Home report retention advice

Amanda2468

Looking for some advice. We are first time buyers and found a house that we love. We have a mortgage in principal the only problem is The home report states a recommendation of £25,000 due to damp found. We offered asking price for the house if seller was willing to do repairs so this would no longer be on the home report but was rejected as they do not want to do any repairs to property.

I am looking for some advice regarding this as first time buyers don’t have a lot of knowledge regarding buying and if there is any other options available that I can explore in regards to this property. I don’t have £25,000 to make up the mortgage retention.

Any advice would be great thanks.

ACG

Have they suggested a Damp report be carried out?
If so, has that been done? How much will the works cost to fix the issue? Will the vendor do the works needed?

If it is just a case of a £25k retention and that is that, then you need to find a new lender who can be a little more flexible. Even if you could get the price down by £25k, the retention will still be there on the lower price.

Amanda2468

The quote for work is £23k and the seller doesn’t want to do the work as he wants to sell as is.

I was wondering if I put in a reduced offer would the retention still stand

[Deleted User]

Yes it will, you need to just try a other lender who doesn't use the same firm for surveys.
I had one that took 4 surveys before it went through, they all looked at the damp report and the 4th just said it doesn't look as bad as it seemed and gave the mortgage with no retention.

ACG

£23k for a damp retention is a lot! We have a case with a £2k retention for damp.

That suggests the damp is actually quite bad or the house is very expensive. If it is the former, it may not matter what the vendor wants, if the property is damp then it is not going to get better with winter on the way and it is going to get picked up.

You could get a damp durvey carried out and that may confirm the work will cost £3k to repair it, in which case you may find the retention is reduced to £3k.

Do you have a broker? If you do it is probably worth taking their guidance on it as they know more than we do.

Amanda2468

Thank you for your advice. It is an old house over 100 years old. I did think that that £23k the house is up for £260 so not a huge grand house.

My broker said that I won’t get a mortgage on it as I don’t have the funds for the retention. I suppose with this one I was letting my heart rule my head and hoping there maybe a way

davidmcn

Are you talking to your solicitor? They should be able to guide you around this sort of thing.

SonOf

The retention is frequently more than cost of the work. We had a £600k retention on our house for work that cost £2200 when we bought it.

In our area, one surveyor company does the surveys for the majority of lenders. So, changing lender wouldnt make a difference in most cases our way.

You now need to play poker. A damp report would not cost much. So, either you pay it or the vendor. The cost of repairs can either be met by the vendor or you put in a revised offer lower. They may accept it. They may not.

in our case, the vendor covered the repair bill and the cost of the surveyor/engineer. Sometimes you are lucky. Sometimes you are not and you need to walk away.

Amanda2468

Solicitor suggested that we made the offer with condition that the damp was treated to the seller but didn’t give any other advice

ACG

Im not sure you should be doing legals at this stage, with no mortgage offer in place there is no point proceeding to searches as you may need to pull out.

I think your broker is being a bit lazy there. Another lender may do it - but they also may not.

If you really like the house, get the damp report (Either at your expense or the vendors or 50/50) see what comes back on that and then decide what to do. If there is £3k worth of work to be done, you may find your lender reduces the retention, or you may find a lender who is happy to apply a £3k retention and at that point the figures may work. Once in, you get your own builders in to repair the issue. The vendor may just get the cheapest person in.

I tend to take the view that if everyone wants the same thing (ie you and the vendor) then it usually all comes together and we typically get there, there just needs to be some give and take.

Amanda2468

Thank you everyone for your advice. I will have the suggested discussions and hopefully be clearer with how and if we move forward