Would you still buy this house?

[advisemeifyouplease]

Hey everyone, appreciate all opinions on this one please :)

A year ago my then fiancé and I saw a house come on the market, liked the look of it but too expensive - we couldn’t afford it and looked over priced to us.

Over 9 months price slowly dropped and we put an offer in. Vendor rejected our first three offers (we went up a bit each time) and we walked away as we’d offered our max.

Six weeks later vendor phoned back up to accept our offer but wanted the whole thing done in three months. In the interim we’d decided to focus on arranging our wedding so said we’d try to meet timelines but no promises as we’d already put down payments on the wedding venue etc and were organising it within the same three month window too!

Exchange date originally set for start of Sept, completion end Sept. After sorting initial lawyer paperwork etc we organised survey for Aug (first available date for the guy we’d found). Got back from wedding and honeymoon to read survey and it’s thrown up some potential issues - damp, small amounts dry rot, old electrics. Survey recommends further checks.

We informed vendor we can’t exchange until we’ve done our due diligence, vendor now saying he’s happy for us to do the follow up checks but he’s putting house back on market as must complete by 30th. Also whatever info we get back from checks he won’t lower price (we didn’t ask for this though!).

Is this normal? Is he being unreasonable? I’ve not bought a house before! We are tempted to say we’ll pull out unless he keeps house off market until 30th minimum. We’ve paid good money for survey and lawyers, and would be paying more for these extra checks whilst he’s having new buyers look round! Love the house, it does have its down sides which we were happy to accept but vendor’s behaviour is putting us right off!

[musicalkittens]

Bear in mind that in many places the market has slowed a lot in the last 6 months and prices are dropping at the moment as we enter a period of recession. While it sounds as if you have messed him around in not getting the survey done sooner, dry rot can cost over £100k to sort out (obviously depending on size of problem) so it isn't something you can take a risk over. If the vendor decides to put the property back on the market, that's their choice - just like it's your choice as to whether you proceed with further investigations or pull out now. I would be concerned with him saying straight away that he won't renegotiate the price regardless of the survey findings. The further investigation might reveal a significant problem that will result in the valuation being reduced and therefore your mortgage offer being withdrawn at the current price being paid. Go and look at what else is on the market this weekend and see how you feel about the property after then.

[advisemeifyouplease]

Hi everyone, just wanted to jump in quickly to say thank you for all your advice! We haven’t quite decided what we’ll do yet (mulling some of the options being suggested on this thread) but will be using your feedback to make a plan by Monday. Thanks again :)