How to pull out of a house purchase?

[Cabbagewhites]

Hi FTb here so sorry if this is a silly question.
My mortgage lender requested a structural survey on the property I was buying, before giving a valuation.
The survey was done this week and flagged up ongoing subsidence. So, I don’t want to buy the house any more.

What do I do now? Shall I send the report to the lender, wait for them to value the property & refuse the mortgage (as I assume they will), or not bother with this, just tell the mortgage company I don’t want the house any more?
And should I do this before speaking to the estate agent, or should I speak to the estate agent first?
Will the vendor want to see my structural report, and if they do should I show it to them? (Or sell it to them??)

Thanks for any advice!

This happened to us or at least similar. Our mortgage survey revealed the roof was ruined and needed a full replacement along with damp issues.

I rang the estate agent and formally withdrew the offer and then rang my solicitor and told them to stop the work. Mine were nice and paused it so I didn’t get charged and a few weeks later when we found house 2 they just swapped the details to the new contract.

I didn’t wait for the mortgage refusal to do the above and I didn’t show the vendor the report either but I did explan what was on there for the reason of pulling out. The mortgage was refused anyway a few days later but we already made up our minds we didn’t want it.

The vendor was very annoyed though and tried to get us to pay her fees so be prepared for that!

You just tell your solicitor you're not proceeding then let the agent know. No obligation to show the report to the agent but it might be beneficial to let the sellers know so they can see what options they have.

Well you have made a decision. I don't think it matters too much who you tell first. If solicitor is involved I would ring/email and tell them straight away so you don't incur any more fees. Also tell the estate agent and they will tell the seller. As you don't want to buy anyway there isn't much point in going to the next stage with the mortgage. I guess if you were feeling very kind you could let the seller have a copy of the report or you could try to sell it to them.
No one would blame you for pulling out in these circumstances so don't worry!

@Maneandfeathers

This happened to us or at least similar. Our mortgage survey revealed the roof was ruined and needed a full replacement along with damp issues.

I rang the estate agent and formally withdrew the offer and then rang my solicitor and told them to stop the work. Mine were nice and paused it so I didn’t get charged and a few weeks later when we found house 2 they just swapped the details to the new contract.

I didn’t wait for the mortgage refusal to do the above and I didn’t show the vendor the report either but I did explan what was on there for the reason of pulling out. The mortgage was refused anyway a few days later but we already made up our minds we didn’t want it.

The vendor was very annoyed though and tried to get us to pay her fees so be prepared for that!

Thanks! Gosh- have they a foot to stand on re. the fees? I am already disappointed to have paid for s survey in a house I don’t want. I do not want to be paying fees!

Notify solicitor and mortgage company that you are not proceeding.

Tell Estate agent you are pulling out and why.

The seller has no case for any fees whatsoever if you are. in England or Wales so do not worry about that.

If they want to see the survey get them to go halves with you.

@Cabbagewhites no! Either party are responsible for their own costs up until the point of exchange so we didn’t pay anything. They did send us some threatening legal looking letters which we promptly binned though

You are not responsible for any of their costs - just as they aren't responsible to you if they were pulling out, as long as you haven't exchanged.
Just tell your solicitor and the agent. Tell the agent why - if the sellers are unaware of the issue (unlikely) at least they will know that they should either fix the problem and/or drop their asking price.
You are responsible for any costs the lawyers have incurred and their time, and even your mortgage company depending.

I did this recently on an investment purchase, rang my solicitor first, then the estate agent to say we were pulling out due to adverse survey. Paid the solicitor for the work she had done so far, obviously lost the money for the survey, but prepared to lose £1100 rather than buy an expensive mistake.

You aren’t under any obligation to pay vendors fees up to exchange.

Sometimes solicitors will charge you less for the work buying a second house if you have a good reason for pulling out of a first one, but that's entirely voluntary on their part. The sooner you let them know you're pulling out the less work you'll have to pay for. But losing fees paid because a house turns out to have a problem we can't deal with, or because a seller pulls out of the deal, or a host of other reasons, is one of the things most of us have to suck up at some time in our house-buying lives, sadly.
The survey, if correct, was money well spent- in a funny way, the survey that stops you buying a house is worth more than one that just confirms it's fine, because that's the one that stops you getting into a messy and expensive situation...it has done its job.
You are not liable for the vendor's losses.

@BlueMongoose

Sometimes solicitors will charge you less for the work buying a second house if you have a good reason for pulling out of a first one, but that's entirely voluntary on their part. The sooner you let them know you're pulling out the less work you'll have to pay for. But losing fees paid because a house turns out to have a problem we can't deal with, or because a seller pulls out of the deal, or a host of other reasons, is one of the things most of us have to suck up at some time in our house-buying lives, sadly. The survey, if correct, was money well spent- in a funny way, the survey that stops you buying a house is worth more than one that just confirms it's fine, because that's the one that stops you getting into a messy and expensive situation...it has done its job. You are not liable for the vendor's losses.

Thank you, that’s a great way to look at it! Yes, the survey certainly did its job well