Struggling to get quotes

SeaVixen

Hi all,

We're in the process of buying a house, and the survey has pulled up some work that needs doing. We're trying to get quotes from builders for the work so that we can negotiate a reduction in the house price, but we're struggling to get anyone to come out and give a quote. We've been leaving voicemails and receiving no call-backs. Those that we've spoken to have said they'll call us back when they're not in the middle of a job, and haven't. We made initial calls on monday, and have left a few more voicemails in the meantime.

Is this common for pre-purchase quotes, or are we doing something wrong?

I can understand why self-employed people would be hesitant to give up time in their day to travel and quote for a house that hasn't been bought yet, but how are we to proceed otherwise?

It's for: Purlin reinforcement, cracks in the render, removal of damaged artex and supporting/possible removal of a chimney stack.
We're finding that the traders who can do render often do artex removal, so are asking for a quote for these jobs combined. Are we making the jobs too large?

Until now, I've been starting conversations with "we're in the process of buying a house, and need some quotes for work to take place before we move in. It's for X, Y, Z..." My next step will be to have that conversation the other way around, and let them agree to come see it before disclosing that we don't own the house yet to see if that gets better results. It's not in my nature to be this manipulative, but i'm a bit stuck....

Any advice much appreciated!

SeaVixen

It's also occurred to me that as we don't know any local builders in the area, we're using google and contacting those that seem the most reputable.
It is possible that the ones we're contacting are the most popular builders, so might just be busy.

However, one of the ones we spoke to definitely seemed interested....

We've had a call back about one of the jobs, and it will be £55 for him to come out and quote, as he's had a few jobs from pre-purchase properties that have fallen through. I do understand why this would be the case, but is this normal?

newbieFTB

I found it hard enough to get tradesman to come and quote for work on a house I actually own - let alone one that's not even bought yet!

If it's not a massive job in terms of £££ I think they'd consider it a bit of a waste of their time, you might not even buy the house, if you do we're talking months down the line and even then if it's not priority work you might leave it 6 months after you move in and who's to say you wouldn't end up choosing a different company if you managed to get more than one quote.

If I were you I'd look at it as a house buying expense and pay them for their time - adding on £150 to your overall costs for 3 quotes isn't going to break the bank.

davidmcn

SeaVixen wrote: »

We've had a call back about one of the jobs, and it will be £55 for him to come out and quote, as he's had a few jobs from pre-purchase properties that have fallen through. I do understand why this would be the case, but is this normal?

Think so, and it sounds fair enough. You might never own the house, even if you do buy it you might (for all they know) only be getting the quote as a bargaining tool rather than intending to do the work (or might end up having other priorities after you buy), and even if you do carry out the work you might instruct someone else.

And of course it's difficult to enough to get contractors even if you own and really want to get something done. Last bit of work I tried to get quotes for:

• 4 firms said they'd come and quote
• 3 of them turned up and said they'd quote
• 2 of those actually sent me quotes
• 1 still engaged with me when I said I wanted to go ahead. Just ended up a process of elimination!

Maybe try somewhere like https://www.mybuilder.com/ for quotes?

csgohan4

for small jobs, check a trade is fine, but I would rather go on word of mouth which has served me better,

You can be a cowboy on checkatrade with bogus reviews