Would you allow a buyer to go into the attic of a house that you're selling before completion

gingercordial

brasso said:

I'd first want to know if it was really necessary to do it before completion. What could the builder usefully do in advance apart from give an estimate or order materials? Is the loft conversion (or whatever they're planning) so urgent that it has to have this advance visit? If they pass that hurdle, I'd want to be sure it's a one-off brief visit. If they wanted to spend half the day there, or said they wanted to make 5 visits to bring 5 different builders round for estimates, I'd say no. 

Regarding insurance, that's their problem. They've exchanged, so any damage is down to them.

I can see why getting an estimate and ordering materials would be very useful.  It's hard to get tradesmen booked in these days, and materials are often on long lead times, so agreeing a quote and time slot as early as possible is better if you actually want things to happen reasonably quickly.  If doing something very disruptive like a loft conversion the buyer may even be planning on doing that before actually moving in.  We arranged a full rewire and roof replacement in the month between completion and moving in (we were FTBs coming from rented so could do that) as wanted that all over with before living there, so as soon as we exchanged we made final bookings with those tradesmen to start the day after completion.  

However this is all for the buyer's convenience and no obligation for the seller to facilitate it.

Personally I would allow a short visit as long as it fitted in around my working patterns, and if it happened to coincide with a period when my husband was working nights it would be a flat no.