Should I have suspicions about buying this home?

theartfullodger

You should have suspicions buying any property.  Spending that much money without querying matters is, IMHO, unwise.

Slinky

If you do decide to offer on it, and it's a repossession, don't be surprised that the bank will most likely continue to market it even though you are trying to progress your purchase. You will also probably come across an advert in a local paper saying that 'an offer has been received for £X, interested parties must submit higher offers by Ydate', as it is the bank's duty to get as much money from the sale as they can, within reason.

People get all angsty about this when buying a repossession, but it's standard practice, you just have to get your ducks in a row as quickly as you can and hope that you're not outbid.

somerandomusername

Bigphil1474 said:

If the bedrooms are below something like 2.1m completely, then they may not meet the standard for a bedroom, depends when they were converted of course. This is just off the top of my head, but I think 'most' of the ceiling has to be at that height these days. I only mention it because we were looking at getting our loft converted into a room and our roofer who we've known for years said there was no chance as it is only 1.9m in the very middle and he said it would need the whole roof lifting to over 2.1m.

Worth checking whether it is standard construction or non-standard. Non-standard can be a right PITA. 

The dimensions are listed as such

Bedroom One: 3.66 m × 3.71 m
Bedroom Two: 3.89 m × 2.39 m

But the sloped ceilings literally make 30% of the room restricted basically and in one of the rooms it's more like 50% restricted, you can fit a single bed in there and that's about it.

mlz1413

If there isn't the legal head room it won't be advertised as a bedroom.   It might be used as a bedroom.  But the details will be something like Attic Room, hence not calling it a bedroom. 

somerandomusername

Quick update, the agent has now reduced it for the 4th time, now it's down to £160,000.

At this price point I think the price outweighs the negatives, at least for me anyway. 

I made an offer of £130,000 when the price was £180,000 and the agent didn't even respond to me haha, maybe he thought I was joking or something. 

I might offer £155,000 take it or leave it final offer.

Herzlos

somerandomusername said:

The least appealing feature to me is the lack of head space, and space in general. I'm like 5ft 5 and even I can only just about manage to move around up in the converted loft area. It's essentially a flat with an upstairs loft area with low ceilings.

Maybe part of the problem is that it's being advertised as, say, a 2 bed, when it's really a 1 bed + loft. Can the loft room legally be used as a bedroom? I'm thinking more in terms of having a window and suitable stairs, since the headroom sounds like a problem already. 

Is it priced as having the loft as a bedroom?

Is there any indication of when the conversion was done? Is it too old to need planning or building permission?

silvercar

I can imagine someone in a desperate financial situation getting a kitchen on credit. In the hope that it increases the value of the house.

If it all comes together, they get the house sold with enough money left over to pay the kitchen loan. If it all fails and the house ends up being repossessed, they lose the house and possibly go bankrupt; thereby ridding themselves of the kitchen debt. Either way the new kitchen isn’t costing them real money. 

Of course, that is simplistic and there are many midway end results depending when and for how much the house is sold, but desperate people do desperate things.

MeteredOut

Herzlos said:

somerandomusername said:

The least appealing feature to me is the lack of head space, and space in general. I'm like 5ft 5 and even I can only just about manage to move around up in the converted loft area. It's essentially a flat with an upstairs loft area with low ceilings.

Maybe part of the problem is that it's being advertised as, say, a 2 bed, when it's really a 1 bed + loft. Can the loft room legally be used as a bedroom? I'm thinking more in terms of having a window and suitable stairs, since the headroom sounds like a problem already. 

Is it priced as having the loft as a bedroom?

Is there any indication of when the conversion was done? Is it too old to need planning or building permission?

There is no such thing as whether a room can "legally be used as a bedroom". 

No-one's going to stop someone putting a bed in a room and sleeping in it.

ReadySteadyPop

MeteredOut said:

Herzlos said:

somerandomusername said:

The least appealing feature to me is the lack of head space, and space in general. I'm like 5ft 5 and even I can only just about manage to move around up in the converted loft area. It's essentially a flat with an upstairs loft area with low ceilings.

Maybe part of the problem is that it's being advertised as, say, a 2 bed, when it's really a 1 bed + loft. Can the loft room legally be used as a bedroom? I'm thinking more in terms of having a window and suitable stairs, since the headroom sounds like a problem already. 

Is it priced as having the loft as a bedroom?

Is there any indication of when the conversion was done? Is it too old to need planning or building permission?

There is no such thing as whether a room can "legally be used as a bedroom". 

No-one's going to stop someone putting a bed in a room and sleeping in it.

I think they meant can it legally be advertised as a bedroom.

ReadySteadyPop

somerandomusername said:

Quick update, the agent has now reduced it for the 4th time, now it's down to £160,000.

At this price point I think the price outweighs the negatives, at least for me anyway. 

I made an offer of £130,000 when the price was £180,000 and the agent didn't even respond to me haha, maybe he thought I was joking or something. 

I might offer £155,000 take it or leave it final offer.

If you thought it was worth 130k relatively recently I don`t think offering more in an obviously falling market is a great idea. How much other interest do they have?