Vendor only willing to pay for part of remedial work

ESMForum

Vendor did electrical safety check upon my request, found the wiring quite dated and needs replacing. Their contractor quoted £3k for replacing everything including new sockets, fascias, new plastering etc. But they are only willing to pay for part of the work and are asking me for 'a price which you deem fair. '

They are unwilling to renegotiate the purchase price, so asking for a reduction is off the table. What are my options here? Should I insist that they pay for the entire work?

GoogleMeNow

How old is the house?  Should it have been reasonably obvious that electrical works were likely to be needed, bearing in mind the age and condition of the property when you viewed?  Was the property priced and marketed accordingly? 

I wouldn't expect a seller to pay for electrical work/new sockets/fascias, new plastering, which is for your benefit.  Surely the lack of sockets and the condition of fascias would have been seen when you viewed.  If the vendor pays for the work, they will do it as cheaply as possible.  If you pay for the work, you can have as many sockets as you want.  What happens if the vendor gets this work done before you exchange and you decide to pull out?  Or were you thinking of an 'allowance' as a contribution towards the work after completion?

To be honest if I were your vendor, I'd probably refuse and I would have expected you to pay for the electrical safety check.  I don't believe it is a legal requirement (at least not yet, unless this is a BTL).

theoretica

If they will not pay for the entire work are you happy to walk away from the purchase?

ESMForum

Hi GoogleMeNow, thank you for your reply!

To answer your questions, the house was built in the 70s so I probably should have expected some minor issues with the wiring to be fair. but I'm a FTB so it didn't appear obvious to me when I viewed the property. My surveyor later found issues with the wiring and boiler and recommended a renegotiation as my offer was above market value, but the vendor has refused to reduce the price so as compromises they agreed to carry out electrical and gas safety checks.

I guess insisting they pay for the work probably isn't a good idea now that I think about it, but I'm genuinely a bit confused about what would be a 'fair price' for this type of thing. 

ESMForum

theoretica said:

If they will not pay for the entire work are you happy to walk away from the purchase?

I probably would still stick with it as I'm quite happy with the property, but considering its boiler will need replacing too I'm looking at £5k+ just for remedial work alone...

user1977

What exactly are the "issues" with the wiring, or indeed the boiler? 

propertyhunter

If the vendor has been living there with no problem, you're probably ok to do so too. If anything was a hazard to life, that's a different matter (e.g. carbon monoxide coming out of the boiler, exposed live wires).

The fact they have done electrical safety checks is more than I would expect from a vendor. I paid for gas and electric checks myself. The boiler check cost me £100 and the electrics cost me £300. 

74jax

If I was the vendor I wouldn't have even paid for the electric survey, I'd have expected my purchaser to cover that. 

If you don't want to pay it, walk away, as a vendor I wouldn't reduce. 

ESMForum

user1977 said:

What exactly are the "issues" with the wiring, or indeed the boiler? 

As for the boiler, to quote the survey 'The boiler is dated and although it may be functional, it should be regarded as approaching the end of its useful life and early replacement should be anticipated.' The boiler did pass gas safety check so I would think it's probably still usable for some time.

EA did not specify what exactly are the issues with the wiring. The report is going to seller's solicitor so I have asked for it from my conveyancer which they have yet to respond to me. At the moment the only thing I have is the quote of £3000.

FreeBear

ESMForum said: Vendor did electrical safety check upon my request, found the wiring quite dated and needs replacing. Their contractor quoted £3k for replacing everything including new sockets, fascias, new plastering etc.

ESMForum said: To answer your questions, the house was built in the 70s

A 1970s property, the wiring will indeed be dated, but unless there are major faults or nasty DIY extensions, it does not need replacing. If the consumer unit is an old Wylex style with re-wireable fuses, then yes, it needs to be replaced but anything with MCBs will be fine. Just not up to current standard. Maybe a split of Vendor pays £1K and you pick up the tab for the rest might be agreeable.

user1977

ESMForum said:

user1977 said:

What exactly are the "issues" with the wiring, or indeed the boiler? 

As for the boiler, to quote the survey 'The boiler is dated and although it may be functional, it should be regarded as approaching the end of its useful life and early replacement should be anticipated.' The boiler did pass gas safety check so I would think it's probably still usable for some time.

EA did not specify what exactly are the issues with the wiring. The report is going to seller's solicitor so I have asked for it from my conveyancer which they have yet to respond to me. At the moment the only thing I have is the quote of £3000.

So you don't need to replace the boiler until whenever you need to replace the boiler. 

And there's (probably) nothing disastrously wrong with the wiring - no installation comes up to current standards unless it was done very recently, so there are inevitably "issues", and probably an electrician who'd like some more work...

Unless the property had been marketed to you as having a new boiler or being recently rewired, I don't see much cause to chip away at the price.