FTB question - accelerated closing date

sgthammer

Well, you live and learn. I'm moving on from this for now, but for those mentioning Home Reports:

The Home Report in Scotland is not a comprehensive document. It's a visual inspection from ground level that specifically excludes looking under carpets or into loft spaces, checking gas and electrics etc, and describes any immediately apparent problem in alarmist terms purely as an !!!!!!-covering exercise. It amounts to 40-odd pages of "This, this and this might be issues, but we have no idea how bad it is or how much it will cost to fix and the purchaser is strongly advised to get a REAL survey or on your own head be it." I just wanted a chance to follow the advice.

I've probably had a narrow escape.

user1977

Home Reports do include the loft (if it’s accessible - you haven’t told us whether the flat was upstairs or downstairs). No “proper” level 2 or 3 survey is going to include the surveyor shifting furniture or lifting carpets. If you want the gas or electrics checked, you get a gas or electric person - though you can generally form your own idea by looking at the age of the installations.

HouseHuntingAmy

If the closing-date language means this is Scotland, then yes, it is sadly normal - sellers, through their agent, can set a closing date and can bring it forward, and it usually happens when one strong early offer lands and they want to flush out other bidders before that buyer cools off. It is shabby to do it same-day, but it is legal, and it almost never means something is being hidden about the flat itself. The mechanism that actually protects you there is a formal note of interest lodged by your solicitor: once that is in, the seller is supposed to give you the chance to offer before selling, though a closing moved to that same afternoon makes even that protection thin. The practical lesson for next time is to have the solicitor ready to lodge the note the moment you like a place, even before the survey is arranged - it costs very little and it is what keeps you in the room. On the survey itself, the sellers Home Report already covers the basics, but for a fixer-upper your own survey is still money well spent. And I would tell the agent you remain interested and ask to be called if the sale wobbles - accelerated closings collapse surprisingly often.

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82151020#Comment_82151020

A very helpful summary, which I will certainly take on board when resuming my own search👍️