Which house?

[OUB1974]

House 1 - Semi, good location, play room, smallish but adequate bedrooms and small but ok garden. 5 minute walk to school. Massive problems so far as playroom doesnt have building regs. £185k (reduced offer to take building regs into account - which we only finally found out this week after months of asking). Needs new windows and kitchen.

House 2 - Semi. Big corner plot so larger garden. No additional room downstairs (but same as our current house so fine). No known issues with anything(!). 20 minute walk to school and would have to drive on work days for timings (3/5). Bigger bedrooms. £175k.

Which would you consider? We are at the end of our tether with no 1 because of the issues, but on the other hand, we could be moved in before xmas. And the closeness to school and playroom are swaying me. We haven't viewed house 2 yet so would be back to square one.

Or we could wait...which could be a long time...there are good houses in budget that could come up for sale, but they haven't yet and the uncertainty makes it hard. We have exchanged on our house so would be renting or moving in with family.

(Sorry don't want to share links as it's too outing!).

Does it not have building regs because it didn't need them when it was built? (Lots of conservatories don't for example) or was there no planning permission, never got the regs when they should have type situation?

If it didn't need building regs anyway, then I would keep going with your purchase, it will be less hassle and being able to walk to school is really helpful.

If the building regs is a much more complicated situation, then pull out and get the house with bigger bedrooms.

It did need them...they said they had them but we've only just found out they don't.

Just found out house 2 has tenants!

We are not having much luck

@OUB1974

It did need them...they said they had them but we've only just found out they don't.

Just found out house 2 has tenants!

We are not having much luck

Can you rent for a bit until something better comes on? That’s what we’ve resigned to doing.

House 2 100%

House 1 - Windows and new kitchen is big expense. If there are issues so far you don't know what else might come up ripping the kitchen out.
It's also 10k over and smaller garden.

House 2 - 10k cheaper, if it's corner plot could you extend downstairs later down the line to give you space?

Okay so regular readers will know I hate gazzumping and game playing when under offer - in either direction.

BUT in this case the vendor hasn't been at all straight and you could be liable for tearing down said playroom to rebuild in the worst case, e.g. single brick extension. An indemnity won't cover that.

I would therefore go look at the other house. It may or may not be the one you want but equally the house you are buying now has issues that are not small.

We have no idea what to do! House 2 is a no go now as they have tenants. House 1...well we have reduced our offer by the amount it would cost to redo.

DH and I don't really agree! He would prefer to go ahead and I would prefer to pull out. The reduction is a compromise. We are cash buyers, but with a very low income, so quite an unusual situation, and renting would just eat up our equity. What a mess!

@NewHouseNewMe I do too. A perfect house came up 2 months ago, but we did the right thing and stuck with the one we'd offered. Regretting it now, but we just didn't know what would happen at the time. Since I posted, we've found out house 2 has tenants do won't actually be available for 6 months. DH really really doesnt want to move in with family and is very stressed

Have they confirmed the 6 months thing? I.e. could the tenants be leaving sooner? The house I'm living in now had tenants, but they left while all the paperwork was going through. We had an extra viewing just before exchange, to confirm the property was now vacant, but otherwise it was no different to any other purchase.

@PowerslidePanda yes it could be sooner. But on the other hand, maybe they don't want to go...we just cant cope with any more complications at the moment! If we're pulling out of our current purchase and then have to wait for this one, maybe something else will come up. I think if we do pull out, we will express an interest in viewing once it's empty and see what happens.

The estate agents should have to put in the sales particulars that it's tenanted...so annoying!

I would go for 1 over 2 assuming this is primary rather than secondary aged children. Being 5 mins away is much better - when they are very little you can walk there quickly, once they are end of primary they can walk back by themselves if someone home and safe. 20 minute walk will be a struggle for a very small primary child and may not be doable by themselves later on. May also affect getting playdates.

Did you ask your surveyor for a view on house 1 given no building regs - ours was very helpful over the phone. Obviously ask solicitors view as well.

We did @SilkieCat. He said on his initial report that it looked to be a fairly poor quality renovation, but we thought as long as the regs were in place we would still go ahead.

The sellers are still insisting it is all in place! But they have provided no relevant paperwork and the council have no record. I'm feeling slightly more charitable than I was yesterday, in that I think they genuinely thought it was in place, but that doesnt change the facts.

It will either cost us a smaller amount to have it checked and signed off, or a much larger amount to completely re do it. And we have no way of knowing which will be the case, although due to the surveyor's remarks, I'm leaning towards the latter. There is also no covenant consent for this, and a few other things (although these are things we can live with).

The solicitors have been helpful as they have been pushing and have helped to uncover all of the mis information. But it is what it is - an unregulated conversion.