Scottish Standard Clauses - Deletion of Clauses

155adam

Myself and my partner are currently in the process of concluding missives for a house purchase up in Scotland. Our solicitor recently sent over a copy of the sellers acceptance of offer. As part of this acceptance, our seller has stated that they wish to remove Clause 4 of the Scottish Standard Clauses. Clause 4 relates to the workings of any Appliances, systems or central heating. This effectively means that should the appliances not be in working order when you take possession of the property, there will be no recourse to the sellers, and you will require to repair or replace these items yourself. 

To us, this seems very suspicious, and we are concerned that they may be aware of something being faulty and we could be landed with the bill.

Has anyone seen this clause removed before? We are waiting to speak to our solicitor regarding it, but they sent the email last thing on Friday before their office closed for 3 days, and naturally are just a bit anxious that this could cause our move to fall through.

Any advice would be great

sheramber

Yes, I had it deleted when I sold my house. Everything was working buy Sod’s law something would go wrong as soon as the sale completed.

I was not going warrant that the 13 year old cooker and the 11 year old
washing machine or the ancient dish washer that came with house would not fail  the day the new owners got the keys.  

The central heating had been serviced 6 months earlier. 

The buyer was not concerned. 

user1977

What sort of sellers are they? If it's anybody other than an owner-occupier, it's fairly commonplace for them not to give such a warranty.

Your solicitor will talk you through this anyway, it's hardly a deal-breaker.

_Penny_Dreadful

155adam said:

Myself and my partner are currently in the process of concluding missives for a house purchase up in Scotland. Our solicitor recently sent over a copy of the sellers acceptance of offer. As part of this acceptance, our seller has stated that they wish to remove Clause 4 of the Scottish Standard Clauses. Clause 4 relates to the workings of any Appliances, systems or central heating. This effectively means that should the appliances not be in working order when you take possession of the property, there will be no recourse to the sellers, and you will require to repair or replace these items yourself. 

To us, this seems very suspicious, and we are concerned that they may be aware of something being faulty and we could be landed with the bill.

Has anyone seen this clause removed before? We are waiting to speak to our solicitor regarding it, but they sent the email last thing on Friday before their office closed for 3 days, and naturally are just a bit anxious that this could cause our move to fall through.

Any advice would be great

Is this a probate property by any chance? What is your solicitor advising? 

155adam

_Penny_Dreadful said:

155adam said:

Myself and my partner are currently in the process of concluding missives for a house purchase up in Scotland. Our solicitor recently sent over a copy of the sellers acceptance of offer. As part of this acceptance, our seller has stated that they wish to remove Clause 4 of the Scottish Standard Clauses. Clause 4 relates to the workings of any Appliances, systems or central heating. This effectively means that should the appliances not be in working order when you take possession of the property, there will be no recourse to the sellers, and you will require to repair or replace these items yourself. 

To us, this seems very suspicious, and we are concerned that they may be aware of something being faulty and we could be landed with the bill.

Has anyone seen this clause removed before? We are waiting to speak to our solicitor regarding it, but they sent the email last thing on Friday before their office closed for 3 days, and naturally are just a bit anxious that this could cause our move to fall through.

Any advice would be great

Is this a probate property by any chance? What is your solicitor advising? 

It isn't a probate property, no.

We are currently waiting on our solicitor getting back to us.

155adam

user1977 said:

What sort of sellers are they? If it's anybody other than an owner-occupier, it's fairly commonplace for them not to give such a warranty.

Your solicitor will talk you through this anyway, it's hardly a deal-breaker.

It is the current owner-occupier that we are buying from. 

Hopefully not a deal breaker! But having not come across this before, we were just concerned that we may be hit with an large unexpected extra expense.

user1977

155adam said:

user1977 said:

What sort of sellers are they? If it's anybody other than an owner-occupier, it's fairly commonplace for them not to give such a warranty.

Your solicitor will talk you through this anyway, it's hardly a deal-breaker.

It is the current owner-occupier that we are buying from. 

Hopefully not a deal breaker! But having not come across this before, we were just concerned that we may be hit with an large unexpected extra expense.

Well you might be even if that clause was there! Recovering such costs is rarely easy. If you want to test things yourselves, ask them. Did you e.g. see the central heating working when you viewed?

sheramber

155adam said:

user1977 said:

What sort of sellers are they? If it's anybody other than an owner-occupier, it's fairly commonplace for them not to give such a warranty.

Your solicitor will talk you through this anyway, it's hardly a deal-breaker.

It is the current owner-occupier that we are buying from. 

Hopefully not a deal breaker! But having not come across this before, we were just concerned that we may be hit with an large unexpected extra expense.

How long do you anticipate that guarantee would apply? A  day, a week, a month, a year?

_Penny_Dreadful

sheramber said:

155adam said:

user1977 said:

What sort of sellers are they? If it's anybody other than an owner-occupier, it's fairly commonplace for them not to give such a warranty.

Your solicitor will talk you through this anyway, it's hardly a deal-breaker.

It is the current owner-occupier that we are buying from. 

Hopefully not a deal breaker! But having not come across this before, we were just concerned that we may be hit with an large unexpected extra expense.

How long do you anticipate that guarantee would apply? A  day, a week, a month, a year?

5 working days going to the Scottish standard clauses. That’s how long the buyer would have to make good a broken appliance or the heating system. 

gld73

The clause was removed from my current house (owners had died, grown up children kept it on as a second home for a bit before selling) and my previous house (probate sale, house had been empty for 2 years). My solicitor told me it was up to me if I wanted to accept removal of the clause or not.

When I sold my previous house, the clause was left in, but I did feel a bit worried that something would happen out of the blue when the seller moved in and I'd be paying for them to get new heating or something. It didn't happen fortunately!