Vendor blocking us having electrical survey

[Curlyfifteen]

We are deep in the process of buying a house. Over all the house is in good condition and looks nice (its not a renovation project etc).

Our survey revealed some questions over electrics and fire safety. In addition the vendor has no part p certificates.

Note the property has been extended several times by different owners and no one has obtained building completion certificates so one can assume the electrics may not have been formally checked then either.

Have asked to send in an electrician, vendor insisted on having their electrician and they have suggested £2k of work which the vendor wants to do before we move in.

We want to do our own electrical survey based on the surveyors notes (covering more than what as been checked by the sellers electrician). She is refusing to let us do this. We have said we prefer to do any works when we move in as we can oversee it. She prefers she do it and not for our electrician to visit til she has completed the work (which doesn't cover all that needs doing).

We are all working to an agreed date, and this will throw that date off completely.

I feel like its very odd we cannot have our electrician survey - its at our cost after all!

Any insight or opinions welcome

If it was just the electrics, I'd either pull out or drop my offer by the cost of a complete rewire, plus plastering and redecorating. Because to me it looks like that's what you're going to be doing.

Given the other issues, I'd just pull out. The build-over thing is a real problem, the utility can insist on demolition if they get really shirty about it.

😮walk away! This property is bad news. They bought a bad investment without realising how bad it was, have now realised how bad it is and are desperately hoping to sell it on to someone as clueless as they were. Do not be those mugs.

Out of interest, how much would you drop for all that?

I hear you, thank you

Exactly this there's something fishy going on x

GoldenGorilla · 15/10/2022 19:51
not quite a palace, but big old house, annex, outbuildings. We were renovating it into a few properties, it was big! And yeah we did choose relatively expensive fittings. It can be really really expensive, that’s why we always get electrical survey now.

You spent £60k rewiring several properties, how is that helpful for the OP? How many is several? Two? Twenty? Sixty? What a pointless brag.

@unfunnytopicalusername - The OP hasn’t said how big a property she’s talking about, or what her plans are. Like others, I was making the point that electrical work can be very expensive. That’s all. Maybe chill out instead of looking for rows.

The update now is they had an EICR done of the downstairs and found £2k of work which they agreed to do. However;

1. our building Surveyor says you really need YOUR OWN survey, not theirs
2. building surveyor is also surprised it is only £2k
3. The rest of the house hasn't been surveyed.

Vendors argument is they have now done EICR so what do we still need a survey. We have mentioned (1) above and it has no effect on their response.

Pull out. It sounds like a sinking money hole

Dodgy AF. Walk away.

The electrics aren’t the biggest issue. £2k works on an EICR means nothing.
Provided you do not live golden’s manner house, you’re looking at £5-£7k for a full rewire. But you’re unlikely to need a rewire.

However the lack of building control and the lack of a build over agreement is really worrying.

Remedial works can cost anything.

They are hiding something.
walk away

If it really were only a 2k issue I would as vendor be more than happy to let the buyer deal with it. It does feel that she has something to hide it is worried something will be found.

We pulled out of a sale as we felt the vendor/estate agent (more likely the latter) hadn't been honest. We were anxious first time buyers. We'd probably done too much reading about potential pitfalls and very worried about nasty surprises after purchase that we wouldn't be able to afford to deal with.

It was a beautiful flat in a converted house. We never met the vendors but were told they had a fantastic relationship with the other flats. There were no service charges or sinking fund, nobody managing that side of things so if any building works required flats would need to work together and find the funds.

We asked for a full building survey as didn't want to be surprised by a new roof or something scary that might arise with an older building. We were told that couldn't be facilitated as top flat on holiday and surveyor needed access into the attic. We were fine to wait but we're then given other reasons and told it was not necessary. We pulled out because of our fears that we might end up in a position we couldn't afford to be in. The estate agent was really angry and sent me a rant of an email about us looking to bring the price down. A previous buyer had pulled out and the price lowered to get a quick sale before we came across it. We had never mentioned or even hinted that we wanted to bring the price down. We knew that on the face of it we were paying a good price for the flat which my DH was really in love with but that we didn't have much in reserve if there were going to be structural or roofing issues.

I can't believe you haven't walked away yet. It's so obvious that they are trying desperately to pull wool in front of your eyes.

More red flags than a May Day parade in Moscow on this

Think about it this way, if you were keen to sell a property why would you actively stop your purchaser spending their own money for their own peace of mind unless you really, really wanted to hide something? I know its hard, when you're already both emotionally and financially invested in this house, but would you rather lose a few thousand now or a 5 or 6 figure sum given the worse case scenario of all the issues you've mentioned with this property? Please don't let your keenness for this sale to go through blind you to the potential for this house to be a complete and utter money pit. With house purchases you really should plan and budget for the worse unfortunately. If it was me I'd be walking away sadly, far too many red flags.

Just pull out @Curlyfifteen . As everyone else has said, this sounds like a disaster for several reasons.

kitchen built ontop of shared drainage without any permission to build on top letter from water company - which is what your supposed to do apparently.

When we built our extension we were not allowed to build over the shared drain that ran the length of the garden unless we also put in access to the drain from inside the extension. (We just built a wider but shorter extension that wasn't over the drain.)

Where I am, you are even restricted to how close to a shared drain you can build, without requiring permission.

Sounds like you could be buying massive problems for yourself, OP.

What did you have done?

I employ electricians. £6-8k for an average sort of house even now, when prices have gone up so much.

Now they have had extensions checked by building controls, all good.

still no electrical survey. We are trying to negotiate a fee.

generally the house is quite stylish looking.

but the whole ordeal, sarcastic and attacking emails fwd from them and their solicitor, is making it feel so negative.

but on the otherhand it isnt easy to find anything round here. Feeling torn.

alternatively can move to a town 30mins away but no friends there - also longer journey to my mums. Have lived here 9 years. Our nct group is here.

feeling torn.

Just go ahead. The most it'll cost you to put the situation right is £5k or so. Probably not even that. Offer them £5k less and proceed to completion. The market is stalling and they won't want to have to go through another six months of this on a falling market.

Sounds as if you're making this into a real drama. Buying a secondhand house always involves an element of risk. At least the electrics are a limited area of risk. You only have to spend so much on them. You could blow much, much more on buying a property and discovering damp or rot that a surveyor was unable to detect.

It’s not just the electrics though is it. The build over drain is an issue. I would walk away.

Now they have had extensions checked by building controls, all good.

Exactly what paperwork have they provided for this?

Also - you need clarification about the lack of build-over agreement - have they contacted the water company for retrospective permission?

No electrical survey = no signature on any contract.

I would have pulled out already.

I think you need to seriously consider relocating to the nearby town if there's nothing nearby.

Council said extensions are old so will grant letter of comfort.

build over agreement - apparently this only applies after 2011 and extension is from earlier.

taking a new mortgage now for the same amount will cost almost £700 more a month if we start on a new purchase.

it visually looks in good condition not a project house.

still its proving to be such a bitter experience

@Curlyfifteen how old are the extensions?
we are about to complete on a house which was converted from a barn in 1991. No building regs sign off.
We have been provided insurance but that only protects against local government enforcement, no defects etc
We are proceeding as it’s 30+ years old & our surveyor (personal friend) said it would does completed to a high standard.
Early 1990’s was when the regs came in.
Anything newer I’d be wondering why they didn’t get sign off