fees payable if pull out of sale

[theforgetfulone]

Survey revealed condemed old back boiler, dodgy electrics, and various other bits. Reckon could cost up to 20k to fix. (£300k) house. Love the house. Offered full asking price, thinking of asking for £20k reduction to cover cost. If vendor refuses and we pull out, what happens re fees. Obviously we will have paid for the survey, but how does solicitors payment work. We will not have gone all the way to purchase, but have had some initial contact, do we pay a proprtion of the fee to the solicitor. Does that mean every time a sale falls through, still end up paying solicitors fees. Could end up very expensive!! Dont quite understand how it all works

It really depends on your solicitor. I would check the terms of the client care letter/terms of business they sent to you when you signed up as a client. Some will charge a % of the full fee, some will charge for the time spent to date, some will not charge at all, except for searches you have already had done.

Yes, of course you will need to pay your solicitor for the work they have already done.

mintyy-yes, i know that will pay for work already done, but if it is a "conveyencing package" is the whole package paid for, despite the sale not being completed. I know i have the info, but am currently not at home, so dont have it at hand.

I'm sorry but I don't know the terms that you have agreed with your solicitor .

its one only your solicitor can answer. we pilled out but didn't have to pay anything and money we had already out forward went on new searches. I guess it depends in how far you are down the road and what s/he has done to date

Everything you mention is pretty standard for any property over 30 years old, and surveys are often very over cautious. If you love the house, don't let it put you off necessarily.

My DM's boiler was condemned by British Gas years ago. Every year the engineers come and service it, tell her it's perfectly safe, but that by law they have to condemn it because it's not to current standards.

Likewise with electrics. They change the regulations every few years so most houses fail surveys. Most people don't require every few years though.

Are you sure it's going to cost 20k? How about getting some estimates for the work that needs doing and then presenting your proposed reduction to the vendor.
I replaced a back boiler for £1800, our rewire is costing £5k(for a very big house almost twice the value of yours).
Often these seem like tremendously overwhelming jobs but actually they are fine. We've had roofs replaced on two properties now and each time our friends told us it would be a awful & expensive job. Each time it was in reality quite easy and not that expensive.

You will have to pay a percentage of the solicitors' fees, as they have already done work on your behalf. Contact them and ask. The same thing has happened to us and I am waiting to hear how much we owe. I imagine it will be something like 50% of the original quote.

I agree that you may be overestimating the cost of putting things right. have you spoked to the surveyor to clarify? For example, a bopiler over ten years may be "condemned" on energy efficeiency grounds rather than because there is actually anything wrong with it. Similarly, when we bought our current house, the "electrics" came up in the survey but that was mainly because they hadn't been checked since the house was built some 25 years earlier and various regulations had changed in the meantime. We got them properly checked over when we moved in and installed a consumer unit for less than £1000 from what recall.