Help again please

gemmy26wales

Hiya, I'm towards the end of buying a leasehold flat and had an app today with solicitor to see the paperwork and potentially sign the contract. The sellers were pushing for completion this Thursday.

Few ?issues?

Asked her a question about work being done on the flat, so she showed me the form the management company used. It was only then that she noticed the sellers owe £1400 in service and manintence costs. She said she would "chase this up". This got me worried as to what else have they missed?

On the paperwork, they sellers have ticked that there's no ongoing works to the flat (the communal area is stripped bare ready to be refurbished). I've not been given estimated costs for this, nor estimated completion time for the work.

The survey I had done suggested an electrical and gas safety report which they reluctantly provided for me.

The gas one seems ok, but the electrical one has failed on the following. I'm completely none the wiser with electrics and was wondering if these are worrying issues and expensive to rectify pleases? They've all been marked as c2:
Bathroom light not protected by RCD
no visibility means of isolation for oven
No protection for socket on cooker circuit by RCD
discontinuous con???meter on down sockets??
Lighting cables on landing not intrunking.

Any help or advice is once again greatly appreciated.

kinger101

Completion on Thursday. Unlikely.

You need to;

(a) make sure you solicitor is happy with everything and you understand any issues they raise. Acknowledge these and make a decision yourself on whether to proceed.

(b) make sure you've fully understood the surveyor's report. The document is for you. Not your solicitor. Your solicitor has no idea whether you think the condition of the house is okay.

It sounds like the electrics are a bit flaky, but some of that should have been apparent from a visual inspection to a lay person. Without knowing the context of the property, it's difficult to tell if that's normal for a property of that age, or a diy bodge job. The TA6 (which you're supposed to read, not the solicitor) might be informative.

If you don't understand the condition of the electrics, you need to appoint an electrician to tell you whether it is safe, or how much it might cost if not.

Gas safety reports only tell you a boiler/fire wasn't dangerous on X date. I'd want to know availability of parts and service history, but if it was obviously an old boiler, it's not really a negotiating point.

bouicca21

Can't help on electrics but service/ground rent debts can be sorted easily, as long as both solicitors know the extent of the debt I.e. There isn't a bill for an unknown amount in the pipeline. When I bought my flat it was agreed that the (substantial) arrears of service charges and ground rent would be paid by the vendor's solicitor at completion.

gemmy26wales

Thank you soo much guys.

the electrical report mentioned the cooker which was only installed in 2016.

im going to ring the electrician who completed the report today and hoping he will be able to clarify a few points and give me an estimate of costs involved.