Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

Estate agent suddenly saying sold as seen

75 replies

Ellsiedodah · 02/12/2020 16:46

What do you make of the following situation? We have an offer on a property which was on at 475 and we offered 490 to secure it. It was a highly competitive market in the present bubble. We only did our second viewing after making the offer. And it's now after a third viewing and a survey were going in for specialist surveys. Estate agent is being extremely passive aggressive about the fact we've asked for all windows to be looked at when sellers have offered to repair 3 of them. Survey said windows are old and need an overhaul and we know no fensa certificates are available. Agent is questioning and saying the property is sold as seen. Weve also seen the bathrooms need a major overhaul, with both floors tiles cracked at the grout, bath tap broken, extractors not working and surveyor saying new mat required. So bathrooms are something where we feel a bit of mo ey off may be appropriate. No electrical certificate provided in spite of having been done 5 years ago. No certificate available for gas boiler serviced last year. Isn't it fair to look into these things? Is the agent just doing his best to put us off a renegotiation but knows we're well within whats standard and reasonable to get specialists to look at things?

OP posts:

CatherineSanderson · 02/12/2020 16:48

How irritating. ‘Sold as seen’ is all very well but it doesn’t mean you have to agree to buy a pig in a poke!

Findahouse21 · 02/12/2020 16:48

I would not agree to knock money off for anything which was visible or declared at viewing because you've offered a price having seen the bathrooms etc. Things which flag up on a survey or weren't known at point of your offer might be more negotiable.

Whattodo914 · 02/12/2020 16:51

You’ve viewed it, so you know the bathrooms are in need of replacing etc. But you obviously have to get the full survey done to make sure there aren’t structural surprises.

But I wouldn’t be asking for money knocked off for things you were aware of before you put in the offer.

Plonque · 02/12/2020 16:52

So you offered 15k over to win the house and are now haggling them back down? Not surprised that they may be getting a bit arsey.
They might have passed on a realistic offer from another buyer that wasn't going to be a pain in the arse - I'm assuming the bathrooms that "are something where we feel a bit of money off may be appropriate" are exactly the same now as when you looked and offered what you did.

Ohalrightthen · 02/12/2020 16:53

@Findahouse21

Exactly this. You saw the property before you made an offer, presumably you looked at the bathroom and the windows and still decided to offer 15k over asking? Bit shitty to try and negotiate down after that, tbh. Shouldnt have offered more than you wanted to pay.

Bluntness100 · 02/12/2020 16:55

These are not things I’d reduce the price for so the agent is pretty much correct, you saw what condition it was in. You don’t offer then negotiate down for stuff you were aware of. If I was your seller I’d tell you to do one.

PresentingPercy · 02/12/2020 16:57

Yes. They don’t want you to renegotiate. I wouldn’t go ahead on this basis at the money. What would you do if you found a major structural fault?

However, you have seen the bathrooms, the windows and a boiler service is neither here nor there in terms of price. You know all of this needs doing and presumably put in your offer taking everything into account? So that’s your current position.

However it’s sold subject to survey isn’t it? I would say that you wish to have a full structural survey. Leave it at that with the EA. If the survey shows expensive major issues that you could not have known about, you then negotiate. They may not engage with you. They don’t have to. Don’t agree anything before such a survey. Accept that the price you have offered reflects what you can see. Tell the agent that. Then say you wish to evaluate the survey results when you get them.

Hardbackwriter · 02/12/2020 16:57

Like others, I think it's totally fine to get specialists in and to ask for reductions if they find issues that you couldn't otherwise have known about, but that doesn't seem to be what you're doing. You don't need a specialist to tell you if a bathroom is so old that all's the grouting cracked, it's hardly like you looked at it and thought 'well, the good thing with this house is that the bathrooms won't need touching'. Since you clearly outbid other people I agree that of course they're annoyed that you're now trying to haggle down, probably to below other offers, on the basis of things that were already known.

MeanMrMustardSeed · 02/12/2020 17:01

I can’t believe they’ve let you in for two further viewings since they accepted your offer. The price would have reflected the state of the house, as seen by you at your first viewing. There is no secret about windows and bathrooms. Surveys are for things unseen to the average person. If you’ve got buyers remorse, pull out ASAP and let a serious buyer in.

ClaudiaWankleman · 02/12/2020 17:01

We have an offer on a property which was on at 475 and we offered 490 to secure it

So you offered more than you were willing to pay for things you already knew about, just to beat off the competition? I am not surprised the agent is annoyed. It's poor form and quite unfair.

A survey may reveal things you couldn't have known about, but needing to re-do the bathrooms is neither here nor there for you - you offered £490k for the state you saw.

Newpuppymummy · 02/12/2020 17:03

I think you are being unreasonable. You must’ve been able to see those things needed replacing when you viewed

TheLadyOfShallnott · 02/12/2020 17:06

You made the offer having seen the property.

I put in an offer on my property which reflected the fact that work needed to be done. They kindly accepted it.

Our survey also said the windows needed replacing. It wasn’t a surprise as it was noticed during the viewing.

Putting in a high offer to secure a property then trying to negotiate on that is unfair.

LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow · 02/12/2020 17:11

you do see you are sailing close to CF territory here surely?

As pp have said... this is not how it works....offering to secure the sale is just that, and unless anything MAJOR is shown on a survey then there's no more haggling.

I'd have my house back on the market if you tried this nonsense with me.

BlenheimOrange · 02/12/2020 17:15

Unless your mortgage survey has flagged the property isn’t worth what you’ve offered, or your own building surveyor has flagged urgent structural work you could not have had a clue about, I think they are right to say no.

We asked for £5k off our purchase price (on a more expensive property so this was not a big percentage of the cost) to cover an urgent issue we could not have seen on our viewings. We didn’t ask for anything in relation to the tens of thousand £ of ‘will need doing in next few years’ stuff that is normal with a property that isn’t brand new, and which was unsurprising from our viewings.

TheLadyOfShallnott · 02/12/2020 17:15

Yup.

Bluntness100 · 02/12/2020 17:15

Agreee, if a survey reveals something significant that you would not have known about then you renegotiate.

You don’t renegotiate on stuff you knew about when you made the offer, and the normal minor stuff that’s wrong with a house, because you need to expect that if you’re not buying a new build

Renegotiating just to get the price down on stuff you already knew is just shitty behaviour. You should not have offered what you didn’t wish to pay, just to secure it them jope you can get the price down after.

VinylDetective · 02/12/2020 17:18

You knew after one viewing that you’d want to redo the bathrooms, you also knew about the windows. You made your offer in full knowledge of those things. You can’t suddenly go into wide eyed innocent mode and start asking for a price reduction now.

littlejalapeno · 02/12/2020 17:18

Well when I was a ftb I didn’t know our windows were in a shocking state, as they were dressed and the estate agents had multiple other people in there. I just wasn’t looking for it because I didn’t know I should be. All the survey said was that the handles were a bit worn. Now if he had said that over half of them had blown and there was no fends registration I would have reduced our offer to reflect the windows having been poorly maintained and at the end of their life. An expensive lesson to learn. So OP, offer what you think is right, they don’t have to accept but it’s likely the next buyer would think the same. Estate agent is there to make the most money for the seller, not be your friend so don’t trust them.

silkiecat · 02/12/2020 17:19

A bathroom should be obvious when you view and in original offer.

Windows will need work from time to time as part of maintenance of the house, should have been visible, and if they've offered to repair 3 think they are being more than reasonable on that. No fensa certificates if done a while back pretty normal.

No electrical certificate is normal and its also normal for houses to fail as against 2018 standards. We are paying for one for our buyers and the extra work (£1k) but that's very unusual - I would refuse to lower price for bathroom or windows.

A gas certificate is a reasonable request. We had all gas appliances checked for £160.

I think they are saying they won't renegiotate price so you either walk away or continue at that price.

friendlycat · 02/12/2020 17:20

Sorry but I'm with everyone else on this as well.
You saw the bathrooms and the windows at viewing so cannot start to try and adjust downwards your offer for these issues as you were aware of them.

Most people change a bathroom anyway and have to factor that cost into their own personal calculations for doing up a property and making it to your own taste.

Your solicitor will ask them to have a boiler service done prior to exchange and that is quite normal and they will have to do it. It is a bit stupid to not have the electrical certificate that relates to work undertaken 5 years ago.

But somehow it seems as though you bid over the asking price and are now regretting it and upon reading a survey (that always highlights every little thing) you now want to readjust downwards. I think you have to be absolutely clear at this point as to what you want to do. Do you want to proceed at the price you have offered. If you are not happy with this then you need to change your offer which I don't agree with as I think you have a touch of buyers remorse.
But better to decide right now rather than mess everybody about. If you do reduce your offer be prepared for the vendor to put it back on the market and reject your new offer hence the reason to be very clear as to what you want to do going forward - and what to expect.

LadyFeliciaMontague · 02/12/2020 17:20

Are you a FTB?
YABVU.

Badabingbadabum · 02/12/2020 17:23

You could ask if they would be willing to have another boiler and electrical inspection and provide the certification in with the price you've agreed but they will probably say no now as you have agreed a price and are asking for money off because you don't like the standard of the grouting.

PastMyBestBeforeDate · 02/12/2020 17:27

When we bought a house that was 'tired', we offered what we thought it was worth as it was. We then had a survey which didn't throw up anything unexpected so we proceeded at the price we'd offered.

Jessbow · 02/12/2020 17:28

What has changed since you made the offer? The bathroom boiler and etc are the same,, that what you made your offer based on, surely?

You'd really only re negociate if your survey revealed something like dry rot or subsidence.

If i was the vendor I'll tell you to take a hike, They may have had other offers which they turned down in favour of yours.

BadEyeBri · 02/12/2020 17:34

We had a buyer do this when we were selling. We put the house back on the market and resold the following week. It's a really crappy thing to do.

Flip

1 2 3