eventually) sold for 10k less than we'd been willing to pay.

As said by the posters above, really isn't worth being obstructive when people are paying several hundreds of thousands for your house.

Davesnave

TamsinC wrote: »

1st viewing obviously just a look around, 2nd we actually got invited to Sunday Lunch (that was a first)

With one property we drove 150miles to visit for the first time, the vendors decided that we'd be pleased to stay for lunch. It was a smallholding and they wanted us to taste the fruits of their labours.

Now I'm happy to meet and chat with goats, but that's normally as far as I go. I know goat's cheese is popular nowadays, but it never has been with me, or my OH.

Cue a very difficult lunch, because we knew that we wouldn't be buying, cheese or (preferably) no cheese! :rotfl:

csgohan4

Davesnave wrote: »

With one property we drove 150miles to visit for the first time, the vendors decided that we'd be pleased to stay for lunch. It was a smallholding and they wanted us to taste the fruits of their labours.

Now I'm happy to meet and chat with goats, but that's normally as far as I go. I know goat's cheese is popular nowadays, but it never has been with me, or my OH.

Cue a very difficult lunch, because we knew that we wouldn't be buying, cheese or (preferably) no cheese! :rotfl:

Guess there were too many holes in the house then....

slopemaster

We also had Sunday lunch at our second viewing of a house - and then got invited to Sunday lunch again between exchange and completion, when I asked if my parents could come and see the place as they were giving us a loan.
(This was in France though.) We became good friends with the vendors, visiting them in their house in town some distance away. We also "inherited" an old friend of theirs in the village.

G_M

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

These kinds of posts always amaze me!

You want the buyer to spend £100k, £200k, £300k+ etc on your house and think think its unacceptable for them to get checks carried out.

Why is that probably the biggest purchase you'll ever make in your life and people want to limit the amount of times you can look.

If I was the buyer and you said no to the builders coming round to check out a few things, then i'd walk away from the sale.

In my experience, most women buying a new dress spend far longer trying it on, taking it home, returning it etc than many people spend checking out their £300,000 property.]

Now I know the cost of dresses has gone up (boy, do I just!) but really!

jackomdj

The house before this we had people go around to measure up for a back fence. The 'builders' 3 wire fence was no good as we had a dog and we wanted the fence up as soon as we moved in.

hazyjo

Just wanted to say it's mad to box anything up before exchange! De-clutter by all means.

A couple of viewings is expected. Even 3 or 4. Are you saying they had more? A surveyor is pretty much expected. A valuation is essential if they have a mortgage. Anything else to check stuff I would consider fairly usual too. Really don't think it's that much of a problem. If I thought they were using it to knock the price down (was scared my own buyers were doing this as they had a couple of extra reports done), that's different.

They sound very keen and very serious to me.

Good luck.

googler

Once again, a situation where there's differing opinions on how to proceed in an E&W sale, but detailed in print in a Scottish one.

Standard offer clauses (Section 10 of
https://www.lawscot.org.uk/media/1209/client-guide-for-scottish-standard-clauses-edition-2.pdf ) outline that;

"10 ACCESS
10.1 The Seller will, after conclusion of the Missives and upon receipt of reasonable notice by the Purchaser, give access to the Purchaser or his agents to the Property at reasonable times for the purposes of inspection, measurement or the provision of quotations. This right of access however shall not be exercised on more than 2 occasions without the consent of the Seller."


Up until point of offer, buyer can return as many times as they wish, by arrangement with seller/agent, but once the offer is accepted, there's no access until after the contract is settled by conclusion of missives.