What to do re survey discussions with seller and estate agents

[EL8888]

We received the result of our survey over 2 weeks ago and it wasn’t great -damp, possible movement, chimney issue and water in roof. Plus the usual blown plaster, knackered kitchen etc.

We contemplated it and then sent an email to the estate and seller asking for more info around the damp, movement, chimney and roof (the rest we were already aware of and had already built into our price). Information about all of this was already conspicuous by it’s absence to our solicitor. We also wanted to pay for an additional damp survey. Since then nothing! In the 2 weeks since we sent it then no response at all. I have rang then a couple of times, all we have gleaned is a meeting was planned for Saturday the 8th of May between seller and EA. Fiancé rang the EA yesterday, he was promised a call back but no call

My instinct is it’s who blinks first and they’re hoping the upcoming stamp duty deadline will motivate us to overlook the issues to push on. My fiancé is a more glass half full person and just thinks people are busy but even he’s getting unsettled by the radio silence

Do you love the house? I think that sounds like a lot of issues and an avoidant seller and I might be considering my options, frankly. Even if you're not, I'd tell them that if you don't hear you're going to need to start thinking that way.

When you say you "asked for more information about the issues" though - what do you mean? What exactly did you want them to do? It sounds a bit like you weren't asking for anything specific - no action point.

Damp - you need a survey.
Chimney movement/water in roof - you need an extra check on this from someone.

Then you need to decide what cost this will be to you and start negotiating.

@NoSquirrels we have been trying to move for 15 months so lm a bit jaded! I like the house but l won’t pay over the odds, we offered a fair price bearing in mind it needs a new kitchen, new bathroom and is generally tired.

I feel the email was specific enough in that it broke down each of the issues and asked specific questions for each. For example for the movement if they were aware of it and has it been treated (for all we know it could have previously been under pinned -the house is about 110 years old). Plus we mentioned we would be wanting to pay for a damp survey, we weren’t hinting or asking them to. We didn’t say this to them obviously but damp appears to be largest issue so we want to investigate that further first. If it is a deal breaker then we won’t have forked out for a structural engineer. It was a fairly detailed email with specific questions. Put it this way they can’t legitimately say they don’t know what are questions, concerns and next steps are.

Exactly, these issues all warrant negotiation but this may well be the sticking point, as they may not in the eyes of the sellers But it isn’t priced as a project house

@NoSquirrels l just want to open up the channels of communication but the estate agents seem adverse to this!

This is not the estate agent's job. You need to email these questions to your solicitor who will put it to the seller's solicitor as part of the enquiries. As for the damp survey, just go ahead and organise it.

@Livingintheclouds our solicitor is still waiting on to hear back from their solicitor about queries from the end of April, related to other things. So that’s most likely a dead end for the foreseeable. I don’t want to fork out more money on yet another survey, when increasingly the whole thing is feeling dead in the water. Especially as we’ve spent money on a survey for a previous house to this which fell through

I don't think those issues are insurmountable if it's an older house. I am sure damp is going to come up on our survey.

We had to sign a form with our solicitors basically saying we understood that they were so busy, they may not make the stamp duty deadline. I think it's worth calling the EA and solicitor on Monday and trying to push ahead. They may not be deliberately ignoring you but might be prioritising the properties they think will make 30 June and leaving the ones that won't for now!

@TheRedHat but we need to find out the extent of the issues and if there is a back story e.g. subsidence. Plus get professional input e.g. a damp survey. We know for a house of that age then a survey is bound to pick up on some kind of issues.

Our offer was accepted 7 weeks ago so we were hoping to be further along. I knew there were no guarantees we would meet the next deadline but l thought there was a chance. No one mentioned that form to us but l suppose we are further through the process, as we’ve had our survey already

I think you're right. I guess how you proceed will depend on how much you want the house.

We had a similar issue with a house we were going to purchase at the end of last year but the seller came back very swiftly with a firm no, so we pulled out, then they wanted to negotiate but by then it was too late.

As it is a period property, don't go to one of the PCA damp proof sales specialists, find an independent. My house was 172 years old and the buyer's mortgage company threw out the report I was asked to get as completely inappropriate, I'd paid the £300 as a gesture of goodwill.

are they in a chain themselves? I'm just wondering if there's a problem with their chain hence delaying response

with the movement issue - if they responded to you, would you not still want your own structural engineer anyway?

if you've sent queries on 30 April (sorry I missed that first time I read it) I would be worried but it's hard to know if it's the solicitors being run off their feet though I'd hope the EA could tell you what the issue was

have you heard anything this morning?

I think context could be useful. Are you looking to purchase a “project”? Do you have a limited pot of funds to do the renovations?
In a 100+ yr old house, if you want to transform it to A1 condition, I think you just need to assume it’s all f*cked and expect that you will need to underpin, install a DPC, replaster the lot, rewire, replumb, repoint, reroof... everything you can put re in front of. And a new boiler.

To get a faster response, you could cut to the chase and just reduce your offer. That will get the phone ringing. And that’s where this is going, isn’t it? You’re not going to get replies to enquiries and go “oh, well that’s alright then.”

If you’re interested in time and getting things going, then get pragmatic.

@TheRedHat no chain. It’s been rented out and it’s vacant with no tenants. People buying off us are first time buyers, are in rented and live a few doors down. The chain should be super simple theoretically

Ultimately we will need to get our own structural engineer. But some background would be helpful. As l said l would want to do the damp survey first as it will cheaper and the house may fall at that hurdle.

No one bothered to call us back today which was of zero surprise to me. We rang them at 11am today, the person we needed to speak to was on the phone allegedly and we were told would call us back. It’s now 1150am and no call back. We are going to ring them again shortly.

that's terrible :(

yes that's a super simple chain! you wouldn't think it could be so hard.

if you haven't heard back by this afternoon, it might be worth calling the manager/director of the EA and complaining. Even out of courtesy they should call you back

No, we most definitely don’t want a project house. Time and inclination prevent it -we are wanting to finish our 2nd cycle of IVF and l have already done a project house. It’s not currently priced as a project house either, it’s priced as a “bit tired, needs a new kitchen and bathroom” which it is.

We would not know how much to reduce it by, as further professional surveys are required. We are reluctant to spend more money out for surveys, when the lack of responses from the seller to ourselves and our solicitors, doesn’t appear to indicate they’re motivated to complete this sale.

We are bored of phone tennis with them. I am about to compose a brusque email basically asking why no one gets back to us, if our next call yields no info. Then enquire do the sellers actually wish to proceed with the sale or do we need to start viewing other properties?

@TheRedHat l know right?! The house we are trying to buy is less than a mile away from our current property

Good point. Their behaviour has been rude and unprofessional.

We are in a similar boat I think so no expert advice but solidarity!

Similarly ours was sold on the basis of needing an update, new kitchen etc, tired decor but not a project. But survey has revealed quite a few unexpected issues. We've sent a series of questions and a copy of the survey to our solicitor - waiting to hear back from them about the implications. In the meantime the EA has advised that the vendor wasn't aware of any of the issues we've flagged as they didn't come up when they bought the house.

We've told the EA that we'll be looking to agree a reduced price / contribution to the works - they've said they understand we'll need quotes and to keep in touch. So they haven't said no but nothing agreed as yet.

Is that an option for you, to get some builders round rather than more expensive surveys? Our surveyor has also estimated costs for us so we have a starting point to work from I suppose.