To think this is more than unfair on a potential buyer?

[eeffoc123]

People we know went on the market with their house a few years back and accepted an offer, but when the buyer had paid out for the survey it was discovered that the roof needed a whole load of cash spent on it so the unfortunate buyers had to pull out, having lost the money they spent on their survey.

The sellers are back on the market again but they have switched agent so they aren't forced to declare the problem. They have not priced the house to take into account the fact that the work will need to be carried out.

The way things stand, someone will like and offer on the house, pay out for a survey and then the issue will become clear again. Those potential buyers may have to pull out like the first ones, having lost £1K or whatever a survey costs nowadays.

AIBU to think this is totally out of order of the sellers? The have form for being dishonest over other matters. Goodness knows what other issues with the house they are hiding. Surely considering a survey will show up the issue they should take the cost of fixing it off their sale price.?

Just interested in other people's opinions on this- or is that the risk you take when having to instruct t a surveyor?

How desperately in need of doing is this work, if it was first identified several years ago, they still haven’t rectified it, and it hasn’t yet deteriorated further so as to become evident? Perhaps they obtained a second opinion which said it wasn’t as much of an issue.

Very unfair if they are unwilling to reflect the need for repairs in the price as history likely to repeat itself

Assuming you have pointed this out to them already there is nothing you can do about it though other than inform potential buyers if they approach you to discuss the sale (if you live next door to the house for example)

I see where you’re coming from but I don’t think they’re unreasonable.

No one is going to put their house on sale with “needs a new roof so we’ve dropped the price” in the particulars, and some people will still go ahead with the purchase regardless of the issue - just because one person pulled out, doesn’t mean others will.

Of course, if they’re asked a direct question about the roof they should answer honestly.

Not sure if it would have got any worse in the last few years but it definitely needs doing. It a the type of thing that not only the surveyors report would pick up, but also a valuation surveyor report from a lender would pick up- so the type of thing that the lender would insist is done by putting a retention on a mortgage, for example. So if a buyer didn't have the ready cash to fix the problem, they would have to pull out

Wouldn't a potential buyer just try to knock of the amount needed to do the roof from the house price once they have had their surveys back?

That assumes they would have the ready cash. Better for them to know before they spent out money on a survey so they can decide whether this would be a possibility or not: if the money is going to come off eventually, why not just be upfront about it?

Can you say with certainty that the sellers haven't actually had the roof repaired?

If it’s something that will definitely be picked up on the survey then I’d suspect their plan is to wait until those survey results come in, and then negotiate with the buyer over lowering the offer. This is standard. Buyers always like to think they’re getting a bargain, so an estate agent will generally advise that if you want to achieve £300k, to list at £330-350k and then negotiate. Whereas if you list at £300k and say “this price already reflects that it needs £20k of work” you’ll still get people trying to negotiate you down further even though the cost of the work has been factored in already.

They may get be hoping someone buys it without bothering with more than a valuation survey, or even none at all. It happens.

It's not ethical but I doubt it's vanishingly rare either. House buying in England is just awful.

This is standard when selling a house. I think you're getting unduly wound up.

You have to remember too that not everyone is really committed to moving at all. They may just be trying their luck and may be happy to wait years until they can get what they think it's worth. It's not inevitable that they will have to drop the price at all, they can just decide not to drop the price and stay put.

I have neighbours who put their house on the market annually, always at a vastly inflated price. They are planning to move one day but are not really bothered about when, or how it affects anyone else.

Surveyors are not exactly roofing experts. They will simply give a worst case scenario based on what they can see. We bought a house with an original roof - looked bad and we were worried as FTB. Found a fantastic surveyor but he was truthful and said it was a gamble but it should be the first thing we get checked if we proceeded with a professional. Knew we would have to redo the flat roof a so asked the local roofer to check while he was up there. Told "ooooh, you have 6 weeks of life left before it comes crashing down on you and your baby" then came around later with tile samples and a quote for £8k. We then contacted 3 other firms including a nationwide one which does big council contracts - all three said though cosmetically old, it was perfectly sound and would last many more years! No need to do anything unless we wanted it looking nicer.

We fully renovated but decided we wanted to move to countryside after lockdown - market in our area was white hot. Sold within a week. Buyers did a survey. Their surveyor was a con man, was on site for 9 mins spending 5 mins chatting and saying what a wonderful job we did on house! Buyers came back a week later demanding £20k off price due to roof being ready to collapse! Asked for the report findings and everything in it was basically made up - nothing even related to our house.

As we had recent reports from 3 firms as well as accurate quotes if we wanted to cosmetically re-tile (6-8k) and Ring camera time stamps of their crook staying for 9 mins, we declined. Sold to a lovely couple a week later. Ironically they used our original great surveyor who we had fixed everything in his original report! Roof still standing. So much for 6 weeks!

This is only standard with unscrupulous sellers and people with low morals. It is why an agent has to tell buyers why a previous sale fell through. Switching agents is an underhand way of getting round this issue but is wrong when it means a second lot of potential buyers may end up wasting money they may not be able to afford

Caveat emptor.

Unfortunately this is the process in the UK

Morally wrong yes, but YABU.

Houses need maintaining, so anyone buying a house has to expect things will come up along the way. This is why you engage a surveyor - because you'd rather find major faults and lose a little money than miss something important. When we bought our house we were told by the surveyor that the roof would need restacking at some stage. It wasn't until about 12 years later we needed to do the work. It looks smart and it just one of those costs you get with houses.

Actually no. In Scotland the seller pays for a Home Report and that’s before it goes on the market. They are not infallible, and they could stand a revision , but a dodgy roof, windows, rot etc should be detailed in the report and replicated in the value, if not the price.

This happened to us. We pulled out of a house sale because the full survey we had was appalling and the vendors didn't want to reduce the price. There was asbestos lining the airing cupboard and the boiler needed replacing so it wasn't something to be ignored. The house was rented for a few years before going back up for sale and someone I knew was buying it. I asked whether the boiler had been replaced - no, and they were planning on an extension which would mean the asbestos shed outside would also need taking down. I asked what their survey had said about the asbestos and they hadn't had a full one ... I gave them ours - which we'd paid >£1000 for - and she never spoke to me again! Bought the house too.

All houses have shit wrong with them why reflect it in price before the buyers find out? My solicitor said only about half of people get a survey anyway.

I think it’s shitty but of course they wouldn’t highlight everything wrong with their gaff to someone who they want to buy it 😂

How do you know so much about the situation? Who are you in relation to this house?.

They havnt put a price on the house so if a buyer got a survey , found the problem , they are then able to make a lower offer based on the cost to repair the defects.

I was gonna say, if they're just people they know, how can OP know the details of the state of their roof? The fact they've changed agents etc? Either she's mates with them, stalking them or the former buyer.

Yes, I was confused as I thought Home owner reports were UK wide, and this would have been picked up then . Apparently not.