Owner left hole in wall?

Rumana03

Hi,

We completed yesterday and went to the property to make sure everything was ok.
We were shocked to find a hole in the wall of the main bedroom (see attached photo). What should we do now? Surely the previous owner can't just leave that hole and expect us to be fine with it? I was thinking of calling the estate agent in the morning to discuss it.

We never saw this on the previous times we had been to the property as there was a chest of draws on that side of the bedroom.

[Deleted User]

It happens, many times something will have been removed etc and the area not made good.
There's little the EA can/will do.
Get someone with some basic DIY knowledge and it'll be fixed within an hour.

user1977

Up to you either to look for holes or ask about them, I'm afraid. I expect the house has other defects of one sort or another? Same principle applies. 

Rumana03

user1977 said:

Up to you either to look for holes or ask about them, I'm afraid. I expect the house has other defects of one sort or another? Same principle applies. 

For some reason the cold water tap was also not working in the kitchen..can I mention that at least? Only the hot water tap on the kitchen tap seemed to work.

[Deleted User]

These aren't really things to involve an Estate Agent about, ask a more experienced family member to pop over and look at your queries, these things won't be major problems 👍

housebuyer143

Houses have maintenance issues, you are buying the unknown. You can't complain it's not perfect. 
The place I just bought had a leak from the toilet, the bath, windows not shutting, stiff locks. General lack of maintenance. 

You just get on with it and fix it. YouTube will be s saviour for all things DIY.

eddddy

Rumana03 said:

I was thinking of calling the estate agent in the morning to discuss it.

I very much doubt that the estate agent will be interested now - their job is finished.

Typically, their fee becomes payable on exchange of contracts. So they will try to resolve problems, disputes, etc up until that point - to make sure exchange of contract happens, and they get their fee.

To be blunt, once exchange of contracts has happened, it's very unlikely that they'll 'care' anymore - because they have their fee.


Instead, they'll want to spend their time resolving problems with other sales/purchases which haven't exchanged contracts yet.

justwhat

I can only assume you are a first time buyer. You did not buy a new house. Its wear and tear. 

Your warranty will only be for major issues.(and only some issues) All small issues are irrelevant.

Both solicitors/EA should tell you to sling your hook. They may humour  you  some may even chance there arm on your behalf(but they should not)

Ramouth

The hole is annoying but will be a relatively easy fix.  If you felt very strongly about it you could have a word about it with your solicitor but they are likely to advise you that the cost of action would be greater than the value of the claim.

For the water, have you checked that the stop cocks, both in the house and at the meter, are fully on?  We once rented a place with very slow cold water and it wasn’t until there was a slight drop in local system pressure and it stopped completely that we discovered the stopcock had been closed the whole time.  It was an embarrassing phone call with the water company!

jonnydeppiwish!

Unfortunately it comes down to whether you checked to see if there was a hole behind whatever was hiding it.

As for the cold water, it’s probably something simple such as the isolator been turned to the off position under the sink?

GDB2222

Rumana03 said:

user1977 said:

Up to you either to look for holes or ask about them, I'm afraid. I expect the house has other defects of one sort or another? Same principle applies. 

For some reason the cold water tap was also not working in the kitchen..can I mention that at least? Only the hot water tap on the kitchen tap seemed to work.

The main stop tap may have been switched off, which is actually a sensible and thoughtful precaution if you were not moving in the same day they moved out.