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!

Absofuckinglutely. If I had waited for a second viewing I'd have got a bench in the local park instead. Some people do not realise that there are different house markets.

Maybe it’s a probate sale, maybe it’s rented, maybe they’ve already relocated, maybe they only bothered gardening for the viewings, who knows.
You asked if you should make clearing 2.5m of garden a condition of sale. And I said as a seller it would piss me off.
you seem to think that reflects badly on my character. I just answered your question is all.

When one is selling it's a business transaction.

One is legally obliged to do a series of things, both on the seller and the buyer's side. My solicitor and I are arguing that maintaining the garden in the state of when an offers made on the house ('sold as seen') is one of them.

No feelings involved on either side in a business transaction. That's all.

How do you know? Have you peeped over the back gate???
Plants do NOT grow so fast in 3 months that they would completely cover access.

We had the exact same issue, the garden was fine when we viewed, then they completely stopped touching it after we put in an offer (the house was empty). We told them, via the solicitor, that they needed to maintain the garden as per the first viewing until completion. To their credit, they did then do that, I'm not sure what we'd have done if they refused though!

I’d see this less as your Erin Brockovich moment, and just focus on getting the sale done

you can ask make it a condition of exchange to clear the garden, but they can say no

if you can afford £500k to buy the house, you can afford £200 to get a company in to clear the garden

Getting your solicitor to argue on a non-existing point of law will cost you more on legal fees than getting a gardener

They might just douse the garden in weedkiller so you have to wait for it to recover.
I'd just put up with it and if it is one russian vine that is the main problem then onceyou have cut the main stems it will all die and you can remove it then dig up or weedkill the main stem/roots.

I get your point OP. We are currently selling an empty property. We have continued to do the gardenin for a couple of reasons. Firstly, if the sale falls through it would be much harder to get the garden back to "viewing ready" than if we had maintained it and secondly it is a lovely, private and safe established garden. Our buyers are a family with young children. How crap would it be to move in and the garden is all overgrown?

You said ‘it’s the decent thing to do’, sounds like feelings to me.

I’m a gardener so I’m not on the plastic grass dark side by any means. Where I am it’s a sellers market and you would risk the seller looking to the other bidders who had been involved if you started getting difficult. But maybe your market is different.

sjxoxo · 06/07/2022 07:40
I think it’s pretty standard that people abandon the garden when they’re selling.”

No it isn’t. We have bought/sold 6 times. No-one has ever let the garden go and we’ve always maintained ours at viewing condition. Would expect nothing less.

You need to make sure you are happy with the state of the garden at the date of exchange (could the agent do date-stamped photos) as that's what the buyer will be selling to you. Contractually that's what is important not how it was on a viewing.

Hi all, thank you for your opinions, a lot of points raised now have actually been discussed already in the thread so not going on again: please read back.

As I mentioned, the question is with the solicitors now: I will update you when I get some factual news on this. Not only to extinguish your collective curiosity (incidentally, I never thought that a thread on this matter would go to 4 pages and raise some deep seated emotions and quite a lot of judgement a priori) but also because some factual information may be useful for people in the future who have this query.

3 months growth shouldnt be too bad but if it is then i dont think its unreasonable to expect them to do a basic tidy up. That should allow you to make it up to your standards when you move in. Everyone has different standards.

My worry, in general with long waits for houses, is that if that is their attitude to the garden, what is their attitude to the house. Our old house was treat with the utmost respect from the second we agreed to sell it. Any maintenance paid for immediately and cleaning done at the same levels and even given a top to bottom clean 24hrs before new owners moved in. I couldnt live with myself handing over anything i didnt know was up to scratch.

I get the feeling some people see it as a sign to just give up any responsibility for the property and some misstreat them.

This!

Please read back as this point has already been addressed.

As an update, the seller's solicitors has been in touch saying:

'My clients will sort out the garden and confirm once this is done'.

I believe this, at the moment, concludes the matter. Hopefully it will be done and will update you when we move.

Great result 👍

Thank you @MrsPelligrinoPetrichor, I am really happy! As I mentioned earlier I do not want manicured yard, but just to be able to get into the house easily the day we move. Back access is going to be essential. Thank you again for your kindness and support.

Surely it can't grow that wildly in 3 months. Slight exaggeration maybe

3 months is a long time especially with the amount of rain we've had, everything's growing and fast!

Please read the updates. This has been resolved.