Can I ask sellers for the costs of their bills?

Marvel1

The issue is I could say my gas is £x per month, what I am not telling you is my heating is only on for 1 hour a day.

MobileSaver

Marvel1 said:

The issue is I could say my gas is £x per month, what I am not telling you is my heating is only on for 1 hour a day.

^ This.

I just don't see the point of asking as the chances of my usage being remotely similar to the previous or next owners is practically zero.

For example, my girlfriend is nesh so we have the heating on much more often than most people plus in her en-suite she has electric underfloor heating on for nine months of the year and runs heated loo seats, an electric towel warmer and an electric heater fan every day apart from the summer months.

Similarly I have nine fridges/freezers in my home of which eight are running 24/7 as well as six desktop PCs/servers running 24/7. I suspect most people living in my home would use a fraction of the electric/heating that I do so looking at my bills would be utterly pointless.

lookstraightahead

Why would a seller make a decision as to whether a buyers's question is relevant or not, especially if there's no harm caused by asking? 

What's that saying where we only think others can see what we see? 

We could always give buyers some useful info and they can make their  own minds up. We don't need to tell them what to think. 

hedgewitchery

MobileSaver said:

For example, my girlfriend is nesh so we have the heating on much more often than most people

What a great word - I'd never heard it before.

YoungBlueEyes

I've not heard nesh before either. Just duckduck'd it - great word, I'm having that  

MobileSaver said: Similarly I have nine fridges/freezers in my home of which eight are running 24/7 as well as six desktop PCs/servers running 24/7. I suspect most people living in my home would use a fraction of the electric/heating that I do so looking at my bills would be utterly pointless.

<snip>
I'm desperate to ask about the 9 fridge/freezers (but shan't), but I can't imagine you've much need of heating with all the f/f's and servers running?!

Anyway back OT. When I last sold my buyer asked about bills - g/e+ct. I gave her a notion of g+e and showed her the programmer on the thermostat so she could see what that actually meant (ie cheap because it's not on all the time). CT I showed her the bill. She was happy with that.

I didn't occur to me to refuse tbh.

MobileSaver

lookstraightahead said:

Why would a seller make a decision as to whether a buyers's question is relevant or not, especially if there's no harm caused by asking?

Well my time is precious so yes I would absolutely decide whether I thought a buyer's question was relevant or not and respond accordingly.

If it was a reasonable and relevant question then I may happily spend time getting the specific information they asked for. However, if I thought it was an irrelevant/pointless question then I may well just give a vague answer or even a non-answer.

I know my approach is not unusual because professional solicitors do the same all the time. Over my 30 years of buying property I have seen several examples where solicitors have replied to a buyer's question with something along the lines of "the buyer should rely on their own enquiries".

hedgewitchery said:

MobileSaver said:

For example, my girlfriend is nesh so we have the heating on much more often than most people

What a great word - I'd never heard it before.

I think it's a Northern thing; we're supposed to be hard and work outside in just a vest whether summer or winter so it's good-natured banter for someone who dares to wear a jacket just because it's minus ten outside.

MobileSaver

YoungBlueEyes said:

I've not heard nesh before either. Just duckduck'd it - great word, I'm having that

The best thing about "nesh" is that although it is derogatory, it's always said in good humour and with a smile.

YoungBlueEyes said:

I'm desperate to ask about the 9 fridge/freezers

Executive summary is it's a big house with 2½ kitchens so that's three normal fridges/fridge-freezers then there's three full-size wine/beer fridges, a chest freezer in the garage and a couple of other full-size fridges in other rooms for convenience.

user1977

MobileSaver said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

I'm desperate to ask about the 9 fridge/freezers

Executive summary is it's a big house with 2½ kitchens so that's three normal fridges/fridge-freezers then there's three full-size wine/beer fridges, a chest freezer in the garage and a couple of other full-size fridges in other rooms for convenience.

Think that still raises more questions than it answers...

lookstraightahead

user1977 said:

MobileSaver said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

I'm desperate to ask about the 9 fridge/freezers

Executive summary is it's a big house with 2½ kitchens so that's three normal fridges/fridge-freezers then there's three full-size wine/beer fridges, a chest freezer in the garage and a couple of other full-size fridges in other rooms for convenience.

Think that still raises more questions than it answers...

Agreed. I can't even begin to debate on that one 😂.

martindow

user1977 said:

MobileSaver said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

I'm desperate to ask about the 9 fridge/freezers

Executive summary is it's a big house with 2½ kitchens so that's three normal fridges/fridge-freezers then there's three full-size wine/beer fridges, a chest freezer in the garage and a couple of other full-size fridges in other rooms for convenience.

Think that still raises more questions than it answers...

Any chance of a photo of 1/2 a kitchen?