Very overgrown yard - what are my rights as a buyer?

[DomusAurea]

Hi all, I know that this is one for the estate agent/solicitor but I was wondering if is part of the condition of sale that the garden/back entry to a house should be accessible?

We are buying a house and when we went for the second viewing the back yard was almost unaccessible as plants are totally overgrown. The plants were also blocking access to the back gate.

I'd like to know if you have come across this and how you have resolved it - thank you in advance!

I had similar.

Your rights are that you are buying the property as it is. The price should reflect the condition of the property, and you can ask that they sort the garden, but they don’t have to comply at all. And probably won’t - if they let it get to this state, they are probably unwilling or incapable in some way.

You have the right to buy it if they want to seel it to you.

Can you make it a condition of the sale that the back yard is accessible?

It’s up to you if you want to buy it in the state it’s in. That’s it really. You could get quotes and ask the seller to reduce the price by the amount of the quotes to sort it out but they don’t have to agree and they could just refuse to sell to you.

Hi - thank you - I have to add that when we viewed for the first time the garden was ok, they just stopped doing anything after they received our offer! We offered on a property with a clear yard. Now is no longer clear.

Surely it’s sold as seen, but you could try to negotiate that the garden is tidied or use it as leverage on a price reduction.

My back garden was the same. I bought it thinking I had a fairly small back garden and when I cleared it, it was 100 foot.

You can ask, but they do not have to say yes.

Be prepared for that and ask yourself is it big enough an issue to make you walk away?

Is there something that is concerning you? Climbing plants on the brickwork or Japanese knotweed for example?

Can you see an overview of the garden from a top window to give yourself an idea?

We bought a house with a very overgrown garden. We factored that in to what we would offer as we knew it wouldn't be remedied (it was a probate sale).

Properties are sold as seen. If you’ve made an offer without any conditions on the garden being tidied up, then it’s likely your seller will refuse a request at this stage so you’ll need to factor in costs of clearance.

How long ago did you offer? I was imagining decades worth of growth in the garden from your description. How have the plants grown so much it's "inaccessible " in few months?

Hahaha sorry I realised my first message was not clear: we are purchasing the house - we made an offer on a totally CLEAR and WELL KEPT back garden. It is visible in estate agents pictures, etc.

Now, 3 months after our offer, the sellers have done NOTHING and it is just growing like crazy, so much that it affects pathways and access.

Some climbers to grow a lot in 3 months

That makes it different - it’s reasonable to make it a condition of exchange that the garden is in the same good condition as when you viewed. They may still refuse though.

I'm struggling to work out how something you saw in a tidy condition a few months ago could become so overgrown that the garden and back gate are now inaccessible.

Surely it can't be that bad. Life got in the way of us staying on our garden this year and the weeds grew higher than before, but 3/4 months growth, was mostly waist high, with a few taller ones and it took one weekend to get it all back to a reasonable state.

However if it is really bad, I think you have to decide whether you like the house enough and just be prepared to sort it when you move in. Personally unless things like Japanese knotweed were present, an overgrown garden wouldn't put me off.

My brambles have grown massively in the past few months! The conditions have been really good - sunny with regular rain. Lots of plants will thrive under those conditions.

OP, get quotes and ask for the offer to be reduced by roughly that much. You offered based on a clear garden.

In the greater scheme of things, 3 months growth isn't massive and unless it is brambles it will take less than an afternoon to clear. So if you want to threaten to pull out unless it is back to the state it was in and run the risk of dead fish in the floorboards I'd probably just chill your boots and just get on with it.

There are very few (if any) plant species in the UK that grow so aggressively to render access impossible after 3 months.

Yes its rubbish that they've let things go since accepting your offer, but it's probably no more than a day's work to sort with a strimmer and secateurs, not a jungle adventure requiring a rescue by Ground Force and Bear Grylls.

It'll cost a couple of hundred quid to get someone in to put right 3 months' growth, is it worth kicking up a fuss?

You don't have to buy it, but I suspect you have already paid for expensive surveys etc so you have to weigh up the financial costs of fixing the garden vs financial & emotional costs of not buying.

If it was totally clear and well kept 3 months ago it’s just a haircut whatever it is needs - no work at all, really. It can’t mean anything is truly inaccessible, just inconvenient.

Mention that at your latest viewing the garden needed cutting back, ask them to make sure it’s clear before exchange. I personally wouldn’t fall out or do more than that - it’s akin to the property not being spotless when you move in. Ideally it would be perfectly clean but you’ll end up cleaning anyway so it’s an annoyance not a dealbreaker.

absolutely, thank you - I have now been in touch with our conveyancer.

Even brambles aren’t more than a day’s work - gloves on, chop chop, then wait for a bit of fresh green growth in a few weeks and spray that with weed killer so it’s taken to the roots.

I think it’s pretty standard that people abandon the garden when they’re selling.
It won’t take you long to clear it. You could ask if they could chop around the access if you need it specifically for the moving in but I doubt you can force anything. You could offer to organise and pay for a gardener once every couple of weeks say until you move it, if it’s really worth it for you. Xx

Don’t buy it if you don’t like it.

otherwise suck it up

I thought sellers had to continue to maintain the property whilst the sale was going through

They might be maintaining a wild nature garden - one you only hack back in autumn

3 months growth isn't much really and much will die back in the autumn

They should, but in my experience good luck holding them too it. The last rental we purchased we actually offered more money on top of the sale price for certain items (blinds, curtain poles, light fittings etc) to be left in the property to make our lives a little bit easier. Not only did the seller take these items, but they left the entire house and garden absolutely filthy and despite pursuing it with our solicitor we were ultimately told there was very little we could do. Still seems ridiculous to me, but there you go.

OP, if you like the house then just be prepared for them not to follow through and sort the garden. If it's only been 3 months growth then it's easily sorted once you move in.