Seller backed out of sale due to requesting a survey

Nic275h

peterhjohnson said:

OK, here's a contrary view:

• The sellers, having had sales fall through are running out of time on their onward purchase. Perhaps that have been given a deadline?
• They may believe that a survey will introduce further delay. It's not just the survey appointment, it's time to write the report and any horse-trading thereafter.
• People frequently don't realise how long it takes to reject an accepted offer and re-market.

If these sellers back down and allow a survey, I would consider going ahead and getting the survey  if the property was sufficiently attractive. I might be quite picky on price given their desperation and incompetence. Might turn out to be a bargain.

I guess so but if that was the case I would have hoped they’d just talk to me about it rather than pulling out so abruptly. I genuinely wanted the property and was ready to move things as quickly as I could to meet their deadlines. I had plans to make changes in the house & the property is well over 50 years old so structural survey seemed necessary to endure all was ok.

They literally told the estate agent to tell me they’re now rejecting my offer a couple of hours after the surveyor contacted them to arrange access for the survey. No discussion or anything just pulled out. So I very much doubt that will change now.

katejo

Martico said:

Big red flag to me - I suspect they want to sell to someone who doesn't want to look closely at the house, so yes, I'd be suspicious they've got something to hide.
[edit] plus, if speed were really their only motivation, you with a survey done next week is still their fastest option

I agree absolutely. I suspect they have something to hide. When buying for the first time, my survey revealed problems which had been concealed and the owner refused to drop the price so I pulled out. I later learnt that the owners had negative equity on the property. I found a better place.

[Deleted User]

peterhjohnson said:

OK, here's a contrary view:

• The sellers, having had sales fall through are running out of time on their onward purchase. Perhaps that have been given a deadline?
• They may believe that a survey will introduce further delay. It's not just the survey appointment, it's time to write the report and any horse-trading thereafter.
• People frequently don't realise how long it takes to reject an accepted offer and re-market.

If these sellers back down and allow a survey, I would consider going ahead and getting the survey  if the property was sufficiently attractive. I might be quite picky on price given their desperation and incompetence. Might turn out to be a bargain.

The solution to that is to get your own L3 survey done by someone independent, or offer to buy the one off the previous buyer who pulled out.

lookstraightahead

[Deleted User] said:

peterhjohnson said:

OK, here's a contrary view:

• The sellers, having had sales fall through are running out of time on their onward purchase. Perhaps that have been given a deadline?
• They may believe that a survey will introduce further delay. It's not just the survey appointment, it's time to write the report and any horse-trading thereafter.
• People frequently don't realise how long it takes to reject an accepted offer and re-market.

If these sellers back down and allow a survey, I would consider going ahead and getting the survey  if the property was sufficiently attractive. I might be quite picky on price given their desperation and incompetence. Might turn out to be a bargain.

The solution to that is to get your own L3 survey done by someone independent, or offer to buy the one off the previous buyer who pulled out.

Our sellers paid in advance for a structural engineers survey which complimented our L3 survey (old house) and really did speed everything up.

ComicGeek

lookstraightahead said:

[Deleted User] said:

peterhjohnson said:

OK, here's a contrary view:

• The sellers, having had sales fall through are running out of time on their onward purchase. Perhaps that have been given a deadline?
• They may believe that a survey will introduce further delay. It's not just the survey appointment, it's time to write the report and any horse-trading thereafter.
• People frequently don't realise how long it takes to reject an accepted offer and re-market.

If these sellers back down and allow a survey, I would consider going ahead and getting the survey  if the property was sufficiently attractive. I might be quite picky on price given their desperation and incompetence. Might turn out to be a bargain.

The solution to that is to get your own L3 survey done by someone independent, or offer to buy the one off the previous buyer who pulled out.

Our sellers paid in advance for a structural engineers survey which complimented our L3 survey (old house) and really did speed everything up.

Although you have to make sure that the survey is assigned to you and that you can legally rely on it in the event of a mistake by the structural engineer. 

Otherwise the structural engineer will just say that you're not his client and couldn't rely on the report findings.

peterhjohnson

ComicGeek said:

Otherwise the structural engineer will just say that you're not his client and couldn't rely on the report findings.

Yes, but the sellers "sold" you the report and if it's faulty, you could sue them and they'd might in turn be able to sue the surveyor?

Noneforit999

Reality is you will never know the reason, it might be genuine or it might be because there is a major structural issue that an average buyer may not notice but a surveyor might.

You can't control what vendors do, you can't force them to sell to you so as you haven't spent any money, just chalk it up to a bad experience and move on.

I would be surprised if they find anybody who is not going to request even a basic survey on a 50+ year old house and lets face it, its going to flag up some issues. Hopefully the vendor realises they need to allow a survey and then ends up horse trading with a FTB who is demanding gas and electrical safety certificates   

dander

Definitely well out of this one.  There sounds like a lot here that totally dishonest. 10 bids higher than yours? No way is that true! 
Crucial lesson to learn here is as a buyer you have all the power in this relationship. Don't ever letter a seller bully you into decisions that aren't right for you. Pick your own professionals, get all the surveys you want, work at the pace that is comfortable to you. 

user1977

peterhjohnson said:

ComicGeek said:

Otherwise the structural engineer will just say that you're not his client and couldn't rely on the report findings.

Yes, but the sellers "sold" you the report and if it's faulty, you could sue them and they'd might in turn be able to sue the surveyor?

No, that isn't how it works.

FreeBear

MultiFuelBurner said: We always have 10k.spare when buying an older property for unexpected repairs and hidden "gems"

Unfortunately, £10K doesn't go very far with the current prices for materials & tradesman.