Seller threatening to pull out

[Raptorgirl]

Hi And help! I put an offer on a property that was on market at an inflated rice back at end of August. The offer was accepted at 15,000 below as it needed refurbishment and a kitchen installed. My homebuyers survey found problems with roof, guttering and damp recommending urgent repairs. I informed sellers that I wanted to get quotes for work before my solicitor incurred costs especially as sellers have flatly refused to renegotiate price. My solicitor has agreed to hold off until then. The damp inspection and survey costs so far is over £700. Solicitors fees up front to draft contract etc will be £700 immediately the start the work.
I'm still waiting for the quotes to come in.
however, this evening sellers Agent phoned today saying sellers are giving me a deadline by next week to instruct my solicitor to proceed. Sellers are refusing to help ascertain sources of damp or get the roof looked at or help get any local people in. I'm at the other end of the country and its taking time to pin down contractors.
The property is still advertised on Rightmove, STC. It's been on market sine January and there's been no interest since I made my offer. I've said the seller is welcome to sell the property to someone else if they get a buyer while I'm waiting but they would have to inform buyer where I'm at re purchase. The cottage is used for private holiday use but has according to my survey been 'poorly maintained'.

I don't know now whether to proceed given their threats and lack of willingness to negotiate or wait for quotes for urgent repairs. Are they serious sellers or not?

Sorry for long post, totally stressed, please feel free to jump in.

I would ask the agent why the rush. They have had it on the market for 6 months, have a potential buyer, and suddenly giving you a deadline. I could understand if offers where flying in. I would be worried that this is going to turn difficult with them, and perhaps pull out, or let them know that unless you can do the surveys as needed (paying the costs involved), you will walk away.

How do you feel about walking away?

They're having a strop, they probably won'tp ill out as they know there'sn o one elsei interested but I suppose they could keep letting it. Do you want to proceed given their reluctance to renegotiate.

How much do you want the property? You don't seem desperate for it.

If you really want it I would call their bluff and carry on. If there has been no other interest then their threats are fairly empty.

If it's on RM as STC though, it's not coming up in people's searches. So they're not actively marketing it while they wait for you. If you're happy for them to do so, let them know, you seem confident they won't get a better offer and it will stop them feeling antsy.

What's your gut feeling about the costs you're looking at? If they're not willing to negotiate, will it be worth proceeding?

Hi all. Many thanks for responding (what a great place!).

Arranged with my solicitor to write to their solicitor directly with copy of survey, quotes when in, to renegotiate.

None of this ends well so you might just as well sit back and enjoy this sorry saga LOL

Well after finally getting a roofing quote this morning by text in response to my urgent phone messages last night, builder said he had sent email quote nearly 2 weeks ago but thanks to Virgin media 'improved' spam system that because it's full of bugs, junks legitimate emails as well as spam before they even get into customers web mail accounts now, I didn't receive the quote along with several other critical emails and ... The result of this delay, I received an email from the vendors Agents (which did evade spa busters!) that they do not want a damp inspection which I had arranged for tomorrow to have access because they were 'concerned the person I had booked wouldn't know about the 'special material' that had been used to line chimney' - really? A NACS registered chimney sweeper and HETAS engineer and a builder to boot, I think he was well qualified!

All of which is a moot because the Agent also said that he had been instructed to withdraw the sale and put the property back on the market. I've just lost over £540 in surveyors fees, ££350 for the cost of travel and b&b for a second viewing, plus hours and hours of mobile phone calls researching the area and trying to get quotes etc.

I may well have walked away if there were damp remedial costs on top of the £14,000 for exterior works quoted by the roofing company and they still refused to drop but that would have been and should have been my decision as its me that's incurred all the costs to date.

My own buyers survey has come back, he wants a reduction for decorative works he's already seen and dampproofing and my estate agent, who obviously wants the sale is trying to persuade me to agree. I also have already roofing costs to pay for on the sale of my property.

Aaaaaahhhh??
Thank you all anyway, may be back with a new chapter in due course!

I think you need to reassess your position if I'd accepted an offer 15,000 below asking price I would have been annoyed at all the further demands to reduce whatever the reason you already got 15,000 off. Do you still want it? If so I would proceed they want to sell they just think you are dicking around and its absolutely not just your decision whether to proceed they have every right to decide you aren't serious and that they are better of starting over. If you want it tell them and go for it, if you don't don't. Fwiw I just bought and survey threw up loads of stuff around £10,000 worth we have been here 18 months and nearly all of it was scaremongering and surveyed problems have cost less than £1,500. Surveys paint the worst case scenario

Your vendor has put the house back on the market because you told your solicitor not to proceed while you wanted further surveys and estimates for the "work" needed and a renegotiation of the price. When you instruct a solicitor not to proceed, the whole process comes to a halt, including that of any other parties in the chain. That is highly irritating and obviously results in delays for everyone.

While a survey is important to the purchaser, the only bit in the survey that the solicitor needs to be aware of is the part at the end where the survey refers to matters which should be raised with your legal representative. Other problems in the survey are not his concern. They are for you to take a view on. Surveys do scaremonger and have to mention everything, even if the work is not necessary straight away. Obviously you must also bear in mind that if the work (or some of it) is apparent by a inspection viewing by you, and the EA, then the price at which the property was marketed should reflect that. You are already paying £15k less than the asking price, so maybe trying to negotiate downwards would seem cheeky to the vendor and has resulted in him withdrawing the sale to you. It does seem to be a seller's market in a lot of areas at the moment - houses in my area are snapped up quickly but as your potential house has been on the market for 6 months, it may be a buyer's market or the house was overpriced. However, the seller doesn't have to reduce his price to you or anyone and therefore, you either buy at the agreed price or you walk away. Similarly with your buyers - just tell them no, they've seen the house as is and there are no further reductions for work that isn't vital immediately.

I'm torn on this. I can see why they're frustrated at the delay, but as you said, it's not like they've been inundated with potential buyers. The lack of cooperation does make me wonder if there is some expensive work to be done and they do not want you to know this. I cannot see any other reason for the refusal for the damp inspection, particularly after the comment about the "special material." A bit odd IMO.

Annoying, but frankly, I'd cut my losses and look at other properties.

They sound like a nightmare! Of course it would be reasonable to negotiate a further reduction based on things that come up in the survey - especially damp and roofing issues. You didn't know about these issues when you first offered, now you do. Standard practice to ask for a reduction based on that work (especially if it's work your mortgage provider requires is carried out, as is often the case with roof/damp).

I've somewhat lost track of where you are in the process/ with the vendors. But I too would ask the agent why they're being so jumpy and clearly explain why you need time to investigate all these issues properly.

if I'd accepted an offer 15,000 below asking price I would have been annoyed at all the further demands to reduce whatever the reason you already got 15,000 off.

The point is that a purchaser offers what they think the house is worth based on what they can see of it on their viewings.

When a survey throws up very significant extra work that was not seen by the buyer, then it is entirely reasonable to negotiate downwards again by at least some of the cost of this work (the amount that could not be reasonably fioreseen).

As an example, we offered on our current house based on the assumption that it needed a new boiler, new kitchen and bathrooms, and a total cosmetic overhaul - negotiating at that point a 10% reduction on the original price.

The survey threw up the fact that all windows were dangerous (individual leaded lights, which were decayed to the point where the whole window pane moved in the wind, threatening to burst shards of glass everywhere and certainly not safe for anyone to put a hand against - we couldn't see this because net curtains were used throughout the house), the lighting circuits non-earthed and all the water piping was dangerous.

We negotiated again based on the survey findings, with detailed quotes for the unforeseen work. I think our final reduction was something like 18% of the original asking price - not the full cost of all the extra works, because the general dilapidation of the property led us to suspect some things would need doing, but a significant proportion.