Getting quotes done before exchange - how?

[Joeytribbianiz]

For a property I'm buying but don't live in yet. Survey has thrown up an issue that, while not being terribly expensive, does need to be fixed quickly. Do I send a builder there but don't go myself? Am I expected to go myself? Is it ok for the vendor to provide access for 3 different quotes? Seems like a lot of hassle for them.

It depends if it was something you wanted the current owners to knock money off you could enquire to have someone go and assess the issue and how much it would cost to repair but given situations at present with covid and many areas in lockdowns etc this could cause a delay in your purchase.

If it's something your happy to pay for regardless and wasn't looking to get money off then I would suggest sorting it when you've bought the property and have moved in.
You could even try and line up getting someone in to price it up the day you move in so furniture isn't in the way as such.

Contact the estate agent you're buying with.
We had to have a few quotes for immediate work and they were arranged through the vendor after asking through the estate agent.
We didn't attend, I imagine it is a pain for the vendors but they were happy to accommodate in our situation.

All comms through the Estate Agent - if this is for something which is not relevant to the purchase (i.e. decorating / carpets / new kitchen / etc.) then usually you wait until after exchange when you start to have some legal position with the new house...

if it is something which may make you pull out if too expensive then you need to go through the agent and work with them and the vendor to get companies you trust to go in for quotes

I guess we don't know how much it will be really - it's to do with the roof so although the surveyor thinks it's not an expensive job for a roof, maybe 2k, I just get a bit worried that it could potentially be WAY more expensive once a roofer's looked at it.

It's best to get quotes and negotiate some money off the price and then do the work once you've moved in/completed.....expecting the vendors to do the work is often u realistic as it would just slow everything down so much.

My survey threw up an issue. Via the EA we arranged for 2 workmen to go and quote. In itself this wasn't easy as a couple of workmen didn't want to quote on a property we didn't yet own....couldn't be sure of getting the work as couldn't be sure the sale would go ahead. The current owner wasn't interested in arranging for women to quote....so it was a bit of a pain to find workmen to quote. One said he would provide a proper written quote for £75 and take that off the price of job if we had it done. He gave us a quick verbal quote over phone.

Having got the 2 quotes, we sent them to the EA to pass onto the vendor, Ali G with a copy of e page from our survey which highlighted the work needed doing quickly. We asked for a reduction of the full price of the work. We didn't expect to get the full cost off and to meet halfway, but the vendors agreed immediately and we received a new memorandum of sale at the lower price from the EA within a couple of days. The sale then proceeded and within 2 months of owning the property we had the work done, which ended up costing £1k less than our quote had been.

I think it's important that it's you arranging the quotes becaue then you know exactly what has been included for your own peace of mind. Expect to need written proof of the quote and also the survey that says the work needs doing. As I had to pay for that quote, you might too as workmen are understandably not that keen on quoting and giving their time for a property you may never own. Given it was an expensive job and we needed the seller to reduce their orice, we figured that £75 was a small price to pay to get an accurate quote...it was higher than we expected and would have been horrible to find out after buying that we needed to spend the amount we did, if we hadn't got that knowledge or been able to negotiate the price down.