Dilemma - Help!

Inthepines

A few months ago I got a mortgage agreement in principle and had enough for a deposit.

After a couple dozen viewings, offers made, rejected or thrown into bidding wars that would blow my budget, I found a place. It didn’t look particularly special on the advert, but it’s in a good location, a freehold - most houses where I’m looking at are leasehold - and an end of terrace in a part of town that’s a low flood risk. I was told the house had been re-wired and had new doors, boiler and windows fitted. I went to view it and it looked like all the big things had been done, leaving the only jobs to be cosmetic - redecorating the kitchen and living room. It’s also within my budget.

The EA told me there was one offer in already close to the asking price and 5 other viewings pencilled in. So I offered a little over the asking price and it was accepted.

I instructed a surveyor, told my lender and spoke to my solicitor. The lender offered a mortgage for which I paid £999 for a lower rate.

The surveyor did the survey. It revealed the house has roof spread and high levels of damp and recommended assessment by a structural engineer for the roof and a PCA contractor. The survey also valued the house at £15k less than the amount I offered. The asking price is £129k.

So I got those but the EA was trying to push me just to get one quote on the DPC rather than two and the same with a builders to quote the cost of repairing the roof. They said the vendor didn’t want more tradesmen visiting as the wife is pregnant.

So after spending £495 on an engineer, his report says the roof spread needs attention because it’s an end of terrace and there’s only one load bearing wall, and all it would take is one bad spell of heavy rain, wind or snow for it to move to the point that it’s irreparable, but on the other hand it’s possible it’s been like that for decades.

He recommends putting a steel beam and vertical supports in the attic to stop the movement. That will cost just under £4k and rule out the loft conversion I wanted to leave the option for later down the line. The new DPC and replastering quote comes to just over £1k.

I first offered the asking price so long as they put these things right so long as the work is done by professionals to all building regs and is supervised and signed off by a surveyor and comes with insurance backed guarantees. They said ‘no’.

The EA said the vendor won’t go lower than £1k off the asking price. I countered wit offering the asking price minus half the repair costs. The answer was ‘no’ again and the EA were calling me every day to know if I’d buy it for that or they’ll put it back on the market. I tried negotiating around that figure of half the repair costs but it was no use. It was a pretty horrible few days of feeling like I’m being pushed around.

But they asked me to let them know if I change my mind on £128k.

So i’m In a dilemma. I’ve already spent £999 on a mortgage fee, another £900 on a survey and £495 on the engineers report. (Nearly £2500 in total) I haven’t instructed the solicitor so I won’t lose anything there but I don’t know whether to cut my losses or not. Or settle on £128k and take the risk on the roof getting worse between now and completion.

Advice please!

Crashy_Time

Offer 100k (my gut feeling says it is probably worth less than this) and tell them you will walk away otherwise, put the costs down to experience.

G_M

Negotiate the price based on the unexpected costs you have discovered.


But before before you start ask yourself these questions:

* if you offer less, and refuse to pay the originally agreed price, and lose the property, how will you feel? Will you really regret not buying, or will you simply move on and find somewhere else?
* if your negotiations fail and you end up paying the originally agreed price, how will you fee? Will you move in but constantly worry you've paid too much, or will you be happy that you've got the home you want?
* can you actually afford to pay the the originally agreed price + the costs of the renovation work?
* will you be able to find the extra money if your bank lends you less than you asked for based on their Valuation?

elsien

You really don't want them doing the work - lord knows what cheap bodge job they will get done, and you would have no comeback because the builder's contract wouldn't be with you.
You need to agree a price you are happy with or walk away.

RelievedSheff

Ignore Crashy. He is in la la land.

If you like the house offer a lower price and get the works done yourself. You dont want to end up with a job done on the cheap by the vendor.

[Deleted User]

You may lose the monies paid out so far, but can you still get a mortgage for the full amount? Was it valued by the mortgage company seperately?

Why did the surveyor value it at £15k less than what you offered if the works were not going to cost that much? Does he know something about house values in the area that you don't or is it an incorrect valuation because he doesn't know the area? I think you might need to clarify this with the surveyor. As if you just have to pay for the repairs, you are really only losing half the cost of the repairs (as the vendors have only dropped their price by £1k and don't seem willing to move on that), but if the property really isn't worth what you are paying, its probably best to walk away.

If you really think you will need the extra space you won't be able to create with a loft conversion.., again, might be a short term home and well, it will cost you a few thousand to move again. Can you deal with that?

Yes you will lost the money you have paid out, but if you are going to lose a lot more because of over high offer, or lost opportunity to convert the loft, causing a move in the medium term, it might be money you are better off losing in the short term.

kiddy_guy

Walk away.

Think of the money you've invested as saving you in the long term.

You've found 1 issue, and it's substantial.

Just because you couldn't find anything else doesn't mean you should walk into this trap of a house.

carrotland

Just walk away!
We had to pull out of a purchase recently , after spending our money on everything, as the land registry check came back that none of the land surrounding the house, that was sold to us as her side garden, belonged to the house at all! :eek::mad::mad:
I was so cross, as surely they should have known their own boundaries!
We were planning a side extension, but that all was impossible, so it was time to walk away.
What a waste of money, when the owner should have been sure of what she owned before she listed it!

Crashy_Time

kiddy_guy wrote: »

Walk away.

Think of the money you've invested as saving you in the long term.

You've found 1 issue, and it's substantial.

Just because you couldn't find anything else doesn't mean you should walk into this trap of a house.

Good advice. Run far away.

jbainbridge

You paid the surveyor for their professional advise .. listen to it.

From what you’ve said I’d be revising my offer to 110 - 115.

Do not let the vendor do any work .. you have no comeback if there are issues.

maisie_cat

carrotland wrote: »

Just walk away!
We had to pull out of a purchase recently , after spending our money on everything, as the land registry check came back that none of the land surrounding the house, that was sold to us as her side garden, belonged to the house at all! :eek::mad::mad:
I was so cross, as surely they should have known their own boundaries!
We were planning a side extension, but that all was impossible, so it was time to walk away.
What a waste of money, when the owner should have been sure of what she owned before she listed it!

When we found the house we are currently buying the first thing I did was check the title. It's a few quid but we knew straight away that a small area they claimed was part of the plot was not. In our case it's unregistered land and we decided to take the risk as it had been used by the house for circa 50 years.