What's wrong with this house?

[BeebleBeeble]

NC for potential outing and just general info! Had offer accepted, process is ongoing. Having doubts about the house - because I'm anxious? I don't know.

1. Last sale of the house was stated on rightmove, and confirmed by agents. After doing some digging we found the house was also listed for sale (twice, with different agents, in six months) two years after the 'last sale.' We think developers originally bought the house and current owners bought it two years later. But that sale isn't listed anywhere else (not on land registry at all, only rightmove mentions it and also has one of the old listings). We asked agents again and they said they had no idea.

1. Old listing' had a lot more details than recent listing, including a cellar we didn't know was there (not in house description, agents didn't know or didn't tell us). It is apparently accessible and of decent size but no mention was made at the viewing or in the brochure. Same with other saleable details like original flooring. I don't know why the agent wouldn't know these things, or why they wouldn't be stated as a selling point this time around.

1. Price is very good for the area, still within the expected/average amount but lately houses have been going for so much more than asking. With the high spec of the house the price seemed too good to be true almost.

1. House had two failed sales before now, including one where buyer pulled out just before exchange. Just someone being an asshole, or a bad sign for something wrong with the house?

I've watched too many horror movies and property disaster shows and I just have a bad feeling, like the house is too nice to be ours I suppose? Can anyone talk me down or offer some rational thinking? I'm having nightmares of finding something desperately bad like corpses in the cellar and wondering why the house hadn't been snapped up a few months ago...

I wouldn't read too much into the mission g cellar, estate agents can be good, or pretty lazy. When we looked round a house we eventually bought, we found a downstairs bathroom which was missing from the particulars (not hidden, off the hall!). Never rule out incompetence!

Im not sure about the listings but I’d define be going to have another look at the house, inorder to see the cellar. I’d want to make sure it’s not flooded or something.

Id imagine the price is “average” because they’ve had sales falling through and they want to move.

Meant to say 'missing cellar'

Have you had a survey done? With question marks like this over a house I'd certainly want a full structural survey. They should investigate the cellar and will also identify any bug issues that may have put others off. It is also possible that the cellar has now been filled in due to some previous issue.

As for the sales history - that does sound odd, but your solicitor should turn up anything that doesn't add up and it is worth discussing what you've found with them. Aside from that I think you need to speak to the vendors - either directly or via the agent - and ask these questions out right. They should know the details of their property and they are perfectly reasonable things to want to know about before spending a large amount of money.

You really need a full and comprehensive survey, and to see the results of the searches. You MAY find a reason why other sales have failed, but you may not. At least you will have discounted structural problems or somehting awful being built nearby. (Or any other of the numerous problems like mine workings beneath etc etc)
Many years ago I bought a house that had been on the market for over a year and had several sales fall through. I was very suspicious, and arranged a survey straight away privately as I didn't want to wait for the building society ( which would have taken weeks, and time was of the essence). There was nothing wrong with it, other than being utterly filthy. I spent 15 happy years there.

What did your survey say re possible work or problems?

The survey is forthcoming so I'll definitely be paying attention to that. The agent doesn't appear to know anything (as expected) so we will discuss with the solicitor, and also with the vendor when we do a second view (already booked). I just have to figure out how to word the questions. My DH thinks I'm being ridiculous!

Not ridiculous - reasonable. Probably nothing weird and low price is for a quick sale. (I am about to sell and need to move quickly so have "priced to sell". Whether that will make any difference or not I don't know)

I bought a house once and the agents didn't even mention that it had a garage!!!! (In a block away from the house but nonetheless...). The vendor wouldn't have known as lived abroad and was selling something he'd been left in a will via an agent.

Update: everything is actually okay with the previous listings, there was a simple explanation. We're speaking with the vendor at the weekend to clarify some other stuff.

Major big issue still right now is leasehold/freehold. House wasn't advertised as freehold (so no written evidence of it) but agents have alternately said 'it's freehold definitely' and 'we don't know' and 'the vendor says it is, ask them.' Which of course we will. Most other houses on the street are leasehold which is why we want to check.

We downloaded land registry details and it appears to be leasehold, owned by three freeholders who seem to have purchased only in summer last year. Bit dodgy as I googled their names and they are in a number of failed business ventures/dissolved companies so just wary of their interest in the properties on the street. Lease is a long one if it still applies (600+ years) and no word on ground rents as yet. I feel like we're doing all we can (chasing agents for written confirmation of freehold, talking to vendors, we are officially instructing solicitor next week and getting them to investigate the leasehold thing and obtain the full register)

So that's my current concern, even though leasehold is common in the area I'm not too keen on having a dodgy landlord to be honest. Not really sure what else to do except worry!

Okay OP, if in doubt, pull out ! I think you are right to be concerned.
Find yourself a nice freehold property. Don't just settle for something you are unsure about. If you insist, I would lower your offer, my bet is, they'll snap your hand off. Not always a good sign.

I would baulk at buying a house with a lease. You'd need to seek freeholder permission for any structural alterations you wanted to make and they could use that as an excuse to charge you thousands for the privilege of updating your own home. We lived in a leasehold flat and our freeholder charged us £10,000 for the loft space - ie. fresh air! - before we could do a conversion. Get your solicitor to check the small print to see whether loft/cellar/garage etc has been demised to the leaseholder or remains the property of the freeholder.

Just to clarify, leasehold properties are very common here (industrial northern town), basically 90 per cent of housing stock is leasehold and freehold is a rarity so I don't have much choice in that. It's not the idea of a lease that bugs me (all the reno work is already done so we don't need permissions) just having a particularly dodgy landlord I guess.

What is the landlord responsible for? How much is the service charge and/or ground rent? With lots of those very long leases, the freeholder doesn’t have much input. What maintenance or services do they provide? If they don’t do anything, they are of not much concern. If they can renegotiate ground rent or impose a huge service charge hike, and have any other important rights over the house, then I would walk away.

You seem to expect the EA to have done the research that your solicitor should do. They market for the vendor, not for you. They can only really market on what they are told. We are buying a flat and the agent didn’t actually include all the flat on the external photo. There is also a garage in the building but EA doesn’t know if it can be used by the owner of the flat, either by rental or lease, or not at all. Our solicitor will find out.

I am not sure if this is the house for you.