Bad survey - and a much lower valuation!

Mareland6

End of October was when the offer was accepted but there was a significant delay caused by the lender picking up a structural issue. Regardless the vendor communicated to us that they didnt want to move until January anyway as they wanted to spend Christmas in the house.

They want to move by the end of the month as they will get a better deal on storage costs...

We will try to call their bluff and explain that there are things we need to investigate further. If they won't give us the time we need, we'll walk. Last thing we need is to complete then find out the house needs underpinning or something.

Thrugelmir

Mareland6 wrote: »

A complete roof overhaul within the next 12 months - literally this - 'covering should be considered to be coming towards the end of its life', no ventilation in roof space, no felt, negligable roof insulation to 1st floor

If the roof is concrete. Then likely to contain asbestos. Not a problem in itself. Though the extra costs are a considerable uplft on the cost of replacing the roof (special skips and waste disposal charges based on weight of material). Cost us over £700 for the material removal.

Davesnave

Thrugelmir wrote: »

If the roof is concrete. Then likely to contain asbestos.

Just de-lurking to say this is not as I understand things. Most 'concrete' roof tiles contain no asbestos.

'Asbestos' roof tiles are visually distinctive and contain mostly concrete plus a smaller proportion of asbestos.

Telling the two apart visually is relatively easy. No one worries about working with ordinary concrete tiles, whether it's cutting them, or whatever. If they did, you wouldn't find thousands of old ones stacked-up for the public to walk around in reclamation yards or see them being thrown into ordinary skips; they'd have to be disposed of differently.

Note that standard concrete or clay tiles do not come under asbestos regs with my local authority:

https://new.devon.gov.uk/wasteandrecycling/recycling-centres/chargeable-waste/

Mareland6

Turns out they weren't bluffing.

They told us we could think about our position over the weekend but they put it back on the market on Friday. They never had any intention of allowing us any time to investigate the issues or of negotiating the price.

It is back on the for the original price of £159,950. They know this is 10k more than our lenders valuation, and 15k more than the survey valuation. They know there is a structural movement issue, among other things. But the EA has convinced them it is worth this. I hope whoever does buy this house has a full building survey and isn't duped into overpaying.

Sibz

Mareland6 wrote: »

Turns out they weren't bluffing.

They told us we could think about our position over the weekend but they put it back on the market on Friday. They never had any intention of allowing us any time to investigate the issues or of negotiating the price.

It is back on the for the original price of £159,950. They know this is 10k more than our lenders valuation, and 15k more than the survey valuation. They know there is a structural movement issue, among other things. But the EA has convinced them it is worth this. I hope whoever does buy this house has a full building survey and isn't duped into overpaying.

Thanks for the update

You've most likely dodged a bullet (imo) - Not sure what steps you'd be able to take to forewarn future potential buyers, but that's why there are surveys. And it seems a lot of lenders use the same surveyors, so maybe when you explain to the lender that this purchase won't be proceeding and why it maybe noted that any future lending survey on the property be thorough. (speculating).

Good luck with your house hunting

csgohan4

Consider it money well spent. You now won’t have a house that has this many issues. I would have walked to be honest.

diggingdude

Fancy sharing a link for those of us who are nosey

Sibz

diggingdude wrote: »

Fancy sharing a link for those of us who are nosey

Yeah - I second this

Bonniepurple

The fact that they put it straight back on the market speaks volumes. They didn’t want anyone investigating the subsidence- and possibly discovering other issues.

Lucky escape for you I think. Pop a link up too.

dawyldthing

You’ve had a lucky escape. What you’ve got to think is that they can ask for whatever they want, but if there valuing it at £150k and you did pay more you’ll have the same problems again if you ever sell. Which £10k is a heck of a lot to lose.

There living in cloud cookoo land if they think they will get full wack when it needs stuff doing to it