Or is the person we're buying a house from totally fucking batshit?

[sootspritez]

I'm gonna start by saying I know I'm not being unreasonable, however I am inexperienced, so looking for some guidance on where you think things have gone wrong and what I can now do to placate this nutjob vendor. NC as outing. Will try not to drip feed.

Dh and I are first time buyers. Visited a house. Loved it. Offered full asking price. All fine up until this point.

3 weeks after offer is accepted the survey happens. This is when things start going south.

Let's say that house was on market for 150k. Survey came back and said the house was only work 137k due to needing new Windows, chimney work, roof tiles, etc and the bank believe this was all the house was worth.

Survey cost in excess of £500 so fairly decent survey for a reasonable priced house. Put it to the agents that unfortunately this is now all we can offer as the mortgage lenders I.e. bank believe it's all the house is worth due to work needing doing. Fully prepared to be told tough and that they're holding out for the full price as I know they rejected a previous offer for being slightly below asking.

Vendor agrees to sell for 137k immediately. Phew... Or so we thought.

From this point on the following has happened via estate agents -

• vendor has cancelled 3 second viewings because they were inconvenient though she initially agreed

• she has denied entrance to the property for a contractor to come out with us to estimate how much work needs doing

• pointlessly got in touch to specify that now that they had gone below asking that all appliances wouldn't be included (I didn't want her appliances)

• asked EA to ask us TWICE if we would be willing to offer them more money despite accepting price given by mortgage lender

• when we have asked for another viewing she has proposed just insane times '20 mins at 6pm on the last Sunday of the month' '30 mins at 10.30am exactly 4 weeks on friday' despite us offering to be entirely flexible where possible (I.e. evenings and weekends at her convenience but would be willing to book an hour off work if she can guarantee the time). She says she cannot guarantee time as she works fill time and has 2 boys who play football until 8pm every single night and all day every weekend and they are her priority.

She has told the EA that she thinks we are inflexible and both the EA and the branch manager have apologised to us for her behaviour but obviously won't challenge her on it.

Am I right in thinking she's pissed off about lowering the price and just doesn't wanna sell her house?!

Sorry. i have reported my multiple posts.

I’ve not RTFT but if I was the vendor I wouldn’t be letting you in again because I’d expect you would then drop your offer further on the basis of any quotes you get from builders. She’s already cheesed off at you dropping your offer once.

Does our survey not say if there’s an RSJ where the chimney breast is out? I’d expect a surveyor to confirm that as part of a survey.

As someone else said, if it’s a peach of a house that will be fabulous when the work is done then persevere. If not, pull out now.

Don’t buy it!!!

I had sort of similar. I just bought a place. Offered asking price and was accepted but survey showed it needed fully rewiring so vendors accepted an offer of £5k less. I then wanted access to do a gas check of boiler etc to check no major issues, and to get a couple of electricians round to do quotes. The vendors proved very difficult to the extent that eventually i told their EA I would walk away if it wasn't sorted. They agreed to give EA the keys which was fine. Completed a couple of weeks ago and they were arseholes to the finish - left the house in appalling state, filthy everywhere with nails sticking out of every wall and a van load of crap in the garden!!! Their last revenge I guess!

I am genuinely surprised at some of the responses here!! OP, if I were in your shoes I would walk away, there are too many alarm bells.

Where I live, houses get snapped up very quickly, it’s not reasonable or practical to have second and third viewings before making an offer. It’s therefore not unreasonable to make an offer after a first viewing.

As soon as you said the woman’s hubby is a builder, the alarm bells started ringing. I bet there isn’t an RSJ, I bet your builder will also find other DIY horrors and a sizeable estimate to put things right will quickly follow. This is why the vendor is being evasive... I wonder if other local estate agents ‘know’ this house! I can only imagine the vendor was gutted when you paid out for a full survey.

YANBU and are quite rightly trying to walk into a sizeable transaction with your eyes open!

I’m with previous poster you’ve offered, it’s been accepted. She’s still living there so prob doesn’t want you to keep popping round for viewings. As for getting quotes you should wait until you move in. Firstly it’s inconvenient for current owner and secondly waste of tradesman time if it falls through. I feel your pain though, we bought house last summer and I’d have loved to have gone round for more viewings as I was super excited but I didn’t until it was ours (id had initial and second viewing).

To be honest I'm not surprised that she's been funny with you over second and third viewings as that's supposed to be BEFORE you offer and once the offer is accepted you don't come back to the house at all until you move in! I'd be careful though, don't annoy her too much else she might leave the house like a pig sty when you do move in even though she's supposed to leave it in a reasonable condition.

Pull out of sale now!! Alarm 🔔 couldn’t be any louder!

You’re a first time buyer with no chain and so in a good position...find another house.

Maybe a bit bonkers - we had an offer accepted on our first place together, but then it turned out the owner was totally loopy.

After offer was accepted we found out:

• She didn't have anywhere to move to yet
• She didn't want to look at anywhere, she wanted her selling agents to find it for her
• She wanted the place to be in the immediate area... and the agents were based in a different area & didn't usually list anywhere in our area (but it was Foxtons, so I guess they didn't care)
• She wanted it to be under £100k, in an area where nothing was that price

Suffice to say, she withdrew from the market after 2 weeks of this nonsense - we were considering househunting for her until we realised it was impossible!

I buy and sell houses for a living and do not understand why people are saying you have ‘pissed off’ the seller. You maybe should have viewed the house more than once before making an offer, however you didn’t just make another offer after the survey, you rightly renegotiated the price. It is then perfectly reasonable to ask to return to the house for WHATEVER reason you like. It so happens that accepted offers in this country are not binding on either side - you may pull out, so may the seller. As I said in earlier reply, this is the most expensive purchase and you need to make sure it is right. You have only seen the house once so how are you wasting the sellers time? Can’t the agent take you around? I do not see the problem. As I said, get tough and insist on another viewing within X days or day you are pulling out.

I've always had two viewings before offering. I've then had a viewing before exchange to measure up. In the OPs case as the survey has shown up some surprises I think the vendor is unreasonable not to let the OP come back with a builder to get estimates for the work that needs doing.

For pps who don't want a buyer to come back after an offer is accepted, your vendor is paying a shedload of money for your property. Let them come back ffs!

OP in your shoes in this case I'd pull out.

Hello! property surveyor over here... you're right OP. I only read the first page but your solicitor doesn't want to move on because it is normal to get quotes and have a second viewing. People who don't are risking a lot.
How much of the survey said "not inspected"? That usually means someone has made it difficult for the surveyor to inspect that part (usually down to petty rules that mean we shouldn't be moving items ourselves).
Listen to your solicitor. They are your legal advisor and probably has a good idea of what's going on.
Personally I would be walking away from all that work unless I could get it for an absolute steal and it was worth all the money, time and effort to make it my own home.
The joys of working in property as both DP and I do means we are stupidly picky but we can be. We provide our own surveys and we would still not rely on those surveys to be 100% accurate on price. That sort of thing varies even from business to business. One company could charge much higher prices so you getting quotes is actually sensible (and what we recommend all buyers do!)

I think you sound a bit keen as a first time buyer. The survey has flagged the work. Yes, viewings for measuring are goodwill. Yes, crazy you make your biggest financial decision based on a few minutes. However, you clearly love it. The house is not going to fall down before you buy it and you'll have time to get this work done. If you feel you are taking on too much work it is not the house for you. You'll quickly get annoyed you've taken on too much if you didn't want to get onto doing lots of work. You have to decide if it is worth it. Buying a house is practically never straightforward. There are always frustrations and difficulties over seemingly minor issues.

First purchase, exciting and worrying times, there are always unknowns. Wishing you all the best in your new home.

To the poster who asked, no I'm not an estate agent.

I'm really shocked at the people who seem to think you view a house once and then that is it, you don't get to view again till you've bought.

Either they have never bought and sold a property, or someone's had them over a barrel.

I think you should walk away.

As far as I understand it you put in an offer (subject to a survey.) If the survey flags up concerns then you negotiate your offer or pull out. If the person that you are buying from allows you to visit again after this, then it is goodwill...they are not obliged to do so, but perhaps she has no goodwill left if she's getting less than she wanted (or what she was led to believe the house was worth by an EA.) If you have your heart set on the house, why don't you ask the EA to get you the measurements you need as opposed to you visiting personally..Remember that all the cards are in your hands....If you can't stand the seller or the situation...walk away.

Walk, OP. If a vendor wouldn't allow a 2nd viewing, I would. Bloody hell, we saw this house 3 times at least, the last time, we ended up staying for cups of tea and a huge chat, our vendors were moving to a country I speak the language of, they were delighted to be selling to us. 16 years later, they still write occasionally to ask how we/the neighbours are.

The most important thing in the whole situation is that the OP says this:

We have been advised not to proceed further by our solicitor due to wanting to clarify issues raised in the survey.

The solicitor isn't doing this for fun.

I'd get the solicitor to contact their solicitor and make it very clear that unless the answers the OP wants, including any potential inspection, that the OP will walk. That's it. Pure and simple. And be prepared to just do that.

Yes the OP put in a revised offer already, but the solicitor can say that their client did so, but they subsequently advised them that the survey issue is significant enough for them to pull out unless further information is not forthcoming in order to ensure the revised offer is in their clients interests. The solicitors job is to tell their client if they have not done the right thing with an offer after the survey and this is exactly what they have done. The seller might be pissy about this, but frankly if a solicitor says 'we have advised our client' at any stage, regardless then that's what the seller should be responding to whether or not that pisses them off.

As such viewing the property on these terms isn't a second viewing. Its an inspection based on solicitors advice. This isn't merely the OP being flakey and trying to revise the price again - this is an action following legal advice.

Where it gets confusing is where the OP says about a second viewing to measure up, and this is where the OP is being unreasonable. That's an inconvenience to the seller that is taking the mickey.

Ultimately if you have had legal advice to walk away if the seller doesn't give you what you want for reassurance, then that's it game over walk away and don't give it another thought. You solicitor's job is to stop you getting yourself in a pickle later on because you made a decision which wasn't fully informed of all the problems with the house. Take the solicitors advice seriously as it's the only voice that you should be listening to and is relevant here. Not whether anyone on MN thinks the seller is batshit or not.

I'd run a mile from a house at the mere hint of my solicitor getting antsy.

The seller isn't helping themselves here. The chances are the next buyer will discover similar issues and want similar reassurance if they have half a brain and do a survey and have a solicitor worth employing. The seller has already spent money on their solicitor for the sale too. Being obstructive does tend to suggest they are hoping for an unwitting mug to offload a problem house on. And that's the red flag...

Good grief, we stayed reasonably available for our buyers when we sold our house, and so did the vendors of the house we bought! Also we introduced them to the neighbors before the contracts were signed. All made for a smooth transition.

I’m an EA and think it’s ridiculous to not allow a second viewing
Given the current climate,a purchaser is worth their weight in gold and I would always bend over backwards to facilitate a viewing when I was the vendor
She sounds like s nightmare vendor tbh
Given her lack of motivation/flexibility,I’d sack it off-there’s no need to be so difficult!!

I think this woman is trying to hide that something is wrong with the house and doesn’t want you to have so many viewings so you don’t change your mind.
Honestly, I would start looking for something else and with a different estate agent. I am sure you can find something around the full asking price of this one but with less work.
You will still have to pay for another structural survey but at least hopefully the seller would be more accommodating and less stressful. All the best of luck!

OP posting in AIBU: I'm gonna start by saying I know I'm not being unreasonable

MN: well you kind of are being unreasonable

OP: Thank you to all the people who fucking get it! Feel like nutjob vendor has cloned herself and attacked the thread, jaysus

It's not that people don't get it. They disagree with you. She doesn't sound like a "nutjob". She's busy. She's offered you a choice of times to go round. You've knocked these back despite claiming to be flexible.

You sound like a bit of a pain. And I'm starting to feel sorry for the estate agent stuck in the middle of all this.

In that situation OP I think I would advise your solicitor to contact their solicitor or contact the EA and say that unless you the matters your solicitor has advised need clarified can be resolved then you will have to withdraw the offer. And mean it. Your solicitor is there to provide you with advice as to potential pitfalls and when things aren't in order. You should listen to them if they say there is an issue. Get it sorted completely or walk away.

She is either being very difficult, and this does not bode well for the smooth running of the rest of the sale, or she is hiding something from you.

Our solicitor had professional reservations about a property we backed out when he explained it.

I have a gut feeling if the owner is a builder there may be an element of bodge it and scarper. DS in his work sees a lot of this.

I would follow the solicitors advice.