Put an offer in on a property a few weeks ago. Ticked every box, loved it, immaculate inside. Vendor bought it in 2007 as a BTL. We noticed they’d had it on the market in 2011 and 2012 too and it had not sold. The explanation they gave for 2011 was that their daughter became pregnant so she moved in. The 2012 time there was vague mumblings about personal issues.
Anyway we sent in surveyor costing over £600. the report is basically the worst survey ever. The entire roof needs replacing immediately, pointing, potential woodworm, EPC rating of F, no insulation, rotting joists underfloor, evidence of movement in the house’s fabric (it could not be insured because of that) and the double whammy of being built on clay soil in an area with many underground ex mine shafts which exacerbate movement of the house.
It’s riddled with damp and total treatment and damp proofing and insulation is needed. Surveyor said lack of insulation meant central heating would need to run 24/7 to prevent damp. It needs complete rewiring, there are led pipes sourcing drink water to the house. The attic conversion doesn’t meet building regs an the roof isn’t being supported and is leaking. The bath upstairs has not had the floor underneath reinforced do the kitchen ceiling is bowing and the bath will eventually fall through. The ‘garden’ is actually a fenced off bit of a communal car park which belongs to a neighbour who could ask for it back any time. It’s also got poorly completely decking that means the garden floods. The heating and ventilation are issues, air bricks needed. The chimney is bowing and the Tudor style woodwork on the outside is rotten. It’s also ludicrously, ludicrously over priced. They’ve priced it as though it’s a completely pristine house with no issues. Even if all the necessary works were done I still don’t think the value of the house would exceed the money spent to repair it.
Obviously we’ve withdrawn the offer. But I can’t figure out why they’d have the house on the market and invite people to spend their money on surveys that they must have known it couldn’t possibly pass. So we’re £640 out of pocket.
And here’s the rub: the vendor contacted us to ask for a free copy of the survey we paid £640 for. My husband took the call, his first instinct was to say yes but he’d run it by me first I said no fucking way, we paid a lot of money. So he fobbed them off with an excuse about data protection.
Later the estate agent rang and said they wanted a copy of the survey ‘to warn and help other customers so they are aware of all the issues’. Clearly that’s a load of bullshit because no Estate Agent ever in the world tried to get a sale based on a dossier showing them how crap the house is. We think the vendors had asked her to try and get it out of us.
I think they set us up a bit. They must have known that house was never going to pass. They knew they were pissing our money up the wall. The only possible reason I could think that they did this is because they knew the house has lots of problems and wanted to find out which were the important ones surveyors would pick up on to fix. Only they didn’t want to pay for the building inspection so they waited until Muggins here came along and paid for it and then expected a freebie.
Now AIBU because I want to go back to the agent and say if they want a copy they can pay us £320 (half the cost) for it.
DH wants to just forget it or to give them a copy purely because our money has gone now and if we don’t give them the survey they’ll do the same to some other poor sap.
So AIBU or is he?