Purchasers want a holiday let mortgage. Building Society very demanding

Christiana22

We could do with a bit of advice please. We accepted an offer on our home from a local mortgage broker & was told he was a cash buyer. EA said not to push him too hard re price else he would walk away.  It now turns out he wants the house as a holiday let with a holiday let mortgage. We have lived here for 33 years and although not perfect it is a very nice house with no huge problems (130 years old, mid terrace of 3) To cut a long tale short his mortgage valuation valued it at £0  because of possible movement & pending a damp survey. We paid for a structural survey basically so we could see exactly what the problems might be. The surveyor suggested having the drains CCTV'd because of their age ( done it & all fine), wall ties on flank walls at first floor level in case of weakness ( builder said complete overkill) and no great surprise that the damp survey came back saying 2 internal walls need damp injections. Up until today we were prepared to get these jobs done & pay for them but this afternoon our buyer states he wants the utility room damp treated, which wasn't recommended. We've reached the end of our tether now & feel we're being taken for mugs.  Question is...are our buyers BS demands reasonable? TIA!

princeofpounds

Reasonable isn't really the point - this is just a negotiation and the buyer is asking you to fund free work they would like done. If the damp survey did not recommend doing anything to that room, then don't do anything to that room. If they walk away, so be it.

There's a lot of justified scepticism on this forum about damp surveys, and injection treatments in particular. I'll let others comment on the details of why, but personally that's absolutely not the way I'd choose to address the issue whilst I still owned the property (do you even have visible signs of damp or was this dodgy meter readings?) and did not have a committed buyer. However, if I was ok with the price impact I might consider lowering the price so the buyer could fund some or all of the work themselves if they want it done, to make a transaction happen.

The movement is another question. I'd still consider getting the wall ties done; they may well be overkill but if the issue comes up again with any future buyer you have a report that states recommended actions and you can show they have been taken. But that would depend a bit on how likely it is that another surveyor would zero-value it. I suspect that it must be fairly noticeable if one zero-valued it and another recommended wall ties. It's good though that the drains aren't an issue.

HobgoblinBT

I would be having a word with the agent whose job it is to carry out due diligence on the buyer.  Many agents won’t allow viewings unless a review is carried out by the in house mortgage broker.  Did they actually fully vet the viewer?  Why does the cash buyer need a mortgage? If you do any extra work you have no guarantee that the buyer will buy or won’t demand a further price reduction.  

If I was the seller, I would get a quote for the damp work, to put the cost into perspective and maybe get the work done.  It is your choice if you wish to share the survey, but it may reassure prospective buyers of an older property.  In the meantime, ask the agent to re-market the property.  

Thrugelmir

What's next on their shopping list? Put your foot down.  

anselld

Sounds like you have already paid for a bunch of surveys which should be the buyer's responsibility.  The foot should have gone down some time ago and the house back on the market.

[Deleted User]

Damp proof injecting a 130 year old property without proper investigations should be a crime.  Whole industry is a racket!

Anyway, id put the property back on the market and tell the buyer he is welcome to carry and and buy it before you sell it to someone else.   And ask serious questions of your estate agents due diligence on source of purchase funds

Christiana22

Thank you all for your comments, gratefully received  It's been many years since we've done this and were very naive at the beginning but no more!