Retaining wall collapsed whilst viewing!

Scotbot

onwards&upwards said:

ChewyyBacca said:

woah!! 
During viewing, its normal to open kitchen cupboards, windows, closet doors, built in wardrobes etc. If the door comes off in your hand, are you liable to pay for it? This is ridiculous!

Pretty sure its not normal (or polite) to open people's wardrobes and drawers on a viewing actually!  

Yes it is, but it is polite to ask.  Kitchens and wardrobes are expensive to replace, you need to see whether the storage is adequate. My first house the kitchen looked great but when I moved in and opened the cupboards I realised they were much shallower than standard. Never made that mistake again. 
 I check these things out on second viewing, unless they are so dated they clearly need to be replaced, but I always ask permission first if the vendor is there.

csgohan4

it's up to the vendor to claim that the OP was negligent and caused the damage, insurers won't uphold the claim as it was not in a good state of repair, 

In hindsight best to take pictures of it as well afterwards

eidand

onwards&upwards said:

ChewyyBacca said:

woah!! 
During viewing, its normal to open kitchen cupboards, windows, closet doors, built in wardrobes etc. If the door comes off in your hand, are you liable to pay for it? This is ridiculous!

Pretty sure its not normal (or polite) to open people's wardrobes and drawers on a viewing actually!  

Agreed, I am amazed that certain people do not understand that they are in someone else's house and opening things is not normal or polite. You can ask the owner if you can have a look, but no more. You are in someone's house, someone you don't know ..... The nerve . ....

Scotbot

eidand said:

onwards&upwards said:

ChewyyBacca said:

woah!! 
During viewing, its normal to open kitchen cupboards, windows, closet doors, built in wardrobes etc. If the door comes off in your hand, are you liable to pay for it? This is ridiculous!

Pretty sure its not normal (or polite) to open people's wardrobes and drawers on a viewing actually!  

Agreed, I am amazed that certain people do not understand that they are in someone else's house and opening things is not normal or polite. You can ask the owner if you can have a look, but no more. You are in someone's house, someone you don't know ..... The nerve . ....

I am amazed people will pay hundreds of thousands of pounds and not check what they are buying, a door can cover a thousand sins. Admittedly no need on a first viewing.

eidand

Scotbot said:

eidand said:

onwards&upwards said:

ChewyyBacca said:

woah!! 
During viewing, its normal to open kitchen cupboards, windows, closet doors, built in wardrobes etc. If the door comes off in your hand, are you liable to pay for it? This is ridiculous!

Pretty sure its not normal (or polite) to open people's wardrobes and drawers on a viewing actually!  

Agreed, I am amazed that certain people do not understand that they are in someone else's house and opening things is not normal or polite. You can ask the owner if you can have a look, but no more. You are in someone's house, someone you don't know ..... The nerve . ....

I am amazed people will pay hundreds of thousands of pounds and not check what they are buying, a door can cover a thousand sins. Admittedly no need on a first viewing.

A viewing is not a guarantee of a purchase. Go home, make an offer, get that accepted, arrange a second view and this time go and check everything. That's how I see it. A lot of people are time wasters.

 I had someone like that in my house. Touching things, without gloves, opening doors, cupboards etc. The lack of respect was obvious. Did that translate into an offer and subsequent purchase? No, of course not.

Mickygg

If you don’t open drawers or cupboards for built in units then you risk a cost of fixing them. Damn right I open them on a second viewing. People who don’t test what they are buying baffle me. 

You take a second hand car on a test drive before viewing. Why wouldn’t you test things in the house that cost more than 20 times the cost of a second hand car?

in terms of the OP issue, I opened a cupboard door Looking round a house once and it literally fell off in my hand. I just said to the EA the kitchen must need replacing and then propped it up as it was broken. NO WAY would I pay to fix this, obviously defective and it could have fallen on my foot and hurt me! Similar to OP position the wall could have hurt you, tell them to FO and they were lucky it didn’t fall over and hurt a small child! Asking you to pay for this sounds dodgy to me.

onwards&upwards

Scotbot said:

onwards&upwards said:

ChewyyBacca said:

woah!! 
During viewing, its normal to open kitchen cupboards, windows, closet doors, built in wardrobes etc. If the door comes off in your hand, are you liable to pay for it? This is ridiculous!

Pretty sure its not normal (or polite) to open people's wardrobes and drawers on a viewing actually!  

Yes it is, but it is polite to ask.  Kitchens and wardrobes are expensive to replace, you need to see whether the storage is adequate. My first house the kitchen looked great but when I moved in and opened the cupboards I realised they were much shallower than standard. Never made that mistake again. 
 I check these things out on second viewing, unless they are so dated they clearly need to be replaced, but I always ask permission first if the vendor is there.

If you can't tell how big a cupboard is from the outside I think that's what you should work on. 

I had buyers open my underwear drawers and the drawers in my bedside table once on a second viewing I was not present for.  Suffice to say I was very very unimpressed, if it wasn't for the fact that it would have hurt me more than them I would have been very tempted to refuse to sell to them. 

Scotbot

onwards&upwards said:

Scotbot said:

onwards&upwards said:

ChewyyBacca said:

woah!! 
During viewing, its normal to open kitchen cupboards, windows, closet doors, built in wardrobes etc. If the door comes off in your hand, are you liable to pay for it? This is ridiculous!

Pretty sure its not normal (or polite) to open people's wardrobes and drawers on a viewing actually!  

Yes it is, but it is polite to ask.  Kitchens and wardrobes are expensive to replace, you need to see whether the storage is adequate. My first house the kitchen looked great but when I moved in and opened the cupboards I realised they were much shallower than standard. Never made that mistake again. 
 I check these things out on second viewing, unless they are so dated they clearly need to be replaced, but I always ask permission first if the vendor is there.

If you can't tell how big a cupboard is from the outside I think that's what you should work on. 

I had buyers open my underwear drawers and the drawers in my bedside table once on a second viewing I was not present for.  Suffice to say I was very very unimpressed, if it wasn't for the fact that it would have hurt me more than them I would have been very tempted to refuse to sell to them. 

If you weren't there how would you know? All I do is open cupboard doors and look at the structure, see how many shelves whether they have the fancy add ons for corner cupboards do wardrobes have hanging space or shelves or damp....  I don't go round touching the contents  that is rude. Although  I did once pick up a strategically placed fruit bowl - to discover a burn on the work top from a hot pan

jen_79

AW618 said:

jen_79 said:

Thanks everyone for your input. In an attempt to defend myself, though I did notice cracks in the mortar when walking up the stairs I didn't really think much of it. I walked around the garden, looked around the fences, walked down the other side, looked around inside the garage, went back up, talked to the agent and we just happened to stop at this wall when I placed my hand on it. More along the lines of putting your weight on a floorboard gradually to see if it will support you, not shoving my foot through it as violently as possible. When I say "give it a wobble" I didn't actually expect it to move and I could lean on it while chatting.

I wasn't actively thinking, I best give this a good shove to see what happens it was more like a car salesman slapping his hand on a car roof, except unbeknownst to him, the cars axles were rotted, the wheels fell off and it flipped over a cliff. 

I didn't exert even 10% of the pressure required to open a window, let alone push a brick wall over. It was unfortunate that it had a 6ft drop so smashed to bits. The estate agent had already pointed out problem areas (a failed double glazed window, a rotting door on a store room, old boiler) and they didn't mention this. I honestly believe I could have had the wall land on my head if the wind had blown the wrong way as I was walking under it.

There is no way to repair it, it needs replaced, I just don't think I'm to blame, I'm just the moron who caused what was inevitable. 

The question, in my view hinges on whether you leant on the wall or gave it a test to see how strong it was.  I feel you would be far better off saying you had no conception the wall was weak and just leant on it the way you would on any wall; whereupon it collapsed.   What have you said in your responses to the estate agent so far?  

I've told them there was clearly a fault with the wall that they didn't tell me about and I had no idea it would fall and I have no intention of paying for anything. They said they will relate this to the owner and get back to me. I think I only posted the question and started doubting myself because the estate agent seems fairly happy to call me up to pursue it so I started thinking I'm maybe in the wrong. They haven't been aggressive but they seem fairly adamant I'm going to pay for it and it's their clients house not theirs.

It's such a shame as I was tempted to make an offer and have another look around before getting a surveyor but the whole situation has put me off. I've not had the best of luck with my house hunting so I think I need a break from it now.

Scotbot

Ignore them, and if you are taking a break from house hunting block their number. The house is clearly not well maintained and the owner is an jn reasonable person to deal with so you are wise not to pursue the house.