Fixing Issues Prior to Home Purchase

Louscorp

I am having a RISC 3 survey carried out on an old house I am buying. If any unforeseen issues come out is the vendor usually expected to fully subsidises these? For example, fixing damp, if walls need re-plastering, fixing electrics etc. Many thanks.

user1977

No, generally if there are any surprises which you couldn't reasonably have anticipated when you agreed the price, you would (attempt to) renegotiate the price. The vendor wants to sell the property as it is, not start doing renovations to your specification.

pinkshoes

Louscorp said:

I am having a RISC 3 survey carried out on an old house I am buying. If any unforeseen issues come out is the vendor usually expected to fully subsidises these? For example, fixing damp, if walls need re-plastering, fixing electrics etc. Many thanks.

No.

The price you offer should reflect a fair price for a house of that condition. So if things need fixing and work needs doing, you will need to factor that into your offer.

Sometimes vendors area already aware of certain problems so put houses on the market at a lower price, or accept initial lower offers to reflect this.

You can negotiate by asking them to do the work, but they can refuse. Also, if they get the work done, they're going to go with the cheapest fix possible...

Louscorp

pinkshoes said:

Louscorp said:

I am having a RISC 3 survey carried out on an old house I am buying. If any unforeseen issues come out is the vendor usually expected to fully subsidises these? For example, fixing damp, if walls need re-plastering, fixing electrics etc. Many thanks.

No.

The price you offer should reflect a fair price for a house of that condition. So if things need fixing and work needs doing, you will need to factor that into your offer.

Sometimes vendors area already aware of certain problems so put houses on the market at a lower price, or accept initial lower offers to reflect this.

You can negotiate by asking them to do the work, but they can refuse. Also, if they get the work done, they're going to go with the cheapest fix possible...

Thats really useful, thank you.
We have already had an offer confirmed and the house is currently under contract. So if any issues that we were not aware of come out from the survey we still have to pay, even if they are issues that need fixing prior to moving in?
The house is priced quite low. When we asked the agent why he said the vendor wants a quick sale (it was previously a rental) There was no mention of any potential issues other than those that were evident during the viewing.
Thanks again.

greensalad

Louscorp said:

pinkshoes said:

Louscorp said:

I am having a RISC 3 survey carried out on an old house I am buying. If any unforeseen issues come out is the vendor usually expected to fully subsidises these? For example, fixing damp, if walls need re-plastering, fixing electrics etc. Many thanks.

No.

The price you offer should reflect a fair price for a house of that condition. So if things need fixing and work needs doing, you will need to factor that into your offer.

Sometimes vendors area already aware of certain problems so put houses on the market at a lower price, or accept initial lower offers to reflect this.

You can negotiate by asking them to do the work, but they can refuse. Also, if they get the work done, they're going to go with the cheapest fix possible...

Thats really useful, thank you.
We have already had an offer confirmed and the house is currently under contract. So if any issues that we were not aware of come out from the survey we still have to pay, even if they are issues that need fixing prior to moving in?
The house is priced quite low. When we asked the agent why he said the vendor wants a quick sale (it was previously a rental) There was no mention of any potential issues other than those that were evident during the viewing.
Thanks again.

"Issues that need fixing prior to moving in", like what? If the house is completely uninhabitable then you're going to be offering on the property based on that fact. 

SavingPennies_2

Can you give some examples? Unless it's a total wreck there can't be much that would *need* doing before you move in, especially if someone has been renting it this would suggest it's habitable even if there are things you'd want fixing asap. Of course if the survey highlights issues you can always ask for money off but they may just say no, especially if they have already set a low price. When I bought my last house there was a leak in the roof, and the vendor did fix it before hand so it does happen but in my case the owner was a developer so it was no big deal for them. Generally though I wouldn't ask the vendor because a. they'll probably say no, and b. if they say yes they'll probably do a cheap/ bodge job!

Louscorp

greensalad said:

Louscorp said:

pinkshoes said:

Louscorp said:

I am having a RISC 3 survey carried out on an old house I am buying. If any unforeseen issues come out is the vendor usually expected to fully subsidises these? For example, fixing damp, if walls need re-plastering, fixing electrics etc. Many thanks.

No.

The price you offer should reflect a fair price for a house of that condition. So if things need fixing and work needs doing, you will need to factor that into your offer.

Sometimes vendors area already aware of certain problems so put houses on the market at a lower price, or accept initial lower offers to reflect this.

You can negotiate by asking them to do the work, but they can refuse. Also, if they get the work done, they're going to go with the cheapest fix possible...

Thats really useful, thank you.
We have already had an offer confirmed and the house is currently under contract. So if any issues that we were not aware of come out from the survey we still have to pay, even if they are issues that need fixing prior to moving in?
The house is priced quite low. When we asked the agent why he said the vendor wants a quick sale (it was previously a rental) There was no mention of any potential issues other than those that were evident during the viewing.
Thanks again.

"Issues that need fixing prior to moving in", like what? If the house is completely uninhabitable then you're going to be offering on the property based on that fact. 

After agreeing the price we had a builder friend take a look to price up some decorating that we want to do and while he was there he pointed out penetrating damp (this was previously hidden by furniture), walls that needed re-plastering and a leak in the conservatory/diner roof, stating the conservatory roof may need replacing. The house probably isn't inhabitable but if he is right, some are issues that probably should be sorted straight away. We had made an offer already without knowledge of any added issues that need fixing as a necessity like those mentioned. I hope that makes sense. 

Louscorp

SavingPennies_2 said:

Can you give some examples? Unless it's a total wreck there can't be much that would *need* doing before you move in, especially if someone has been renting it this would suggest it's habitable even if there are things you'd want fixing asap. Of course if the survey highlights issues you can always ask for money off but they may just say no, especially if they have already set a low price. When I bought my last house there was a leak in the roof, and the vendor did fix it before hand so it does happen but in my case the owner was a developer so it was no big deal for them. Generally though I wouldn't ask the vendor because a. they'll probably say no, and b. if they say yes they'll probably do a cheap/ bodge job!

Oh thanks! The vendor has been struggling to sell the property and we have no chain so maybe he will be more likely to cooperate. We have limited cash flow so if we are unable to cover issues ourselves we may have to find another property

deannagone

The house is priced low though, so possibly the vendor themselves will view it as the house being priced according to its condition.

Louscorp

deannagone said:

The house is priced low though, so possibly the vendor themselves will view it as the house being priced according to its condition.

Thanks for this and it makes sense, although if unseen problematic issues aren't known or obvious to the buyer and not mentioned at any stage by vendor or agent then I am wondering if these issues can be part of the original deal? You can probably tell I'm a FTB! 

babyblade41

Basically you are buying a house as is...You would probably have noticed a lot of work needing to be done on completion when viewing  and the price of the house will be indicative of what  will need to be done ASAP .(probably)

The valuation will guide you if there is a mortgage involved and negotiations will start when this is in hand.

Don't expect the vendor to bend over and do any of the work as all they want is to sell in it's current state ,plus never trust repairs done by a vendor as budget  will be top of the agenda

You either know if it's going to be a house you want to buy and probably realise it will need a certain amount of contingency money to fix things before decorating and putting the nice bits together 

Take into consideration it's current state that you can see and realistically can you afford the necessary repairs before decoration especially if something needs fixing immediately.

If it looks like it needs a lot of TLC then make sure you have the money to do it and remember when you start other problems will probably come to light as you progress ..don't forget living with the mess as well