Buyer demanding work as a condition of purchase

[2Two]

We're selling my father's flat, which is in a sheltered housing development. We have an offer but it's conditional on removing some cupboards and shelving and a sort of hoist belt in the bath - a bit like this one, and they also want us to make good. Taking the cupboards out will leave a gap in the carpet, but the prospective buyer says that's OK as they will be replacing the carpet anyway.

Our problem with this is that we obviously wouldn't do this before exchange of contracts, because we don't want to be left high and dry with gaps in the carpets if for any reason they pulled out of the purchase. However, if we have to do it after exchange we won't have much time, and round us it can be difficult to find tradesmen willing to come out for just one-off small jobs. Also, what if the buyer decided to dispute that the making good was up to standard?

I thought the norm in this situation was for the purchaser to do any works after completion/when they move in? After all, if they're taking cupboards/shelves out out they might well want to put in power points or wall lights where they were, or to choose a different colour for the walls. We've said we'd be happy to reduce the price a sensible amount to cover the cost, which can't be more than a few hundred pounds, but they buyer seems to be holding out. What's normal practice here?

The bath hoist yes, as they are a personal item.

Everything else no - sold as seen.

What would be reasonable would be for you to say you will remove the hoist belt in the bath ( this will help future sales if this deal did fall through) but it’s a No to removing the cupboards. They can organise that after they move in.

This seems to be a bit of a new phenomenon. I've read several threads about similar lately, and my lovely elderly neighbour who sold last year had the same demand to remove cupboards pre exchange. We advised her not to do it at least until after exchange but ideally not at all. She didn't remove them in the end and the sale went through. There were other unreasonable demands by this new owner, that caused my neighbour some distress at a stressful time anyway, having recently lost her husband.

The new owner moved in in January. She's trying to be super friendly and wants to socialise. I've been polite and helpful if she's asked advice, but I can't get past how she treated my neighbour. I'll be keeping my distance.

My FIL had this and did the requests. He's a builder, selling his own house, the buyers were a couple verging on elderly. They gave him a list of snagging/ changes that they would like completed in order to purchase. He did it, it was a couple of hundred pounds work in the grand scheme of things, made them feel like it was a home ready for them.

How much of an impact will taking out these things have? Will the room look balanced without the cupboard? Does your dad still live there and need the hoist til the sale completes? If the only cost is a possible carpet replacement, I would do it to proceed a sale.

@Nicoise I think you have to treat that as a business transaction, possibly the biggest one she's ever made in her life, and we could probably all do with being a bit more head over heart with it.

You're dealing with a personal relationship now, not business, it's a completely different situation.

Absolutely not. If they don't want to buy the property in its current condition they can walk away.

You cannot agree to do the work before exchange of contracts because if they walk away anyway for a different reason you may then find that a different buyer comes along that wanted and needed the extra storage and a bath hoist and offers you less doe to the cost of having these installed.

You cannot agree to have the work done after exchange of contracts as this puts a huge and unacceptable onus on you for something that you can't control. You could appoint a tradesperson to do the work and they could do it to a poor standard, or could go off sick half way through the work, and you are stuck with a contractual obligation to a deadline you can't meet.

The only possibilities are either that the buyers go ahead and buy from you and sort out the work thenselves AFTER the purchase goes through (not before completion. That's just as much of a legal and insurance nightmare) or that they find a different property to buy and you find different buyers.

@Waspie

I would say no. When I sold my aunt's house I had her chair stair lift removed, and the walls made good, as part of the house clearance but didn't remove any built in cupboards/wardrobes.

We did this too when we sold MIL's house

Hi OP, I had this when buying my house. It was the conditions of mortgage so had to do it before completion. I did however manage to get some jobs done myself after completion and took the price of the work off the sale of the house, which worked well for everyone.

@mummabubs

Absolutely not, sold as seen. And I think for what it's worth you're bang on to be cautious of needing to source tradespeople to do small jobs. We're in this position with our doer upper and it's a nightmare, taken us 2 months to get a plumber to even quote and then do the work, even longer for an electrician. We had 7 people agree to come out and quote and the experience we had was a combination of either people not coming to quote at all, coming out and then never providing a quote, or in 2 cases people giving us a (very high) quote and then when we said in desperation that we still wanted them to do the work we had radio silence and then both pulled out saying they couldn't take it on. Trust me, you don't want all of this lumbered on you during the selling process! Plus you can't know how much people will charge to do the jobs.

Well yes, but all that is probably what the buyer is trying to avoid, especially if elderly, they may not want the hassle/mess, hence wanting the work done beforehand. OP is perfectly within their rights to refuse just as prospective buyer has the right to ask. No big drama.

It's likely because it's sheltered housing. The buyer may be quite frail and elderly and not able to cope with organising the work or having workmen in.
Obviously up to you if you want to accept this or not

@anon2022anon

My FIL had this and did the requests. He's a builder, selling his own house, the buyers were a couple verging on elderly. They gave him a list of snagging/ changes that they would like completed in order to purchase. He did it, it was a couple of hundred pounds work in the grand scheme of things, made them feel like it was a home ready for them.

How much of an impact will taking out these things have? Will the room look balanced without the cupboard? Does your dad still live there and need the hoist til the sale completes? If the only cost is a possible carpet replacement, I would do it to proceed a sale.

The cost is presumably the work in taking out the cupboards, hoist and electrics and making good, plus the fact that there is then a gap in the carpets where the cupboards used to be. If this buyer then doesn't proceed with the purchase, that is going to put off potential buyers.

@patritus

It's likely because it's sheltered housing. The buyer may be quite frail and elderly and not able to cope with organising the work or having workmen in. Obviously up to you if you want to accept this or not

If they're that frail then this sort of housing isn't for them anyway. How could they guarantee that they won't need to deal with work on the property at some point whilst they live there?

@Beveren the possible cost if they don't go ahead is a lost sale, solicitors fees, time , extra mortgage/ council tax payments. The adjustments cost is lower than that.

If the room is brought up to the same standard after the weeks, the owner is not putting off any future buyers, as those things aren't there for them to miss. A new buyer wouldnt know they were ever there, if the carpet was sorted.

Buyer needs to be arranging and paying for the work. That way, if there are any problems later with the work done, the contract was made between the tradesperson who did it and the buyer of the property.
They should adjust their offer to reflect the extra costs if they want, or withdraw.

If he's suddenly changed his behaviour and is pressuring you to do this then I'd be concerned he has a personal interest in this tbh.

In your shoes I'd say no. It's as is or it goes back on the market.

[quote anon2022anon]@Beveren the possible cost if they don't go ahead is a lost sale, solicitors fees, time , extra mortgage/ council tax payments. The adjustments cost is lower than that.

If the room is brought up to the same standard after the weeks, the owner is not putting off any future buyers, as those things aren't there for them to miss. A new buyer wouldnt know they were ever there, if the carpet was sorted.[/quote]
No solicitors' fees in this case, we hadn't got as far as instructing solicitors; plus, as I say, these flats are popular and not difficult to sell. It certainly wouldn't have been easy to "sort" the carpet if we had taken the cupboards out and then the sale didn't proceed, we would either have had to get a completely new carpet laid or had a couple of very obvious patches.

However, I'm happy to say the issue is resolved as we and the buyer mutually agreed a small reduction in the purchase price on the basis that they would be responsible for this and any other work they want done. Thanks, everyone, for your help.

Thanks for the update @2Two glad to hear it's resolved. I would bet good money that at some point between now and the date that you exchange contracts, they put in a request to be allowed access to the property between exchange and completion in order to get the work started. To which I hope you answer a resounding nope due to the insurance nightmare can of worms that would open.

Thanks, @BuanoKubiamVej, that's definitely worth bearing in mind.