Paying for advanced searches/ gas safety

[NightlyBye]

Has anyone else who is selling/ has sold been approached by their solicitor to ask if they would be willing to pay the Buyers extended searches? I've had a letter asking me if I would be willing to stump up quite a large sum for this, and also would I pay for the Gas and Electricity Safety inspections.

Not sure if the buyers are pushing their luck (we had quite a drawn out repeated "this is our final offer" with them before the sale was agreed).

Extended searches are a personal choice, if they want them then they should pay for them. Gas and electrical safety is another matter and I'd want to know it was safe- and did ask for the owners to have a safety inspection of the gas carried out before I completed. This was because it had been empty for five years though and has an ancient (non boiler) system running on gas. Is it just the central heating they want checking? Do you not have a yearly service that they can have a copy of forwarded on to them? With electrics I'd only expect them to ask if it's a very old house or if you've had it rewired or an extension and they want proof it was signed off. Otherwise I'd say they should pay.

Thanks pattimayonnaise

I had the boiler serviced, but they didnt leave any paperwork, just a sticker saying that it had been done. I got in touch with him and asked if he could send a Gas Safe certificate, but he tells me that as it was just a service, I'd need to get someone else in who can do me a Safe Certificate :/
The house is in really good condition afaik, and I was never encouraged to get these things done when I bought it 4 years ago. Ive forgotten how stressful buying and selling at the same time is hah

Our buyers are paying for gas and electrical tests themselves but they have asked if we would reduce price if anything was found that needed action. Err no ... I will wait until after the tests are done thankyou. I have already given them a copy of the latest service test certificate for the boiler and building reg certificates for all electrical work including re-wire when we moved in. They are really dragging this out and it's been going on for months (we immediately acepted their offer back in June after the house had been on the market for just 3 days). It was offers over and now in hindsight I wish we had waited for a bit longer for other offers and gone to full and finals. Hindsight is a wonderful thing ...

I came home yesterday to find a man on the roof. Said he was doing a quote for a new roof. The survey didn't show any defects apart from one loose tile.

I'm paying for an independent damp survey which is happening this morning because I am fully expecting them to try knocking money off for the low level damp their survey found in the porch. They want to send someone round for that too.

I don't mind all these tests and I do understand that they want to make sure the house is sound but honestly their survey found only minor faults and absolutely no red flags whatsoever. Infact the house was valued over the agreed sale price and agent thinks they are bonkers because they are getting a bargain.

Sigh - I really want to tell buyers to eff off right now. And if they asked us to pay for the gas and electrical tests I think I possibly definitely would.

sounds like renters who dont realise that home ownership means paying for all this. buyer pays for all surveys and checks.

A gas safety check is only a requirement for a rented place - have you filled in the forms from the solicitor yet? If so you can state on there that the boiler has been regularly serviced and the date of the last survey. In fact I'm sure the form asks it. The invoice is enough to provide to show the service was carried out.

Last service not survey

Sounds like they will come back with a reduced offer with a list of additional potential or minor defects these workmen or searches bring up.

Don't pay for additional searches. That's their choice.

We asked our seller for gas certs but they refused. We had stalemate for a while and ended up relenting and paying as buyers.

In yoydo get gas and electric certs only give them copies for now. Hang onto them in case there people pull out and you then have them for future buyers.

I suspect they think they should have these searches but can't afford. I would just politely say that you have agreed the sale price and anything the buyers want to do is at their cost. The EA can relay this for you - you could also say that where does it stop? They are buying your house and wouldn't expect you to pay their legal fees and this is no different.

Thanks for the replies :)

That was my worry with the where does it end in terms of paying for stuff for them. Early on in the negotiations, the estate agent actually said to me that they didn't want to offer any higher as they had stuff that they wanted to do to the property. I argued that I have stuff that I want to do to my next one too, so they could jog on.

Have emailed my solicitor back so fingers crossed for the outcome that I want

Well you're not going to pay for what they want to do are you? That's exactly how a buyer pisses off a seller.

I'd really prefer them to pay it, but i'm getting to the point i'm scared its going to fall through. Got a provisional date outlined for my own move so now I'm rapidly approaching stress overload. Found out last minute that the people i'm buying off didn't declare that they needed to wait until after 1st October due to repayment charges and it doesn't look like I can get any more time off work (I had to book 2 weeks off for now due to percentages).

dont. if they smell desperation you may well get a day before exchange price drop demand.