Pulling out after revised offer rejected

canaldumidi

Sounds like you will either need deep pockets, or to convince seller (or his family) to reduce the price, or to find another property.

Depends how much you want this house.....

Spiderroo

We haven’t heard back from the EA in response to us saying we’ll have to pull out but after this thread I think the best choice is pulling out if the price is non-negotiable. 

We don’t have bottomless pockets, and we don’t come from families with bottomless pockets, so going ahead with no reduction and a price over the value of the property is too risky. 

We did think £18k was optimistic but we anticipated it would be a negotiation so went for our ideal figure with the expectation we’d wrangle a bit and then stagger the cosmetic work over a longer period. We didn’t expect an outright no because of what had been said to us repeatedly by the seller. 

Sarah1Mitty2

Spiderroo said:

We had an offer accepted on a house in April and have been going through the slow process to buy ever since. It was marketed as in need of a cosmetic update but our RCIS level 3 survey has uncovered a lot of other issues. My brother's a builder so he reviewed the report and helped us sift through what needs doing vs what we can do gradually. 

The main work required immediately is a new roof, full rewire and new heating pipes. We've had quotes back and it's well over £20k of work which is money we just don't have. The property was also undervalued after a mortgage desktop valuation and even further undervalued by the surveyor who actually saw the property. We've offered £18k less than our original offer, which will fund a good chunk of the work (the rest will come out of our cosmetic work budget) and is in line with the surveyor's valuation. 

Our seller told us verbally multiple times he would negotiate if major work was needed as they need the purchase to go through but the EA has come back to say they won't negotiate at all, on the steer of their family. We've countered by saying we're going to pull out because we can't afford the work and have pointed to the valuation, the surveyor's report and the wider price of houses in the area as our reasoning. 

I guess I'm looking for some reassurance we're doing the right thing? Does everyone else just suck up these huge costs and go without doing internal work (kitchen is falling apart so needs replacing, every room needs redecorating, etc) for years? It's our first house (always flats before) and we absolutely love it but we don't have a spare £20k lying around. We're also very nervous about paying well over the property's value and then pouring money in on top, given the general economic instability at the moment. 

Well yes, that does sound sensible to be concerned about that, why would you even consider doing it?

markin

You've set their expectations too high now, And you do sound like a first time buyer getting the jitters over nothing, The pipes are either currently leaking now or they aren't, Same with the roof.  And the Electrics should have been obvious from the fuse box and taken into account when first offering.

canaldumidi

markin said:

You've set their expectations too high now, And you do sound like a first time buyer getting the jitters over nothing, The pipes are either currently leaking now or they aren't, Same with the roof.  And the Electrics should have been obvious from the fuse box and taken into account when first offering.

To be fair, I wonder how many FTBs look at the fuse box/consumer unit when viewing? Most focus on the colour scheme!

And the roof may not appear to be be 'leaking' if there are (multiple) tiles missing/cracked, if there is felt beneath the tiles which prevents water ingressing into the attic.Nonetheless, the tiles need fixing, and if extensive, the roof may need replacing.

Spiderroo

Sarah1Mitty2 said:

Spiderroo said:

We had an offer accepted on a house in April and have been going through the slow process to buy ever since. It was marketed as in need of a cosmetic update but our RCIS level 3 survey has uncovered a lot of other issues. My brother's a builder so he reviewed the report and helped us sift through what needs doing vs what we can do gradually. 

The main work required immediately is a new roof, full rewire and new heating pipes. We've had quotes back and it's well over £20k of work which is money we just don't have. The property was also undervalued after a mortgage desktop valuation and even further undervalued by the surveyor who actually saw the property. We've offered £18k less than our original offer, which will fund a good chunk of the work (the rest will come out of our cosmetic work budget) and is in line with the surveyor's valuation. 

Our seller told us verbally multiple times he would negotiate if major work was needed as they need the purchase to go through but the EA has come back to say they won't negotiate at all, on the steer of their family. We've countered by saying we're going to pull out because we can't afford the work and have pointed to the valuation, the surveyor's report and the wider price of houses in the area as our reasoning. 

I guess I'm looking for some reassurance we're doing the right thing? Does everyone else just suck up these huge costs and go without doing internal work (kitchen is falling apart so needs replacing, every room needs redecorating, etc) for years? It's our first house (always flats before) and we absolutely love it but we don't have a spare £20k lying around. We're also very nervous about paying well over the property's value and then pouring money in on top, given the general economic instability at the moment. 

Well yes, that does sound sensible to be concerned about that, why would you even consider doing it?

When we offered we thought our offer was about right. The work seemed to be cosmetic, the area is high demand and a house nearby sold for £6k less last year. When the mortgage people under valued it by £8k it was disapponting but we could afford to absorb that, given it was meant to be our family home for quite a while. But £8k and 18k are very different, especially when you discover there’s much bigger jobs to do than a new kitchen and a lick of paint! 

Spiderroo

canaldumidi said:

markin said:

You've set their expectations too high now, And you do sound like a first time buyer getting the jitters over nothing, The pipes are either currently leaking now or they aren't, Same with the roof.  And the Electrics should have been obvious from the fuse box and taken into account when first offering.

To be fair, I wonder how many FTBs look at the fuse box/consumer unit when viewing? Most focus on the colour scheme!

And the roof may not appear to be be 'leaking' if there are (multiple) tiles missing/cracked, if there is felt beneath the tiles which prevents water ingressing into the attic.Nonetheless, the tiles need fixing, and if extensive, the roof may need replacing.

We did try to look at the fuse box but it was by the door and the agent was rushing to get us out to bring the next people in. The roof is all clay tiles with very few newer tiles, that’s why so many are damaged or missing and like you say it’s the felt that’s keeping the house dry. We’ve had 3 quotes from different roofers, all NFRC registered, and all of them say all the tiles need replacing. There’s also lots of other smaller jobs that need doing - blocking access for birds, replacing worn flashing on the roof and chimney, repointing the chimney and replacing a gutter that’s literally hanging off (we did expect the guttering though!). 

When we said we’d pull out they said they’d negotiate on the price so we’re now going back and forth to agree. I think they just assumed we’d swallow it. 

nicknameless

Also bear in mind mortgage costs if you arranged a deal a while back.  We are hoping to complete soon and over the lifetime of our 5 year fix we would now be looking at £7-9K additional, only two months after applying for rate we have secured.   Look at things in the round.  Not just the sticker price.

Scotbot

markin said:

You've set their expectations too high now, And you do sound like a first time buyer getting the jitters over nothing, The pipes are either currently leaking now or they aren't, Same with the roof.  And the Electrics should have been obvious from the fuse box and taken into account when first offering.

The consumer unit in my house looked new but I got an electrical inspection done. Was told there was an issue which was estimated at 1.2 k to fix ,turned out to be more extensive and cost 3.6k. No way a FTB  is going to spot that 

Zerforax

Spiderroo said:

canaldumidi said:

markin said:

You've set their expectations too high now, And you do sound like a first time buyer getting the jitters over nothing, The pipes are either currently leaking now or they aren't, Same with the roof.  And the Electrics should have been obvious from the fuse box and taken into account when first offering.

To be fair, I wonder how many FTBs look at the fuse box/consumer unit when viewing? Most focus on the colour scheme!

And the roof may not appear to be be 'leaking' if there are (multiple) tiles missing/cracked, if there is felt beneath the tiles which prevents water ingressing into the attic.Nonetheless, the tiles need fixing, and if extensive, the roof may need replacing.

We did try to look at the fuse box but it was by the door and the agent was rushing to get us out to bring the next people in. The roof is all clay tiles with very few newer tiles, that’s why so many are damaged or missing and like you say it’s the felt that’s keeping the house dry. We’ve had 3 quotes from different roofers, all NFRC registered, and all of them say all the tiles need replacing. There’s also lots of other smaller jobs that need doing - blocking access for birds, replacing worn flashing on the roof and chimney, repointing the chimney and replacing a gutter that’s literally hanging off (we did expect the guttering though!). 

When we said we’d pull out they said they’d negotiate on the price so we’re now going back and forth to agree. I think they just assumed we’d swallow it. 

So it's potentially back on? I guess they will test the waters to see how negotiable the gap is between your 18k off and the original agreed price. Maybe you can meet in the middle but once you've threatened to pull out I think you need to have a very clear red line of what you cannot go above.