To not know what to do.

[fancybiccies]

Long story short, we bought a house a year ago. Needed some work, but ultimate plan was to do it up, make some money and move back to near family.
We have bought the house, gutted it and done everything. New kitchens, bathrooms, carpets, decoration, landscape gardens etc.
We had a survey (just regular home buyers survey) when we were buying and everything came back fine. No issues with structural/damp/anything.
We have a buyer and are due to exchange in a week.
They have just paid a surveyor to go over the entire property over the course of 3.5 hours. It was the most comprehensive survey you can buy.
They have come back with so so many things they are saying is wrong.
They say that the garden is sinking and needs digging up and re landscaping, the loft is apparently covered in mold, the garden walls around all 4 sides are twisting and need knocking down and rebuilding, the drains are blocked. They want to knock £50,000 off the purchase price a week before exchange.
Our survey done a year ago shows none of this. Just garden and walls satisfactory, they have moved slightly when settling but this is deemed as old and the property is now 20 years old.
Builder friend says that items in the loft often get covered in mold. The items up there aren’t even ours, I think they’ve been there 20 years. It’s a few old Santa sacks and a box of cuddly toys.
What would you do?

Tell them they either exchange on the agreed date or you're selling to someone else. No messing about for weeks, no game playing, take it or leave it.

We had this experience when selling in 2015. The CF buyer:

1 Lied that they were in rented accommodation, when in reality they owned their house, just wanted ours as an address to get their children into the excellent schools nearby. We'd chosen them out of 4 people who offered the full asking price, because there was no chain, and we believed them that they were renting.

2 Weirdly wanted a scan of the Council Tax bill - probably in connection with the above.

2 Had a full structural survey then demanded £10k off the agreed selling price for petty nonsense.

I told them flatly 'No' re. dropping price after the survey, and gave them one week to exchange contracts before we would put it back on the market.

I had to do this with no support from our Estate Agent who was absolutely useless.

They didn't want to lose our house, so exchanged 6 days later.

They never actually moved in, and now rent it out.

I would love to grass up their lies re. their address to the LEA., but I don't want to give myself stress, and would not do it anonymously.

The property transaction system in England badly needs reform.

I hope it all works out for you.

just say no - and that you are putting it back on the market .

Those things are not going to cost 50 grand . And anyway even that reduction would delay things . because presumably they would have to get mortgage and all other documents changed . Sorry but you cant go ahead anyway so just play hardball . I bet they come back with another offer . don't play the game .

I just hope one of our previous offers are still interested, just to spite them.
We only went with this family as they gushed so much about how they loved the property and were chain free. There’s wasn’t even the highest offer.
It’s all radio silence so will see what tomorrow brings.

Good luck tomorrow.

wasn’t even the highest offer.

Omg! Contact the higher offer people tomorrow

I'm glad you have stood firm OP, and said no to these cheeky chancers, I'm stunned at what they have tried to do to you...

I think your solicitor needs to give their solicitor a deadline. Like the end of tomorrow for a decision. Don't just wait around

@fancybiccies

Have you heard anything?

No nothing. As it stands we won’t reduce, they won’t pay previous offer price.
They’re fast tracking the survey through this week and we have 2 more viewings from buyers later in the week.

Well looks like they won't be buying then!

I wonder if you'll end up with a better deal from this - now that would be funny. However, I'm sorry about the stress and the potential for the chain to fall through.

Them fast tracking the survey presumably won't make a difference to the fact you aren't going to give them a 50k discount tho...

Hope you get a higher offer.

Those vintage stickers 😍😍😍

Jokers. I've had this twice. Once in a 400 year old cottage. Buyers claimed the beam in the living room wasn't wide enough to hold the ceiling up. It had managed very well for the last four centuries. Turned out they were going by modern building regs from 1998 which wouldn't have counted in such an old house. I said no, lost the sale, but resold within two weeks.

I think you've done the right thing OP

All sounds like a load of shit as nothing needs to be done that costs money (apart from possibly the drains - but how would they know these were blocked, as I didnt think comprehensive surveys looked into the drains, and surely youd have known!?)

Mouldy things in loft - if the actual loft is mouldy, fair enough as will need to be cleaned and treated. If literally just a couple of boxes then once these are removed at no cost there is no mould issue

Garden walls twisted - if not connected to any structure or in danger of collapse then surely this is just cosmetic. What are the consequences of doing nothing? If it's just they look shit then what's the issue?

Garden sinking- very odd. If it's really sinking then youd be worried about subsidence to the structure of the house, which may need underpinning, which can cost 10k. But if their solution is landscaping, its again cosmetic, surely if they are not suggesting it affects the house? How can the garden be sinking but not the house? And how would this landscaping prevent it sinking further? Is it sinking at all?

I'd ask them for a detailed breakdown of the work required and reasons for the work to see where they have got 50k from, just to give them a nice little task, while you find another buyer

Doing all this the week before all exchanges to be signed off? Definitely chancers ...they could have got this type of survey done at any time during the whole process. I would definitely not be dropping 50k op and as you can't take up the new house if you did the decision is easy. Hopefully they will retract or reduce request very substantially this week. If they don't at least there is no need to agonize over your decision because the other house would be lost. Hope they retract. or better still they retract but by the time they do you have accepted an offer from another buyer.

I've no advice, or experience of this, I'm afraid, just wanted to wish you well. 😊

How stressful and horrible, really sorry to hear this OP.

Unless you live in a stately home, it does not cost anywhere near £50k to replace garden walls and treat a loft for mould. Or to unblock a drain (not sure what that costs but it should be cheaper than a reline, and to reline our damaged under house drains we’ve been quoted £1800).

They have produced a very suspicious round number. For £50k you could, on a 4 bed house, take the loft off, throw it away, and build a brand new lovely 2 bedroom loft conversion (we had quotes recently, a bit more expensive than anticipated! We’re in south england).

That they haven’t shown you the survey yet is also suspicious. It definitely will have a valuation number in it. That number might be disappointing and surveyor valuations can vary greatly. But you should be told what the official valuation is.

I don’t quite get how the garden can be sinking and “need relandscaping”. If you have a subsidence issue that is damaging your house, then that could indeed lower value, but that doesn’t seem to be what they’re saying. I’m sure if their surveyor mentioned subsidence they would have told you!

I think the starting point is to write to them with something like the following...

“Dear X... We’re sorry to hear that your surveyor has raised some concerns about the loft and garden. We’re shocked by his comments, as I’m sure are you. Would it be possible for us to see the written report, so we can reflect on the detail?

At the moment our thinking is that, when the house was valued at ££, that was in its current state with the loft and garden in their current condition. If we had relandscaped the garden and updated the loft, the original asking price would have been higher to reflect that. [For example, for £50,000 we could convert the loft into a new floor with 2-3 rooms which would significantly raise the value of the house.]

We are still keen to go ahead with this sale, but we simply aren’t in a position to do so at the figure you mention: it wouldn’t fund our intended purchase or justify the investment we’ve made here. For that kind of price it would make more financial sense for us to hold on to this property for now.

As I say we would very much like to sell to you, but if not we will need to take advice and possibly put the property back on the market. Given the timelines we’ve discussed, I would be very grateful if you could let us know as soon as possible if you in a position to proceed with the exchange on [date] at the agreed price?

What a nightmare for you hope all resolved quickly

Don’t go with them they don’t deserve the house!

So... the plot thickens.
My DH is in the engineering trade, nothing to do with houses, but he knows some building regs officers.
He got one of them out this afternoon, off the record.
He was here for an hour, walked through the whole house including the loft.
Absolutely no damp anywhere. In his opinion everything written in the surveyors report is wrong.
In regards to the garden there is no subsidence. Our properties are built on marsh/clay, so are boggy. Building regs man said all perfectly normal and the other 49 houses on the estate will be identical.
The 4 garden walls have moved, but just when they were settling into place 20 odd years ago (plus the fact their built on clay)
Our landscaped garden and garden walls have perfectly adequate footings for what they are, eg a non load bearing garden wall.
So basically absolutely nothing to justify a £50,000 reduction.
Because it was off the record he won’t provide a written statement.
Considering getting our own surveyor In, but I don’t think there’s any point. Think this couple just wanted a sneaky reduction last minute so I’m going to tell them to do one.

Ah ha! So they are just bloody chancers! Really hope that one of your earlier interested people are still in the frame!

Honestly thought my house was falling down. I’ve been so upset.

OP they are under no obligation to show you their survey - it's their information which they paid for.
You have similar though from when you bought it a year ago. So you have access to some information too.
Remember that they paid for their info. If they walk away now, they'll have lost that money and any solicitors fees they've shelled out so far.

They don't really want to walk away.

Hold your nerve.

Yes, hold your nerve.
I think in years to come, giving them that £50k will rankle more than having to find new buyers and even possibly losing the house you offered on.

The report hasn't been written or shown to you, so it's not that the report contains lies it's that your buyers have fed you a bunch of lies to try and pull a fast one. With an "our surveyor says" added on to try and give it credence.

At best the surveyor made similar comments to your contact and they've leapt on those and embellished them to try and get their way.

Hence the supposed unavailability of the report that would back them up. If you had agreed to the price drop everything would have gone through before their made up timescale for the report's availability by which time it would have been pointless to see it and too late to act on.

It's blatant bullshit. Be angry with them not the surveyor they've appointed as scapegoat! And don't waste more time or money trying to disprove their nonsense.