Page 9 | Structural survey has destroyed my sale and my lovely house

Amei · 22/03/2022 06:44

When I sold my last house, the buyers said on the day of exchange that they were £20k short and would that be ok 😂 I told the solicitor to tell them to fuck off, they came back saying they could afford another 10 so we're only 10,000 short, so I told them once again to fuck off.

After reading your thread I've spent the weekend filing in and painting over any hairline cracks in my house 😂

Good luck OP xxx

sausagesandchamp · 22/03/2022 09:56

Yesssss!! You can do this! For all the sellers who've been messed around. Tidy, declutter and clean! The future buyers are coming. And one offer above asking already is a great position. Chain free obviously might be best for your chain. And the estate agent might help with who sincerely is motivated to move asap. Good luck and let us know!

KateTheEighth · 22/03/2022 18:53

Hope the viewings went well

Blossomtoes · 22/03/2022 19:50

I’m waiting with interest to see how much you get above asking @Rosser. I hope those fuckwits are already regretting their greed.

Original poster

Rosser · 22/03/2022 20:10

Thanks all.

Two more offers. One slightly under and one slightly over asking from the viewings today :-) Estate agent says we might have to go to best and final. I’m a bit nervous about that to be honest, I’d rather sell for around asking as I think that’s a fair price given the condition and other houses in the road. If it’s too much the buyers might struggle to get a mortgage. I know I’m overthinking!

I will hopefully be resold for more money by the end of the week

Keeping the house tidy is hard work though!

OP posts:

KateTheEighth · 22/03/2022 21:08

That all sounds very positive @Rosser

Blinkingbatshit · 22/03/2022 22:18

That does sound positive @Rosser. Dh very recently was in charge of selling a house as executor of an estate. It fell through twice and each time it went under offer it went for more money…the third and final set of buyers paid 25k over the very first accepted offer. Sometimes the fall through can be a good thing!! Fingers crossed for you!

Blinkingbatshit · 25/03/2022 10:17

How are things progressing @Rosser? Hope all good!! Xx

Original poster

Rosser · 25/03/2022 20:05

@Blinkingbatshit

We’ve sold again 2.5k more than last time. All those who offered had a chain and were roughly the same amount so we went for the one that the estate agent said seemed keenest and wanted the house for the proximity to their children’s school. They are not first time buyers so I hope they will be able to read the survey like grown ups.

I’m not sure about our onward purchase. I’ve advised the estate agent and solicitor that we’ve sold again but not heard back as the vendor is on holiday apparently.

Thanks to everyone for their support. This thread really helped keep me sane when I was bubbling with anger and frustration!

OP posts:

BlueMongoose · 25/03/2022 21:17

@Rosser

I didn’t know about the party wall in the loft, its something I learned a lot about yesterday! Bricking it up will be a very minor job.

I also didn’t think some cosmetic cracks (all hairline) in a 90 year old house would bother people.

Plus one squeaky floorboard does not mean all my floor joists are rotten! The surveyor has priced for full replacement in all upstairs rooms.

I could have done it up and got 30k more for it, I guess I will have to now but we wanted to move quickly for my mum (it’s a complex situation).

The one-squeaky-floorboard criticism is bonkers in an older house. Our 60s house had squeaky floorboards everywhere and not a problem with a single joist or board being rotten- not one. This 1920s place had no squeaks, but we have just spent a couple of weeks replacing several rotten joists as well as floorboards in one room..... and there are two othr rooms where we'll be doing similar work. Noise all depends on the type of flooring. Floorboards squeak. Laminates etc (like the silent ones under the flooring we've replaced) generally don't. Neither situation (squeak or no-squeak) tells you anything about the state of the actual floor. Pricing for full replacement on all upstairs rooms on the basis of a few squeaky floorboards is, IMO, little short of stark raving bonkers.

mamabear715 · 25/03/2022 21:39

@BlueMongoose agreed.. my house was built in 2006 and the upstairs floors creak like mad!

@Rosser Brilliant news!

HaggisBurger · 25/03/2022 22:02

[quote Rosser]@Blinkingbatshit

We’ve sold again 2.5k more than last time. All those who offered had a chain and were roughly the same amount so we went for the one that the estate agent said seemed keenest and wanted the house for the proximity to their children’s school. They are not first time buyers so I hope they will be able to read the survey like grown ups.

I’m not sure about our onward purchase. I’ve advised the estate agent and solicitor that we’ve sold again but not heard back as the vendor is on holiday apparently.

Thanks to everyone for their support. This thread really helped keep me sane when I was bubbling with anger and frustration![/quote]
Just a small point. But you’ve not “sold” again. You’ve gone under offer again. As you know - there is a long way between offer and having the house. Hope this all works out 😀

HaggisBurger · 25/03/2022 22:02

sold the house

Saltyquiche · 27/03/2022 06:46

Electric specifications are constantly updated, meaning any work undertaken can easily be put of date within a year or two. However the electrics will still be safe if tested and ok’d

Twiglets1 · 27/03/2022 08:43

@Rosser

I live in a lovely mid terrace ex council house in a sought after area. I sold in jan to a FTB, I turned down higher bids as I thought a FTB would be quickest and we didn’t want to lose the house we were hoping to purchase. The FTB apparently lives on this road in rented and loves it and wants to stay here. It’s a long road 320 houses so I don’t know who it is. We were also FTB when we brought 12 years ago so it felt right.

We are only moving because my Mum is coming to live with us. It’s a lovely house but it has no room to extend.

FTB has had a full structural survey which brought back loads of issues but all are totally normal for one of these houses.

They boiler is 10 years old but has been serviced every year and is in good working order. But the engineer has suggested they might want to change it for longevity. Same with electrics, which we had partially rewired (to regs) and are totally fine.

Gaps in the loft party wall apparently make my roof liable to collapse. All of these terraces have the same gaps and it’s no job to brick them up if you wish.

We removed a wall to make a kitchen diner (with a structural engineer, a steel, building regs) and apparently that could potentially cause movement upstairs in the long term. Again, nearly every house on the road will have done it as we’ve got tiny galley kitchens otherwise.

They’ve pointed out every single hairline crack that have been here as long as we have. Again, every house has them or has been freshly plastered or is covered in textured wallpaper. We ran out of money when decorating so didn’t manage to plaster every room. They’ve said our one squeaky floorboard could possibly mean an issue with the joists. Again, it’s been squeaky as long as we’ve been here.

Long story short FTB are now running a mile, we’ve lost our onwards purchase and we have to declare issues with the previous survey although there is nothing actually wrong with the house. The FTB is making a big mistake and I do feel bad for them as I’d probably do the same but the whole situation is ridiculous.

Anyone empathise or offer any words of advice. I’m so worried we won’t be able to sell without a massive price reduction now and our onwards purchase is dependent on the sale price. The valuation was ok. Just the survey.

If you have to declare issues with the survey I would only declare things that are objectively true like the boiler being 10 years old (but has been serviced every year) and the electrics being old. I wouldn't declare things that "could" happen in the future as that is not factual.

FTEngineerM · 27/03/2022 09:09

If you have to declare issues with the survey

You don’t.

Our second buyer isn’t even getting a survey, just the free mortgage valuation

Twiglets1 · 27/03/2022 09:19

@FTEngineerM

If you have to declare issues with the survey

You don’t.

Our second buyer isn’t even getting a survey, just the free mortgage valuation

Well the OP said that you do but this wasn’t something I was aware of. Anyway, not everyone gets a full structural by any means as they are so expensive so hopefully OP won’t have a problem with her next sale.

TizerorFizz · 27/03/2022 09:39

I think the moral of this story is: if it’s a small job, do it yourself before you put a house on the market. Then you have covered as many bases as possible.