AIBU to ask House Buyers to pay?

[HouseSaleIssue]

Currently selling house. Put up for sale for £295000 just before lockdown. When housing market opened again, we accepted an offer of £278500 from a couple in rented accommodation with a 25% deposit and a mortgage in principal already agreed. While waiting for survey, the flat roof died so we have had to spend £3000 replacing it. Due to flat roof leak, wallpaper at rear of lounge and a small section in the kitchen is ruined. There is a section of the wall which is damp and will take time to dry out. We have had to remove the wallpaper in the section affected.
As we have added value to property by replacing 11 year old flat roof (cost £3000) and also discounted asking price by £16500, is it reasonable to ask our buyers to sort out redecoration after they acquire the house?

@Byllis

Sounds positive. I don't think you have anything to worry about, but I would just keep the buyer informed (via EA, solicitor or even directly if you're already talking to them that way).

Thank you. We will do this for sure.

@bumhead

So because you didn't maintain the flat roof it died so now you want to make the new buyers pay for it?

*@bumhead* If you had bothered to read the thread, you would have realised that we have replaced the flat roof at our own expense. We have certainly not failed to maintain the roof. You don't replace a flat roof preemptively before a problem arises.

@Housesaleissue Yes, because you didn't look after it all the time you have owned the house or at least allowed it to get to the point where it 'died'.
And it's still your house so I'm baffled as to why you expect the new buyer to pay for something you didn't maintain properly all the time you have lived there.
You don't replace a flat roof preemptively but you don't neglect it to the point of collapse and expect someone else to pay either. It got to that state because you didn't look after it. Would you expect the owners of the house you're buying to make you pay for the repair of neglect at their house?

[quote bumhead]@Housesaleissue Yes, because you didn't look after it all the time you have owned the house or at least allowed it to get to the point where it 'died'.
And it's still your house so I'm baffled as to why you expect the new buyer to pay for something you didn't maintain properly all the time you have lived there.
You don't replace a flat roof preemptively but you don't neglect it to the point of collapse and expect someone else to pay either. It got to that state because you didn't look after it. Would you expect the owners of the house you're buying to make you pay for the repair of neglect at their house?[/quote]
@bumhead
Maintenance of a flat roof involves addressing problems as they arise, which we have done in a timely manner. I fail to understand what you think we have failed to do with regard to maintenance of the flat roof.

You are moaning because you have to buy lining paper and magnolia paint?
YABVU

You need to have the house repaired to the condition it was in when you accepted the offer. That is, you need to make the repairs and you need to have the walls painted or wallpapered so that they are in an a condition that is acceptable to the buyers. That means that it should be at least as agreeable to their taste as the walls you had before.

And no, you can't pass the cost along.

YABVU

You need to put it right and pay for it yourself. If it is non-descript, as you say, then it sounds perfectly liveable until they get around to changing what they want. When I moved into my first house from renting, luckily the walls were neutral, and we left them as such for a couple of years. We had spent every penny on the house and furnishing it, so were pleased we didn’t have to shell out for paint and wallpaper.

Honestly, just have a conversation with the buyer. Most people are reasonable so just, via your solicitors, explain what has happened, explain what the options are, ask them what they'd prefer to do and go from there!

They might say "oh, don't worry about decorating, we were planning on doing that anyway", or they might ask you to put it right in which case you can claim in your insurance or agree to split to cost. If they do turn out to be unreasonable and want the earth then your solicitor can advise from there.

So many problems can be solved with actual conversations.

*@LadyFlumpalot,

Wise advice. Many thanks I have asked the estate agent to let the buyers know about the wallpaper damage in advance of them doing a second viewing with a builder this weekend.

[quote bumhead]@Housesaleissue Yes, because you didn't look after it all the time you have owned the house or at least allowed it to get to the point where it 'died'.
And it's still your house so I'm baffled as to why you expect the new buyer to pay for something you didn't maintain properly all the time you have lived there.
You don't replace a flat roof preemptively but you don't neglect it to the point of collapse and expect someone else to pay either. It got to that state because you didn't look after it. Would you expect the owners of the house you're buying to make you pay for the repair of neglect at their house?[/quote]
Possibly off topic, but how do you ‘maintain’ a flat roof? I am genuinely intrigued as to how you would do this other than fix problems as they arise.

@QuitMoaning

I completely agree! Me thinks that @bumhead has never had a flat roof and is in fact talking nonsense.

@HouseSaleIssue

Going on general concensus, I think we will need to offer them a discount to cover cost of redecoration. I think that the wall could take a while to dry out.

It could take weeks for it all to dry out. As a buyer I would expect you to arrange and pay for dehumidifiers until the wall is properly dry and then to make the decoration in both rooms good unless I was planning to renovate completely in the very near future. After all I would have to do any redecoration/renovation in stages and thkse rooms might be last

discounted asking price by £16500
I'd take off the costs from this discount.

You haven't added value to the property by spending 3k on a roof lol.

They're kind of essential.

The only thing left to do is decorate- is that right? If that's the case just leave it. N2w people can redecorate if they wish plus dosnt the wall need to dry for couple months?

oops sorry, iPad hiccupped onto this thread

I'll get it deleted !

@Waveysnail

Yes, that's right! New roof has been done. It is now a case of wallpapering and painting affected areas once the walls have dried out.

@Gobbycop

You haven't added value to the property by spending 3k on a roof lol.

They're kind of essential.

I disagree. The property was marketed with an 11 year old flat roof, which clearly would have needed replacing in the next few years. By putting a new flat roof on, it has removed the strong probability of the buyers having to replace it themselves in the imminent future. This is clearly an improvement which will increase the salability of the house, should we need to put it back on the market in the event of this sale falling through.

@monkeymonkey2010

discounted asking price by £16500 I'd take off the costs from this discount.

It's not a discount. It's the offer that was made and accepted; presumably OP didn't think she could get the asking price. OP wasn't doing them a favour by taking what she presumably thought was the best offer she would get.

*@HouseSaleIssue
We accepted the offer immediately when we came out of lockdown thinking house prices were likely to collapse. Turns out we were wrong as prices have gone up and not down. We were foolish to accept such a low offer, but it's done now.