Buyer is concerned about the garden…

canaldumidi

donutandbeer said:

 
My guess is that being FTB they might have confused the indemnity policy with house insurance that has to starts on exchange!?
,....

Could be, except that house insurance from Exchange is definately the buyer's responsiblty, so why would they be asking the seller to put it in place....?

I shall hopefully be moving soon and the more a read here the more reluctant I'll be to sell to a FTB..........

donutandbeer

Update!!! Finally.

We have just exchanged an hour ago! We failed yesterday, the top of the chain couldn’t be reached by phone in time 🙄️ But at least it wasn’t because anyone wanted to pull out, we also started late because we were trying to sort out our buyer’s obsession with the indemnity police. Anyway today we exchanged successfully! So relieved. I was genuinely worried that they would pull out after the last viewing on Wednesday. 

liberty_lily

Congratulations...and thanks for updating the thread 😁

Noneforit999

donutandbeer said:

Update!!! Finally.

We have just exchanged an hour ago! We failed yesterday, the top of the chain couldn’t be reached by phone in time 🙄️ But at least it wasn’t because anyone wanted to pull out, we also started late because we were trying to sort out our buyer’s obsession with the indemnity police. Anyway today we exchanged successfully! So relieved. I was genuinely worried that they would pull out after the last viewing on Wednesday. 

Excellent. Congratulations

Skiddaw1

HURRRRAHHHHHH!!!!

ic

Does this mean we can see pictures of the garden now?

Phil4432

donutandbeer said:

Thanks for everyone that replied and sorry that it’s a bit difficult to respond to every comment on phone. 
 
It would be very difficult for us to remove all plants, garden is not small (160 m2), and to be honest it hurts me to have to dig them up myself and destroy perfectly good plants… We got lovely giant rosemary bush and sage bush, lots of things we grew from seeds and lots of plants we bought from garden centre (definitely not cheap but we enjoyed them). I don’t care what the next owner wants to do with the garden, but I can’t bring myself to destroy it. I had hoped that we can find a buyer that wants to keep all the plants and have the energy to maintain it, but all the offers we got were from FTBs with young kids looking to start a family and probably have a lawn so their kids can play. 

I certainly will miss the garden, we are looking to buy something with a smaller garden but I would never want a lawn. 
 
As if today is not stressful enough, the light switch for the downstair bathroom just broke down. I ran to wilko when they opened at 8:30 and managed to buy a light switch. Just replaced it and it works now. I know it’s a small and simple task but I’ve never changed a light switch before. It’s not like any reasonable person will be put off by a broken light switch but I really don’t want to spook the buyer. 

I'm presuming you have a well kept 'wilderness,' garden, free of thrash and anything that might be considered dangerous.  If there is a rat problem, trash everywhere, eg something that could come to the attention of the police or council, they'd have a right to ask that the problem is dealt with.

If there isn't a hazard or something illegal,  the buyer is doing the equivalent of asking you to change the wallpaper before they arrive because they don't like it.

The answer I would give would be a firm no.  The garden will look like it was, they day they viewed it.

Phil4432

Maskface said:

Surely you buy in the condition it was when you agreed? It didn't have a cleared garden so to make such demands now seems a little too late. I know you don't have the luxury but if there were no chain and I had got this close to exchange before they started messing around like this, I'd just be telling them the property is going back on the market if they aren't serious buyers.

You put in an offer subject to survey, after the survey is done you say you wish for this and that to be sorted out, and possibly a new price is renegotiated. 

Its then all put in writing, given over to the solicitors and that's it.  You don't start asking people to cut down the rosemary bushes, because you don't like it.  You do that yourself when you move in.

Murphybear

eddddy said:

This is the kind of 'problem' that you're paying your estate agent to deal with.

Any good estate agent should be very experienced at saying "don't be silly" to buyers, in a very polite and non-confrontational way. Probably much better than you can.

In terms of dealing with the buyers on the day, I think I'd be very upbeat and say something like...

"I'm sure there are lots of local gardening firms who could get the garden the way you wont it in no time at all. Once you've moved in, pick a firm, tell them exactly what you want and sit back while they sort it out. They'll be able to advise you on plants, flowers, vegetables, shrubs, the best place to plant things, high-maintenance garden vs low maintenance garden, etc, etc. So you'll get the garden exactly the way you want it."

We live in an over 60s community with communal gardens.  Our property has its own small garden.  It was overrun and full of weeds.  We found a gardener who spent 2 hours sorting it out and the amount of work he did was amazing.  We couldn’t believe the difference  . It might be worth finding someone who can slot you in for a few hours if possible.  I do realise gardeners are busy at the moment.  

donutandbeer

Phil4432 said:

donutandbeer said:

Thanks for everyone that replied and sorry that it’s a bit difficult to respond to every comment on phone. 
 
It would be very difficult for us to remove all plants, garden is not small (160 m2), and to be honest it hurts me to have to dig them up myself and destroy perfectly good plants… We got lovely giant rosemary bush and sage bush, lots of things we grew from seeds and lots of plants we bought from garden centre (definitely not cheap but we enjoyed them). I don’t care what the next owner wants to do with the garden, but I can’t bring myself to destroy it. I had hoped that we can find a buyer that wants to keep all the plants and have the energy to maintain it, but all the offers we got were from FTBs with young kids looking to start a family and probably have a lawn so their kids can play. 

I certainly will miss the garden, we are looking to buy something with a smaller garden but I would never want a lawn. 
 
As if today is not stressful enough, the light switch for the downstair bathroom just broke down. I ran to wilko when they opened at 8:30 and managed to buy a light switch. Just replaced it and it works now. I know it’s a small and simple task but I’ve never changed a light switch before. It’s not like any reasonable person will be put off by a broken light switch but I really don’t want to spook the buyer. 

I'm presuming you have a well kept 'wilderness,' garden, free of thrash and anything that might be considered dangerous.  If there is a rat problem, trash everywhere, eg something that could come to the attention of the police or council, they'd have a right to ask that the problem is dealt with.

If there isn't a hazard or something illegal,  the buyer is doing the equivalent of asking you to change the wallpaper before they arrive because they don't like it.

The answer I would give would be a firm no.  The garden will look like it was, they day they viewed it.

Depending on your definition of “well kept” 😂 But no definitely not rats & trash everywhere. When I replied to them saying we’ll clear our tools & trash I just meant anything that’s not plants. 
  
Even for a bramble-coverd garden that might be a health hazard in some way, I don’t think buyers would normally ask the vendors to clear the weed - buyers offer what they think the property is worth with the consideration of the garden and that should be it. 
 
 
 

For people wanting to see photos: 
 
Here’s a photo I fished out. It’s a screenshot of something I sent to my family so it got some names of the plants on it. This is one of the corners, I was standing on a path, under a small gage tree.

Labels from left to right (and top to bottom) are Japanese wineberries, marjoram, rhubarb, sage, fennel, pear tree tied on the fence, tarragon, wild strawberries and asparagus. Pretty sure there are some other plants among these that I failed to label at the time.



You can see we don’t have a “neat” wild garden. But we also did some gardening before exchange to keep it roughly like what it was in March. I will say it’s difficult to maintain (for us) even when it’s this wild, the idea was to create a foresty garden that will take care of itself 😂 For the new owner I imagine it would be the easiest to just have someone landscape the whole garden and put down a lawn, but that should be something that they knew & have thought about before making an offer.