Things to look out for when buying a Flat - I made big mistakes

Ash_29

-- Will rewrite as some are taking offence. 

Greymug

Rule 2) Never trust the owners. Always do your due diligence, don't blindly trust what they tell you.  

Many homeowners are genuinely honest people, but some are not. Most things the owners told us were lies, they sugar coated everything about their experience. They assured me that the flat was in great condition and that there was no hidden damage, and visually it was great. However, when we moved in we found hidden damage that was concealed by the ex-owners and that most things they told us were not true. 

- Check every crevice and turned every table, checked under carpets, behind paintings and behind curtains before buying. I foolishly only visually inspected on a surface level. 

Almost impossible to do in general, absolutely forbidden nowadays. When I sold my flat, I did the viewings myself and each viewer had an allocated slot of 20 minutes. Additionally, due to covid regulations, viewers were not allowed to touch anything.

Rule 3) Leave no stone unturned. 

I am reiterating what I said above. Always assume that anything you don't check is probably damaged. We found holes behind paintings and damaged floor under carpet. We also found a broken window behind a curtain and a few other items that have cost us quite a bit to fix.

All electrical appliances may be damaged and same goes for plumbing. 

Holes behind painting and the holes where the same paintings were hanging from are normal issues and any decent decorator will fill them when you have the house repainted before moving in. Remember you're buying a house where people LIVED, you're not buying a hotel room.

Rule 5) Make sure you know your neighbours before buying.

This is very important as you can pay to replace a window but you can't pay to replace a neighbour. Do not rely on the sellers to tell you that the neighbours are bad. Knock on the door of the nearest neighbours and the ones above. Ask them some questions, maybe stand outside their door and see if they're loud. Try to gauge or imagine what it would be like to live under or next to them. Check if they're dirty or have kids or play a musical instrument as these can affect you.

In our case one of our neighbours is horrible and has children who are up late banging on the floor. Although the Lease mentions that you must not be a nuisance to your neighbour, there is no one around to enforce this. We are suffering heavily due to this but not much we can do now. 

Again, impractical and almost impossible to do. You may come and view the flat when the neighbours are away...what do you do in this situation? Do you just not buy the flat because you couldn't meet the neighbours? Plus, the current neighbours may be tenants so even if they're quiet, they may be gone in x months and replaced by a bunch of hooligans, making all your creepy research a massive waste of time. Also, and this baffles me, when you go knocking at the neighbours's door...what are you going to ask them? "Sorry mate I'm looking to buy the flat downstairs...are you loud and annoying?"

I'm sorry if you feel betrayed by the sellers and the estate agents. Think of it this way: when you sell your flat, you'll be the one telling lies and sugarcoating everything. One day you're the hunter, the next day you're the prey. It all evens out at the end.

user1977

Ash_29 said:

I made some big mistakes when buying my first flat as I didn't have any guidance. 

To be fair, you got quite a lot of guidance from us in your previous threads here, particularly in relation to the service charge etc.

london21

Great points mentioned with flats, be mndful of 

Service charge amount
ground rent amount 
years remaining on the lease, less than 80 years will cost a premium to renew
Any upcoming repairs section 20 etc 
Speak with the neighbours are the management company proficient, are the lifts working most of the time etc.
I will personally stay away from high rises.

Irishpearce26

Story

Hi I've come to view your house *starts ripping up the carpet*

!!!!!! are you doing, get out of my house and here is a bill for the damaged carpet.

Ash_29

Irishpearce26 said:

Story

Hi I've come to view your house *starts ripping up the carpet*

!!!!!! are you doing, get out of my house and here is a bill for the damaged carpet.

Damn you take everything literally don't you. 

NameUnavailable

Ash_29 said:

Rule 1) You should always get a survey done, even if property has been recently renovated or recently built:

An estate agent from Bernard Marcus stressed that getting a survey on a 4 year old ex-new build flat was a waste of money and time as the property is very unlikely to have problems. Logically this made sense but I couldn't have been more wrong. I found many faults, some which could cost thousands of pounds to fix. NEVER SKIP THE SURVEY. 

What were the issues mentioned on the survey?

elsien

Ash_29 said:

Irishpearce26 said:

Story

Hi I've come to view your house *starts ripping up the carpet*

!!!!!! are you doing, get out of my house and here is a bill for the damaged carpet.

Damn you take everything literally don't you. 

- Check every crevice and turned every table, checked under carpets, behind paintings and behind curtains before buying. I foolishly only visually inspected on a surface level. 

Is there another way to take it? 

Ash_29

Greymug said:

Rule 2) Never trust the owners. Always do your due diligence, don't blindly trust what they tell you.  

Many homeowners are genuinely honest people, but some are not. Most things the owners told us were lies, they sugar coated everything about their experience. They assured me that the flat was in great condition and that there was no hidden damage, and visually it was great. However, when we moved in we found hidden damage that was concealed by the ex-owners and that most things they told us were not true. 

- Check every crevice and turned every table, checked under carpets, behind paintings and behind curtains before buying. I foolishly only visually inspected on a surface level. 

Almost impossible to do in general, absolutely forbidden nowadays. When I sold my flat, I did the viewings myself and each viewer had an allocated slot of 20 minutes. Additionally, due to covid regulations, viewers were not allowed to touch anything.

Rule 3) Leave no stone unturned. 

I am reiterating what I said above. Always assume that anything you don't check is probably damaged. We found holes behind paintings and damaged floor under carpet. We also found a broken window behind a curtain and a few other items that have cost us quite a bit to fix.

All electrical appliances may be damaged and same goes for plumbing. 

Holes behind painting and the holes where the same paintings were hanging from are normal issues and any decent decorator will fill them when you have the house repainted before moving in. Remember you're buying a house where people LIVED, you're not buying a hotel room.

Rule 5) Make sure you know your neighbours before buying.

This is very important as you can pay to replace a window but you can't pay to replace a neighbour. Do not rely on the sellers to tell you that the neighbours are bad. Knock on the door of the nearest neighbours and the ones above. Ask them some questions, maybe stand outside their door and see if they're loud. Try to gauge or imagine what it would be like to live under or next to them. Check if they're dirty or have kids or play a musical instrument as these can affect you.

In our case one of our neighbours is horrible and has children who are up late banging on the floor. Although the Lease mentions that you must not be a nuisance to your neighbour, there is no one around to enforce this. We are suffering heavily due to this but not much we can do now. 

Again, impractical and almost impossible to do. You may come and view the flat when the neighbours are away...what do you do in this situation? Do you just not buy the flat because you couldn't meet the neighbours? Plus, the current neighbours may be tenants so even if they're quiet, they may be gone in x months and replaced by a bunch of hooligans, making all your creepy research a massive waste of time. Also, and this baffles me, when you go knocking at the neighbours's door...what are you going to ask them? "Sorry mate I'm looking to buy the flat downstairs...are you loud and annoying?"

I'm sorry if you feel betrayed by the sellers and the estate agents. Think of it this way: when you sell your flat, you'll be the one telling lies and sugarcoating everything. One day you're the hunter, the next day you're the pray. It all evens out at the end.

You're right that the neighbours can change. I guess its just a luck of the draw then. Still I will definitely knock on neighbours as there is a chance that they are the leaseholder. 

What I will ask is for their opinion, if they have children or pets. Obviously this is not a fool proof way of understanding your neighbour, but if you find that your neighbours have young kids, chances are they will create a lot of disturbance. 

Whether this is normal behaviour or not doesn't matter, if you want convenience then you must do your due diligence. 


My concern isn't just a hole in the wall, it is the deceit and accumulation of costs. I am not referring to holes left by nails or drill holes, I am referring to "concealed damage". Example: We found a broken window that the sellers hid behind a curtain during our viewings, if I had opened this curtain I would have identified the issue and saved myself hundred of pounds. 

Granted this isn't allowed too much during covid but covid won't be around forever. Also if you're wearing gloves many will not prevent you from exploring. 

Speaking for myself, if the seller does not let me explore their house I will not buy, that's the simple rule I have adopted. 


"Think of it this way: when you sell your flat, you'll be the one telling lies and sugarcoating everything. One day you're the hunter, the next day you're the pray. It all evens out at the end."

If you have no morals or basic humanity, this works fine. But I do, I like to believe that some humans like myself still value trust and honesty. Unfortunately, it seems like honesty is thrown out of the window when money is involved. 

elsien

Opening a curtain is different. If a curtain was closed I’d want to know why, and to see the room in daylight and what it’s looking out onto. 

Must have been quite a large window to have a repair bill of “hundreds of pounds.”
In which case did it really not occur to you to ask why on your second visit, if not on the first? 

Ash_29

elsien said:

Ash_29 said:

Irishpearce26 said:

Story

Hi I've come to view your house *starts ripping up the carpet*

!!!!!! are you doing, get out of my house and here is a bill for the damaged carpet.

Damn you take everything literally don't you. 

- Check every crevice and turned every table, checked under carpets, behind paintings and behind curtains before buying. I foolishly only visually inspected on a surface level. 

Is there another way to take it? 

Yes there is, you can take it logically. The difference between humans and computers is that humans are able to consider the intended meaning behind a sentence rather than the literal meaning.