Tenants buying house have asked me to pay for investigations and repairs

[Wonderifitsme]

Have not sold a house before and have no-one to ask on this.

I moved abroad a couple of years ago and rented my (v nice) house to some nice tenants. They wanted to buy the place and I agreed, at a slightly lower price than the estate agent valuation range for the ease of having a secure sale etc (think valuation range 400-450, agreed 390).

they have had a survey, great, which has come up with an internal leak in the upstairs ensuite, possibly making a damp issue in floor. They have asked me if I am willing to pay for further investigation and for costs of repair.

Gut feeling is that this is not right. Surely costs of further investigations are borne by potential buyers and then you negotiate on price. Since I agreed a price at below 3 estate agents’ estimates I’m loath to renegotiate further. But are my instincts right? Tia

Get a leak expert and put it through your insurance, and do this as ‘landlord’ not ‘vendor.’

As you’re selling, you don’t have w
to worry a out your premium going up next year!

Evicting a paying tenant now is a long and costly process for the LL and rightly so. First you have to give 4 months notice during which they can quite legally refuse to co-operate with viewings or agents. Then they may decide to hang on until you take them to court which can be 6-8 months delay. Then another delay for the bailiffs. So you could be realistically looking at 16 month delay before you can even begin to market the house. In the meantime the tenants could force you to fix the leak by going to the council and having them issue a repair notice.

They more or less have you over a barrel. Fix the bloody leak.

So do I. They’ve potentially got a £60,000 discount so I’d be telling them that they can either fix the issue themselves or decline and you’ll put it on the open market at full price. At least that way when it shows up on another buyers’ survey you’ll have room to negotiate a discount.

Did they mention the leak before, or only after buying the house became an option? Surely they should have contacted you, as the landlord, to arrange repairs.

Plus costs involved in evicting them etc. and then getting the house ready to market. Plus, if it’s privately arranged then I presume OP isn’t paying estate agent fees, but would for an open market sale. Assuming EA fees if 2% she’s saving around £8k on EA fees alone.

OP - it’s a negotiation. I’d pay for the investigation and then negotiate on price.

I'd get the leak fixed and pay the plumber, water can do some damage. It's prob just a pipe somewhere and should imagine will cost less than 1k all in all.

But I would probably just put the house on the open market as you already know your selling it less than it's worth. £1k for a plumber is cheap compared to the price you've knocked it down by surely?

We had it with a buyer in our last house. After offers were accepted they then went out of their way to find faults and kept trying to knock us down over things that seriously were just tiny niggles, such as the oven door seal being split in one part - about a tenner to replace. People like that leave me cold.

I agree. The alternative is to offer a further discount. If that leak has been there a while you might have dry rot which is expensive to deal with and also potentially very dangerous if there are rotting floorboards, joists etc. Their surveyor will have told them about all the possible issues from a
leak. If it is a recent thing it is unlikely to be a big problem.

It was revealed in the survey.

If they decline to buy OP would still have to fix the leak, yes. But they will have lost out on a very substantial reduction in price, and at the end of the day OP can give them notice and put the house on the open market when they’ve gone.

Tell them the price is the price, taje it or leave it as is and you're happy to put it on the open market. They are getting a big discount.

If you are very confident the price is below market value, I would simply say no on that basis. You are already getting a good price, accept it or it goes on the open market.

You aren't just a seller though, so as appealing as it is, telling them to get stuffed is counter productive, as it stands right now you are a landlord with a responsibility to fix any problems, it doesn't matter how those problems have been identified, there IS a problem, which you are at this point legally obliged to rectify.

Personally I would ask them to get 3 quotes for fixing it sent to you. Then as long as they are not being ridiculous, offer that back as a discount on the selling price.

You need to look at the bigger picture here to be honest.

At the moment tread carefully, it's very heavily a buyers market. If you say no and they pull out (which they are entirely entitled to do) you'll need to find a new buyer, good luck with that.

You could try and negotiate 50/50 split.

If I was a buyer right now I'd be cheeky as hell.

What is the cost of the work going to be? if its peanuts just get it done
if its a big sum, re-negociate

If its major prob get insurance to cover it.

Presumably they will have to supervise the work if you are abroad anyway, major or minor.

Even if it cost you a couple of K,you are still quids in with no estate agents fees

This. Your property, your leak, it needs fixing asap whoever you sell or rent to.

Having a look at your household insurance to cover is a good idea. Depends on the excess, but if it’s a big fix it may be worth it.

I would - get the leak fixed before further damage is caused. Let the tenants know that you expect to exchange within 12 weeks of the leak being rectified. If the 12 week deadline is not met, serve notice to the tenants. If the tenants are serious buyers this will be fine, if they are going to try stalling tactics or attempt to renegotiate the price, this will flush them out.

Why are most people still waffling on about the sale price? As the landlord they are still your tenants. You need to fix the damn leak.

When I bought, there was a seven day grace period when you moved in when you could report any issues and then the seller was liable for the cost of putting that right (this was in Scotland) - so you may be liable for the leak anyway.

An surveyor is going to identify the leak so you are going to end up paying to fix it no matter who you sell to.

Your decision is to either fix it for the ex tenants, or whatever new buyer you find ( at whatever price you manage to sell it for).

Also this.

Its a fucker when you get a big issue in a property you are about to sell but you just need to suck it up and fix it anyway.

They are currently tenants paying rent. This means the landlord pays for repairs, not them. They could take legal action against OP if she tries to make them pay for repairs.

They haven't got a 60k discount - if it had been advertised at 450k it's very unlikely they'd have got that price.

I'd pay to sort the leak in case this sale falls through and it's something which may cause more damage if left. I wouldn't make good if the cupboard needs ripping out etc, the tenants have had a big enough discount already to foot the bill for that.

Is there a leak? I would send my own person in to investigate frankly. If they are claiming a leak that’s buried then they are expecting the fabric of that room to be fixed, not just a washer as suggested.

Damp meters aren’t designed for masonry or plaster, they’re designed for timber so I would be keen to see the report from their person.

If there’s a leak then as a landlord you know you need to fix it but I would be tempted to put the house on the open market and see what interest you get and serve notice depending on how trustworthy you find these tenants but I think they may see you as an easy target with their low ball offer

At this point I'd put it on the open market. You are losing a lot of money due to selling it to them significantly below. If you need to do the repairs do it with it being sold at full price or over, as you've said houses are going over asking price.
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