2 days away from exchage

macaque_2

Zammo wrote: »

I'd just like to clear something up with regards to messing the vendor around if I could.

When I first viewed the house I asked the EA to ask the vendor if there was anything seriously wrong with the house that would need attention. I was told that everything was fine, and that it just needed redecorating. I decided upon a full buildings survey anyway, as I didn't have a good feeling about the EA. When the survey was carried out it revealed several structural problems with the roof. I got a roofer in to have a look and he found the roof was sagging badly and had been patched with a piece of wood which was soaking wet and only just holding up. It then became clear to me why the bathroom ceiling had been recently replaced.

Basically the seller knew the roof needed replacing immediatley and rather than tell me straight, decided to keep it quiet in the hope that I got a basic survey done and it wasn't picked up upon.

So no, I don't give a flying f*ck if I mess the vendor around as they tried to stitch me up with a house that needed 8k worth of repairs.

Can we quit with the sanctimony now?

No one tried to stitch you up. These are just flimsy rationalisations to salve your conscience. If the owner decided to tar and feather you, I would offer to buy the materials. I say this as person who doesn't own his own house and abhors the housing bubble.

Zammo

macaque wrote: »

No one tried to stitch you up. These are just flimsy rationalisations to salve your conscience. If the owner decided to tar and feather you, I would offer to buy the materials. I say this as person who doesn't own his own house and abhors the housing bubble.

The seller has also shown absolute integrity by allowing me to renegotiate the price as the market has fallen. The woman is nothing short of a saint. It's almost as if she wants to give it to me for free. I wonder what other hidden surprises lay in store for me should I exchange. It was just so exciting to discover the roof and underlying structure needed replacing at considerable expense.

Did I mention that she is a BTLer? She's also ejected her tenants in preperation for the sale. She must be losing a fair bit each month on mortgage repayments with no rent coming in to cover it.

Did someone mention Karma? This is karma in action right here.

PMSL.
:beer:

lynzpower

Personaly I dont think now is a bad time to buy for MSEs. You have a healthy deposit. you have shaven off a fair wack of the price.

Im sure you can overpay the mortgage, after all its not the equity in the house thats so expensive over time, its the bloody interest :eek:

Can you overpay. If so, and you can overpay by a fair amount, ( at least 15% Id reckon miniumum) then I would go for it!

SquatNow

What it comes down to is one simple fact: This is the biggest purchase you will ever make in your entire life. Are you absolutely totally completely 100% sure you want to buy this house for this amount and for these monthly repayments.

If you have ANY doubt in your mind about it then the simple answer is: No, don't buy, pull out.

The fact that you are asking the question means you are NOT sure and should definately pull out.

Far too many people who have been unsure have thought "oh well, what the hell, I'll take a punt" and as a result have saddled themselves with huge amounts of debt which they are already starting to regret.

Prices are NOT rocketing up and you will NOT miss out on your chance to buy.

Even the most optimistic banks are predicting house price falls (reletive to wages) now. Some banks predict 10% falls. Some banks predict 30%. The most optimistic predict "Stagflation" where prices freeze but wage inflation rises so that wages catch up with prices as per the crash in the 80s. No-one expects house prices to rocket up anymore appart from people selling houses.

Simply: If you aren't 100% sure, then pull out.

ruggedtoast

There is only one way to settle this. A Rightmove link! Who's with me?

Nicki

Zammo, you have clearly already made your mind up, so I wonder what is the point of this thread? I made some sensible, I thought, economic points to consider, and only mentioned in passing that it was tough on your sellers for you to pull out so late in the day when nothing has altered much in the economic forecasts since you made the offer (just more of the same). You responded very aggressively to this rather mild observation, though others had been much more vociferous in telling you what they thought of you. Comments with which I have to say I agree given the tenor of your subsequent posts.

Have the decency at least to let your vendors know now that you are having second thoughts so that they can get their property on the market at once, or new tenants in. To be honest, you sound like the kind of person who would find it a kick to wait until Christmas Eve to let them down, solely to get your own back for the fact that their roof was not in good condition, a fact they may not have known themselves. Did it occur to you that the bodge job may have been done by a previous owner. As for the fact she is a BTL who has given her tenants notice - so what? Presumably you required vacant possession of the property if you were buying it, so what did you expect the vendor to do? Unless you know they illegally evicted their tenants before the end of the tenancy, this is wholly irrelevant and doesn't make what you have done any more justified. Just because you don't think they need to sell this property to buy their own, doesn't mean they aren't losing money hand over fist by having it lying empty.

You are not morally justified in doing what you are doing. You are legally able to do it, and if you want to make the decision on economic grounds, then you should do so, but it is frankly unpleasant to come on here sniping at other posters and pretending the vendor has done you wrong, when there is no evidence that they have. After all when you pointed out the flaws in the property, they reduced the price accordingly.

Zammo

Nicki wrote: »

After all when you pointed out the flaws in the property, they reduced the price accordingly.

Nicki, I admire your piety, but the point you are conveniently missing here is that the bathroom ceiling had been newly replaced. This turned out to be because of a massive leak in the roof that had been hastily bodged up with a wooden board. The seller has owned the house for 10 years so there is no way they did not know about the state of it as they replaced the ceiling because of it.

The only reason I was able to point out the flaws is because the building surveyor went up into the loft space and carried out a full inspection. Prior to this the estate agent had been encouraging me to go for a standard survey. If I had done so I would be stuck with a house that I had bought for for near asking price with a roof that was months away from collapsing.

It was a set up. Just goes to show how careful you need to be when buying property. There are a lot of unscrupulous people out there.

Doozergirl

Zammo wrote: »

It was a set up. Just goes to show how careful you need to be when buying property. There are a lot of unscrupulous people out there.

Isn't it just.

A downturn in the market comes as no surprise to you. You're been telling us about it here for a year and a half. You're hardly the man on the street who's suddenly got cold feet because of something they saw in an accidental glance at the TV news. You know exactly what you're doing.

hierrodaknuckles

if you still like the property why not go back and ask for a further reduction to cover any other repairs? If they say no, walk away (as it seems like you are going to probably do anyway).

You got to do what is right for you no doubt, but it is a bit harsh leaving it so late in the day to pull out, but it happens i guess. Why didn't you pull out as soon as you thought she was trying to pull the wool over your eyes, giving that as your reason and see how she responded to the situation then?

If you believe in Karma, be carfeul tho, when you have bought and it then comes to the time for you to sell I hope you don't get a buyer like you

Zammo

hierrodaknuckles wrote: »

You got to do what is right for you no doubt, but it is a bit harsh leaving it so late in the day to pull out, but it happens i guess. Why didn't you pull out as soon as you thought she was trying to pull the wool over your eyes?

Because I had just spent £800 on a survey. Thought I may as well get my moneys worth by at least seeing how much a new roof would cost.