House I was planning on buying failed electrical inspection - snag is, I can't get insured.

MrCheeseman

davidmcn said:

Admittedly I'm not an electrician either (and I presume neither was the call centre bod you spoke to at the insurers), but it doesn't really sound to me that those mean the house isn't "in a good state of repair" in the context of a buildings insurance policy. Bear in mind it's hardly standard practice to get an electrical report done anyway, so usually owners wouldn't necessarily know about such defects.

Ultimately, the inspection had two outcomes - satisfactory or unsatisfactory. You could argue it's not likely to burst into flames, but I wasn't going to give the insurance company an out if something happened - and having unsatisfactory electrics. 14 faults labelled dangerous or potentially dangerous, you can't really say that the house is in a good state of repair.

Socajam

Here is another scenario : your relationship goes south, where does that leave you?
It's a very tricky situation.
Why not rent the place, since it's cheaper, but FIL pay for all the work that needs doing or hubby does the work and FIL gives a discount on the rent say 30%?

Soot2006

MrCheeseman said:

Soot2006 said:

The vendor would be mad to rewire their house on the promise of an upcoming exchange.

What did your survey say in terms of costs of putting things right? (or re-wire if that really is the only option).

I see your point, though I wonder what will happen if I don't buy the house? Will the vendor and estate agent pretend the survey never happened? The survey's labelled the electrics as unsatisfactory, so it seems like sweeping that under the rug would be legally dodgy at best.

It's not the vendor's survey; it's yours.  Sure, they have your word or maybe even a  copy of the report, but they don't have to discuss it with any future buyer, who will make their own decisions based on their own reports. Most older houses have "interesting" electrics where they've been extended or renovated without a rewire, so you get circuits upon circuits. The house I bought is the same (as per my bathroom example). Our electrician said there were different colours of cables showing that some work had been done in different eras. The overall effect wasn't "satisfactory" although we've made sure it is safe for now (wouldn't pass the test though). That said, we did the electrical inspection after moving on as the house had been inhabited with a large family without burning down so we figured we'd be OK for a few weeks.

We knew it wouldn't be a deal breaker for us. It seems that it is a deal  breaker for you, so if the vendor doesn't want to invest or take a price reduction, then that's it. The deal is broken, and you walk away. It won't be deal breaker for everyone.

(incidentally, it WAS a deal breaker for our buyer i.e. they wouldn't proceed without a satisfactory certificate. Turns out there were lots of "dangers" in our house that we'd lived in for 10 years since the last inspection. We had it all patched up as cheaply as possible so that we could forward a satisfactory certificate to the buyer. I'm just glad they asked us the sort it out as the sellers as I feel it would have been more hassle had they ever spoken to an electrician! It was this experience, in fact, that made us decide not to bother with the new house until AFTER moving since it all seemed a bit arbitrary).