Suspect we're going to pull out of house purchase, what happens next.....

[PogoBob]

Had a offer accepted on house 3 weeks ago but only got the homebuyers report back late last week and considered it over the weekend.

There was one problem we were expecting, but it's come back worse and more extensive than we thought with a host of other issues inside and out. None are hugely major by themselves but added all together it's worrying - especially as the house has been completey refurbished over the last year so can't help but wonder what else we may discover if they've skipped the maintenance in favour of making the place look good IYSWIM.

What happens next? I guess we need to speak to the EA, as we were keen the solicitor has already started work so need to stop them and obviously pay for work done to date. We're still waiting to hear on the mortgage offer - can we transfer the mortgage offer to another property if we find one suitable?

Feel awful about doing this to the seller but need to sensible about what's best for our family and with a toddler and newborn we would rather have a house that need cosmetic work than somewhere that looks fab but has issues.

[scurryfunge]

Could you reduce your offer based on the work that needs doing?

[ATourchOfInsanity]

Yup, call EA, sol and bank. Bank possibly won't have got very far and if they have said they will lend a certain amount then you should be fine, they may be more worried than you about the Survey and they may not lend if it was a bad one.

Just start again. Try to find out from EA's how long house has been on market and previous reasons for people not getting to exchange. If you keep at them they hopefully won't show you any dodgey houses where homebuyers reports have been problematic before. Remember EA's act for the seller!

[Graciescotland]

We got a home report back recently and the surveyor had knocked a whopping 20% of the market value. We went back in with a lower offer (still haven't heard back though).

I think you have your solicitor contact their agent and say that given the problems highlighted in the home report you are no longer able to proceed.

[tutu100]

Don't feel bad. You did a sensible thing having a homebuyers report done and it has done it job. It has made you aware of issues that you would otherwise have been unaware of until it was too late.

You know what you have to do, so contact the estate agent in the morning and then the solicitor. I know that when we bought our house our mortgage was applicable to any house we wanted to buy, as long as the mortgage company were satisfied with the homebuyers report. You would have to check with your mortgage advisor to find out if your mortgage offer is transferrable.

Good Luck with everything in the morning. Please don't feel bad you are doing the right thing. Better to pull out now than buy a house that needs a whole lot of work doing to it when you don't want to do it, just to make the seller happy.

[ATourchOfInsanity]

I would be wary as you say - unless willing to do a full and more expensive survey, I would assume they have just done touch up's rather than tackle expensive works that may need doing in the near future. Anything roofing or bad damp would make me run for the hills.

[PogoBob]

Thanks for the responses and not flaming me!

To be fair the survey said the accepted offer was fair so can't really complain on that front, it's the fact that the issues will be fiddly to resolve (on top of the expense) that bothers us.

We are the first offer on the house and to be fair apart from one obvious problem it does look good on the face of it - half the problems aren't obvious to us.

Will speak to the solicitor first, see what they say and then speak to the EA unless they say they should. Will also get onto the mortgage broker and see what the position is on our mortgage offer.

Not taking this decision lightly - don't want to pull out as will lose at least £500, currently living in PIL's spare room with DH and DD and due to have DS in 11 weeks time and have seen just about everything on the market!

[DowagersHump]

Refurb done by someone who bought it to sell it on? Wouldn't touch it with a bargepole

[ripsishere]

At least you found out now rather than later

[StarkAndDormyNight]

I would just add that while I understand you feel bad about it, I would be extremely surprised if the current owners didn't know about these issues when they bought the place.

They have taken a punt by renovating the house without addressing these problems. Don't feel bad for refusing to take on what they haven't bothered to sort out.

[golemmings]

We had to do that with our first house - although pre dcs so easier than your situation.
We were gutted at the waste if money and we loved the house. We still talk about the house and it was 11 years since it got away.
We did find a fabulous house with more garden and a better location for work etc.
Good luck today; your house will be out there waiting somewhere for you.

[AlexanderS]

This happened to us. Homebuyers report came back highlighting a bunch of minor issue and two major ones - the extension on the back is not up to "habitable standards" and the electrical installation is dated and unsafe. I have a book, a guide for first time buyers, that recommends if you get a poor survey finding out how much the problems would cost to fix (the rationale is that you have, after all, invested a fair bit of time and money in the process up to this point so you might as well find out exactly what you're dealing with before taking the decision to walk away and start all over again). So we got a builder in to look at the extension and an electrician to look at the electrics. The builder noticed the extension didn't meet building regulations (not current regs or regs at the time it was built) (the solicitor confirmed building regs approval was in not in place) and said it would need extensive work to bring it up to scratch; the electrician recommended a full rewire.

At this point we decided we couldn't proceed with the sale (as we didn't have the money to fix this stuff) and e-mailed the seller to tell her so. It was a Sunday; first thing Monday morning I had a call from the EA to say the seller was prepared to have the house rewired before exchange of contracts and knock a big chunk off the asking price (giving us money to fix the extension). It had never even occurred to us to try to negotiate with her, we just assumed there was no way she'd be willing to change the offer on the table so drastically. But it is a buyer's market. We bit her hand off took her up on her offer.

So don't automatically be put off by a bad survey. Are you sure these issues would be fiddly and expensive to fix?

[ATourchOfInsanity]

You can negotiate but without a full survey you might not cover all work needing to be done. The more they can do before you move in the better and they will have to get the certificates to prove work done is of reasonable standard. It will take time though and massive works can disrupt a chain. Think through everything carefully and see what yr sol says.

[PogoBob]

Thanks for the further responses.

We've spoken to various people over the weekend who have had this type of stuff done and a chunk of the work is going to be fiddly - scaffolding, asbestos removal, work on the roof, leaking porch. He's also raised concerns about an internal wall and chimney breast that have been removed without clear support being put in place which will involve the expense of a structual survey.

Plus some of the issues are such that there isn't really any clear way of establishing how much of a problem they really are without further investigation or until we start pulling them apart to fix the initial problem IYSWIM.

Really gutted this morning as really do like the house and still picturing us there at Christmas but we haven't the money, time or expertise to take unnecessary risks.