Seller refusing to allow builder round for quotes before exchange

pinkshoes

wild33 said: If the builder quoted us £500 for the work, we wouldn't renegotiate. But without a quote, I don't know what the true cost would be, so we would be tempted to reduce our offer significantly as we're essentially proceeding blindly. 

If they won't let the builder have a look to quote, then all you can do is get the builder to quote for the absolutely worse case scenario that this could possibly be then deduct this much from your offer. 

davilown

Just have another viewing and arrive with the builder.

mason's_mum

from a seller point of view, we've had our buyer come over at least 3 times with several different tradespeople and having them originally propose (last Tuesday) to exchange last Friday, and complete today, and then gone incommunicado for an entire week when we said we weren't able to sort rented accommodation in a week and suggested alternative dates, now the stamp duty holiday has been extended they want to come over AGAIN with a builder to look at the inside of the roof.
We have nothing to hide, but it's massively inconvenient as we now both work from home and have to tidy the house and go out to allow this in the middle of the working day - I'd love to be able to say "No, go away - you should have sorted this in one visit by having a survey done" but I don't think we have much option if we want to sell!

wild33

mason's_mum said:

from a seller point of view, we've had our buyer come over at least 3 times with several different tradespeople and having them originally propose (last Tuesday) to exchange last Friday, and complete today, and then gone incommunicado for an entire week when we said we weren't able to sort rented accommodation in a week and suggested alternative dates, now the stamp duty holiday has been extended they want to come over AGAIN with a builder to look at the inside of the roof.
We have nothing to hide, but it's massively inconvenient as we now both work from home and have to tidy the house and go out to allow this in the middle of the working day - I'd love to be able to say "No, go away - you should have sorted this in one visit by having a survey done" but I don't think we have much option if we want to sell!

Sounds frustrating. I don't think getting tradespeople round is a substitute for a survey, but we're acting on information from the survey by trying to arrange one visit when the property is already vacant. The EA has the keys so it's absolutely no skin off the vendors' nose. 

davilown

mason's_mum said:

from a seller point of view, we've had our buyer come over at least 3 times with several different tradespeople and having them originally propose (last Tuesday) to exchange last Friday, and complete today, and then gone incommunicado for an entire week when we said we weren't able to sort rented accommodation in a week and suggested alternative dates, now the stamp duty holiday has been extended they want to come over AGAIN with a builder to look at the inside of the roof.
We have nothing to hide, but it's massively inconvenient as we now both work from home and have to tidy the house and go out to allow this in the middle of the working day - I'd love to be able to say "No, go away - you should have sorted this in one visit by having a survey done" but I don't think we have much option if we want to sell!

But if the house is empty it’s hardly an inconvenience to anyone except the EA 

wild33

So we've had another email from the EA, the reason they've given is that if a tradesperson causes any damage, who would pay for it? But I feel like this must be the case with any purchase, and it's standard to want to check issues out raised by the survey. The upshot is that they're not letting any tradespeople round, not just the builder, so the electrician we booked to do a pre-purchase check isn't allowed either! 

AdrianC

They're clearly a sandwich short of a picnic.

So you have a decision to make...

1. Go ahead without any further checks.
2. Walk.

lookstraightahead

wild33 said:

So we've had another email from the EA, the reason they've given is that if a tradesperson causes any damage, who would pay for it? But I feel like this must be the case with any purchase, and it's standard to want to check issues out raised by the survey. The upshot is that they're not letting any tradespeople round, not just the builder, so the electrician we booked to do a pre-purchase check isn't allowed either! 

Then the agent can go with them? Who showed you round initially and were they worried about damage then?

I think they think you are naive - certainly I wouldn't be expected to be treated this way. 

Walk, run, or put your foot down

Aspiration

Sounds very suspicious to me 🤷‍♂️ 

FreeBear

wild33 said: So we've had another email from the EA, the reason they've given is that if a tradesperson causes any damage, who would pay for it?

!!!!!!.... That's why tradespeople have public liability insurance.