Buyer enquiries - are these reasonable requests for me to pay for?

Flick85

Hi,

I've never sold a property before, so was hoping for some guidance on whether my buyer's enquiries are things I should agree to pay for. I'm selling a leasehold flat to an investor, so he's probably fairly savvy!

So, the things he's asking for are:
1) I had a new boiler installed 3 years ago, but it's not been serviced. He's asking me to service it before exchange at my expense. 
2) He's asking for me to do an electrical installation test before exchange, again at my expense.
3) 'We note that there is a transfer fee payable to the Management Company on completion in the sum of 0.15% of the gross sale proceeds. Please confirm that you are happy for this amount to be paid from the sale proceeds upon completion.'

For 1 and 2, I'm thinking of responding to say that he's welcome to organise these things at his own expense, but I'm not willing to pay for them.

Not sure about point 3. If it's typical for me to pay that as seller then I'm happy to. But, wasn't sure...

Thanks in advance for any help with this!

user1977

Isn't your solicitor giving you any advice, or has this come directly to you from the buyer ?

Flick85

The solicitor has forwarded me these enquiries (amongst a whole bunch of others) and asked me to respond. 

GDB2222

I don’t think that you can expect your buyer to pay for your boiler service. So, to keep things sweet, maybe agree to pay for that yourself, and he pays for the electrician to do the test.

The 0.15% is not a charge that I have seen before. I guess it’s several hundred pounds. Was the buyer made aware of this at the time he offered on the property? How have prices moved in the area since the offer?

user1977

felicityBD15 said:

The solicitor has forwarded me these enquiries (amongst a whole bunch of others) and asked me to respond. 

Given you're paying your solicitor £££ for their advice, it's rather unhelpful for them simply to act as a postbox for the enquiries, and not give you some basic guidance about what's normal and what isn't.

tetrarch

I'd offer to pay for 1, not 2. As for 3, this seems incredibly weird. How does a managing agent effectively end up being a part owner of the property?

Regards

Tet

GDB2222

user1977 said:

felicityBD15 said:

The solicitor has forwarded me these enquiries (amongst a whole bunch of others) and asked me to respond. 

Given you're paying your solicitor £££ for their advice, it's rather unhelpful for them simply to act as a postbox for the enquiries, and not give you some basic guidance about what's normal and what isn't.

I think that you are being unfair to the solicitor. What legal principle is involved? Is there an established custom or practice about these costs? 

Flick85

Interesting… thanks everyone. I’ll go back to solicitor and ask advice.

re boiler service, if I was staying here I wouldn’t bother getting one… so part of me thinks if he wants it serviced, he’s welcome to pay for it to be serviced. But perhaps that’s just being stingy.

And yes, point 3 seemed weird to me too.

babyblade41

1, Boiler service relatively cheap..I'd happily do that.

2. Electrical Installation test... he pays  but I'd want it done sooner rather than later 

3, haven't got a clue 

user1977

GDB2222 said:

user1977 said:

felicityBD15 said:

The solicitor has forwarded me these enquiries (amongst a whole bunch of others) and asked me to respond. 

Given you're paying your solicitor £££ for their advice, it's rather unhelpful for them simply to act as a postbox for the enquiries, and not give you some basic guidance about what's normal and what isn't.

I think that you are being unfair to the solicitor. What legal principle is involved? Is there an established custom or practice about these costs? 

Luckily I don't live in a land where such charges are the norm, but I would expect there is some sort of market norm about which party pays, and it's not just made up from scratch in every transaction. And even if the latter is the case - I'd expect my solicitor to explain that to me, rather than having to resort to a web forum.

But I suppose a basic question for the OP is - who paid that charge when they bought?

canaldumidi

I would not agree to pay for any of these.

All are for the benefit of the buyer.

If the buyer walks away as a result, more fool him as he'll have lost more in costs he's already paid out than the cost of these 3 (probably).

Just say no.

By the way, the electrical test report is now a legal requirement for tenancies - are there any other of his investor/tenancy-associated costs he wants you to pay for him? Letting agent's 'tenant-find' fee? Tenant vetting?

Cheek!