Buying our first house, bit of an issue.

djt1881

Hi there first post.
My girlfriend and I are first time buyers and have recently found a 3 bedroom ex-council house, which is still owned by the housing association, that needs some immediate structural work done to it. We have had an offer accepted, however after a survey carried out for us on the structural work required we have been quoted a lot more than we originally anticipated and thus do not have the immediate cash to pay for the work. One solution I guess would be to take out a separate loan alongside the mortgage but the monthly repayments for both would be too much to afford for us.

So my question is this (sorry if it seems farfetched): Would it be an unreasonable suggestion to approach the housing association and somehow ask if they would be wiling to get the required work done and add it to our initial offer, so that we could essentially pay for the work through the mortgage?

Thankyou.

G_M

You reduce your offer to account forthe work that needs doing.


No,you do not ask the seller o get the work done.

Davesnave

As above, it's never a great idea to get work done by the seller. In the case of a HA they almost certainly won't do it anyway.


What is so bad that it needs immediate attention? Is the mortgage dependent on the work being done?

AdrianC

If the structural work is that bad, will you even be able to find a lender who'll touch it?

Sounds to me like you need to keep looking.

tom9980

Why are the HA selling a precious resource? Think.

If you don't have cash to buy and do the work without a mortgage you should walk immediately.

Cakeguts

Let me guess that this house appeared to be "good value for money." It was cheaper and bigger than anything else in the immediate area.



The reason why it is cheaper is because it needs this work doing to it. In fact if you look at the sold prices of similar properties in the area you will almost certainly find that the price it is being offered at reflects the cost of the work that needs doing to it.



This is not the property for a first time buyer. This is the kind of property that a builder will buy.



What you need to do is to withdraw your offer because you can't afford this house and find a different one.


Remember anything that looks "good value for money" has some sort of problem and is being sold cheaply because of that problem.