About to exchange and there’s a leak!

[Lettuceforlunch]

Hi, does anyone have any advice? We’re about to exchange on a property we’re buying. Managed to visit today with a kitchen fitter so we’re ready for work to go ahead ASAP we complete but found that there’s a leak running down the living room wall from the bathroom above, plus another issue with bad guttering (that was flagged on the survey) is SIGNIFICANTLY worse than it was 3 months ago. Think water that has pretty much soaked through the wall and the paint is peeling off. My hand was wet having touched it.

Really in a bind about what to do. We’d initially taken the guttering issue on the chin as we didn’t want to slow anything down and there was no evidence of water ingress into the house itself. Now there is. The leak from the bathroom above certainly wasn’t there before and I think the owner is pretty duplicitous trying to sell to us knowing this is there (water marks running down the wall). If we’d completed today (as planned, didn’t go ahead) we’d have been stuck with both issues.

We have a six figure deposit and a mortgage agreement in place so are in a good position in that sense but there is so little on the market right now. Properties just don’t come up here. Thanks.

I'd be looking at a retention (that's the Scottish term, may have a different name in England) which is holding back a sum of money for repairs. It can be time-limited too.

Depends on if you want to proceed tho?

What does your solicitor say?

Has the owner not lived there in those 3 months?

What do you suppose it’ll cost to repair both?

Why haven’t they done anything about it?

Are you planning on ‘gutting’ or doing up the house anyway?

Ask the vendor to repair the leak using their insurance to make good?

Thank you for the replies. The owner lives there but is mid-divorce so has basically stopped doing anything. She has frustrated previous sales. Now she really has to move and everything is packed.

The solicitor gave us a range of options, but I don’t know what to do! We weren’t planning on gutting the whole place as it’s been half done up, so half is ok (ironically, the bathrooms and living room were the good rooms). I’m annoyed at the cheek of not doing basic maintenance and the fact we’re now in this position. Due to timings/work etc, we’d provisionally planned to move over Easter.

I honestly don’t think the owner(s) - woman and her ex DH - will do anything. He’s basically a silent partner and she’s not very amenable!

I think if you like the house and still ultimately want to live there I'd find a way to agree some financial compensation so you can fix the problems quickly. Did solicitor say this might be possible?

Maybe a holding allowance but I think (don’t know for certain) that that would involve me getting tradespeople round and quotes and so on, liaising with the agent over keys etc. I simply don’t have time with work as it is.

So difficult. I know if be gutted to lose a house at this late stage and presumably you've spent a lot of money getting this far. But it does also sound like a lot of effort on your part to resolve it. Sorry - not much help...

Make it the agent's problem , they will want their commission after all

Could you ask her to reduce the price to take account of the work?

@LIZS

Make it the agent's problem , they will want their commission after all

Yes I was going to say get the agents involved - they probably have tradespeople they know of especially if they do rental as well. If all you need are quotes get them to sort for you. Make them earn their money

I’ve just emailed the agent so will see what comes back. She’s also buying her property through them so they’ve two lots of commission at risk. @scaredsadandstuck - that is exactly it. We’ve done the survey, will have the solicitor to pay, the kids think we’re moving in close to their friends in a few weeks, we’ve budgeted for some work that does need doing but not this as well, either time or money wise. Her insurance may be a good call! Just not sure how quickly she will sort this, if at all.

Is the leak active? It really osnt that hard to find it, repair it, though you'd have to wait fir the wall to dry out before you could decorate. But I'd say this is hundreds of pounds, not thousands, unless you have to go through tiles etc to repair the leak.
The buyers do have certain legal obligations, and you should think yourself lucky you just happened to find out before exchange.
It is for the seller to fix, in my opinion, so make it part of the contract that they do.

A retention is the safest way, assuming you don’t want to pull. Discuss with solicitor for an appropriate amount.

until you know what the causes are and how much it will cost to repair and make it good, you can't make a plan. I think it's risky agreeing a payment of X if it will cost 10 times that.

Once you know, then you can decide whether you'll take it on the chin or ask for some money off. A retention probably isn't the right thing as you'll want the money up front - they're used more for possible future top-up service charges etc.

It doesn't sound as though insurance will cover it either as it doesn't cover failure to repair.

The leak is coming from between the floorboards below a bathroom, under the toilet side as opposed to under the bath. The bathroom floor is tiled and the toilet unit is sort of built in, as is the sink. I expect the tiles will need to be lifted...

The other issue is historic due to gutters fitted badly and subsequently not cleared The survey showed the water had not penetrated the wall and there was nothing visible back before Xmas. Today there was visible evidence of damage on the inside of the wall, paint lifting and coming off on my hand

@GU24Mum - agreed, insurance def won’t cover the gutters as they’ve simply not been cleared (plus are fitted the wrong way so drain the water the wrong way in one spot 😲). If they’d been cleared it would have all probably been ok.

You definitely need to find out what the whole bill would be and how long it would take/how disruptive before you can make a decision. you're basically signing up to a blank cheque which could be reasonably small but could be bigger. Good luck.