Can they do this? Advice needed

[TeenageWildlife]

My daughter has sold her property in theory. She put in an offer on a place for a bit less than asking. It was agreed with the following provisos (attached) am I smelling a rat or is this how things are done nowadays?

Seems like the sellers want to move out quickly.
Of course the survey may reveal £1000s of work that need doing but at least your DD knows they won’t budge on price so that’s up to her to consider - should that happen.

Don’t let the sellers see the survey if they’re not prepared to budge on price.

Seems reasonable apart from 3. Suppose the roof is hanging off or it’s riddled with damp?

Sounds reasonable.

Conveyancing companies are unprofessional nightmares and I can understand anyone not wanting to have to deal with them.

If a survey brings up something dreadful you have a choice of accepting it or pulling out.

Seems very reasonable! But yes would just suggest your daughter notes that obviously 3 would be subject to the survey revealing any major problems

The seller can make those stipulations, but they don't have any legal standing. Your daughter may still pull out without penalty at any point up to exchange.

She might want to check how long searches are taking in the area.

It probably means that the sellers will be pushy - but your daughter will just have to try not to get too stressed and push on with getting it done

Unless your daughter signs a legal document to say that she is buying the house in accordance with these terms from the seller; then they're just mere words. She can still rescind her offer if she decides to not go ahead for whatever reason. In my opinion the conditions from the seller are not unreasonable.

Thanks all!

I would be looking for another property

@pilates why? Because the vendor is keen to sell???

Seems like a no nonsense seller. The only odd thing would be a complete unwillingness to negotiate after survey, depending on what comes back, they might be hurting themselves.

It's a bit unwelcoming, but if I really wanted the property I'd play along. If after the survey I felt it wasn't worth what I'd offered, I'd tell the estate agent why I was pulling out. Balls in their court if they want to offer to reduce the price or not

Because some of these requests are unreasonable and out of a buyers hands. Nobody can guarantee they can complete in the required timeframe/receive a satisfactory survey. The average transaction takes 3/4 months without any problems.

It's not asking for guarantee on completion- just a target . If that target is ok with you then you are aligned

Sounds like they’ve been messed around by time wasters.

The 6-8 weeks is unlikely tbh, in your daughters shoes I’d get an update from a solicitor on how long that’s taking at the moment and reply with a similar set of requests/updates.

Did that message come from the sellers themselves or an estate agent ?

It seems perfectly prudent. I wish these were the rules all round. We were minutes from losing our sale and purchase thanks to a conveyancing company employed by our hapless FTB.

Sounds like my Sister in laws style. Is it a house in Christchurch (Dorset?) Or selling as a result of divorce?

Anyhow if the survey has anything bad on it youlll need to walk away - not negotiate. Are you happy with that? You might waste money having taken on a solicitor rather than a conveyancer

1 - seems reasonable, if you are a committed buyer it shouldn't take you longer than that to organise a survey (not necessarily take place)

2 - a bit over optimistic, but likely to weed out the people that aren't proactive or aren't serious. And at least keep people focused and on the ball

3 - seems reasonable to me, it seems to be a tactic these days for people to get the offer secured and then threaten to pull out unless they get a reduction when they feel a seller is over a barrel. Or you see on here where people start trying to get money off post survey because they want to build an extension/make open plan/put in an en suite/do something else that they shouldn't be expecting the vendor to foot the bill for! This vendor is being very clear that they are not willing to play the house buying mind fuck games (of course if the survey shows up something fundamental they would be unreasonable not to negotiate)

4 - reasonable. Conveyancing companies are mostly shit and make the entire process far slower and more stressful than it needs to be.

Personally I think this is just a no nonsense vendor that sounds like they have been messed around one too many times (or reads all the mumsnet nightmare buyer threads!) and wants to put their stake in the ground up front

I wish my sellers were this keen to hurry the process along

It’s fine, you know where you stand and their expectations are clear. She could always do her own expectation list back.

I think that's reasonable

We accepted a lower than asking price offer and we told them that we would reject any price reductions

But we knew the house was in great condition so..

From vendors via ea

I'd find that list off-putting because it makes the vendors look like they will be extremely hard work! It is stressful enough buying and selling houses without that!

My EA used to say around 12 weeks from acceptance of offer, so 6-8 weeks is pretty unlikely IME and it would be interesting to see if the vendors AE said anything similar.

IIRC there has been a previous thread with the same/similar demands, not sure what happened to it. It is the demand to use a solicitor rather than a conveyancing firm that rings a bell with me.