Have you ever collapsed a chain? How did it feel?

[Finallybreathingout]

Very long, sorry!

We are close to exchange on a house; we’re the bottom of the chain as we have already sold ours. Our vendors are buying a house of real sentimental significance to them - they only put the house on the market to grab the chance to buy it. So there is a LOT of emotional investment. They are really nice people and would live very locally, and have welcomed us to the community.

We had a long delay getting our final mortgage offer owing to underwriting issues so have already delayed things. We also changed solicitors as our original one was dreadful and we didn’t have confidence in them, so we have already been crap buyers, much to my mortification. But things were finally running smoothly.

Then enquiries came back and there are no building regs. To cut a very long story short, indemnities won’t cut it, the material value of the house is affected, and we’d need building work which is currently very roughly estimated at about 10% of the purchase price all costs included. We are weighing up whether to ask for a retention or just to pull out. We really didn’t want to do building work, so immediately we are in a situation we’d looked to avoid, and it will cause major inconvenience to the whole family.

Has anyone ever pulled out and collapsed a chain? Did you sleep at night? This is so difficult but I feel I’m putting the feelings of total strangers above my own self interest. We like the house very much but could carry on renting and find another without all these issues. Everyone else involved has their plans ruined, and all the same sunk costs wasted as us. This is awful, and because it’s now so last minute, even if we ask for the retention we’re going to look like those people who gazunder. We’ve already said we would take the fact that the house is old and needs a new boiler and probably rewiring on the chin and not negotiate over all that.

Walk away and don't look back. The sellers would've known there were no BR so really they are at fault here. No person in their right mind would not renegotiate if the material value of the house is affected & they will have exactly the same problem with the next buyers if indemnity will not provide cover.

I recently put the feelings of everyone else in a chain ahead of my own. A large part of me really regrets that and if I could turn back the clock I would not do the same again.

Depends on what the lack of building regs is for and when the work was done. FTB can be very over cautious so it could be that or you could have good reason. Without knowing more detail it’s impossible to say

What does the lack of building regs relate to? Does it actually need to be rectified?

Same as a couple of other posters re depends on what needs doing
Dont let your heart rule your head and you can see if the sellers really do have an emotional attachment to the property they want to buy if they agree to complete the work or knock X off the selling price to cover works needed

I would hate to be the person at the bottom pulling out but buying a house is a massive thing so I would want to be at least 99% sure it was the right thing for my family.

Exactly. What’s going on? How old is the work?

If you had known what you know now about the house. would you have still offered the same price? I think when there is a big discovery like this it’s ok to pull out, even if it’s last minute.

I reckon there’s a case for changing regulations around buying and selling but at the moment the legislature is what it is. You aren’t breaking any laws and you shouldn’t put other peoples emotional well-being above your own. What happens if you go through with it and the stress of the building causes your own family to break up? What happens if it ends up costing even more and you get into serious debt? These are not things to take lightly.

Definitely a bit more info needed.

No chain on our side as we are renting, but our sellers have just withdrawn the sale. We were supposed to exchange at yhe end of this month. They have had since August to find a place and assured us they would rent if they did not find anything suitable. We have now lost several months when we could have been buying another house, and a couple of thousand quid. Bastards. I am hoping that if and when they put their house back on the market they will not get an offer like ours, and also hoping that prices will start to come down given the current economic climate. Twats.

Thanks for all the thoughts.

We’re not FTB. We’ve sold our place and are living in rented. No nerves other than having got totally financially shafted buying a house before with no building regs but a magic indemnity that was bog all use! And even with that experience, we’ve been willing to overlook the lack of regs to a downstairs extension.

The issue is a loft conversion that includes two of the bedrooms the house was marketed as having. No building regs and a builder and surveyor say it’s so far adrift from compliant we’d need to start again. So objectively speaking it was marketed wrongly and is worth less. Our solicitor has told our lender the house has fewer bedrooms and we wouldn’t be able to market it as anything else if we went to sell it unless we got the work done.

The safety of the work is slightly questionable, but legally it’s really tricky too. And with spiralling building costs it’s a big thing to take on a house that needs work when it’s avoidable. The agent is basically telling us we’re neurotic not to just get an indemnity ‘as this happens all the time’ but we really can’t risk losing half our bedrooms, and also we now can’t even get an indemnity as the seller contacted the council about it.

When was the work carried out?

We've had two vendors at late stage (once at exchange, and once after survey/lots of legal costs) pull their property off the market. We were really really annoyed both times but actually we've ended up with a better house that we're currently purchasing. you can't buy something you don't want/doesn't make financial sense just to avoid hurting someone's feelings. It sucks but it is what it is. best of luck OP, house buying/selling is a nightmare process.

Given your update I would definitely drop out.

Me too, less bedrooms = less value

I think if you dropped out now it would be the vendor who would be 'guilty', not you.

They have not been honest with you.

Unless this is your dream home in your dream location then drop out. You didn't want building work, you'll be landed with a pile of unavoidable work if you buy this house.

Reading your update, I wouldn’t go ahead with the purchase. I also wouldn’t feel bad about the vendors because they’ve wrongly marketed their house which they surely know is massively not compliant with building regs.

That is the key question.

You wouldn’t be at all to blame here OP if you did drop out, most would given these circumstances, vendors only have themselves to blame tbh. Do what’s right for you.

You would be mad to proceed with that advice, I'm afraid, and if I was in the chain with you and told why you were pulling out I could not fault the decision.

Ignore the estate agent's advice. He is working on behalf of the vendor to get as much as he can for the property, and does not have your interests at heart.

I would definitely pull out.

Walk away, this sounds very significant, you're not being neurotic.

We are totally ignoring the agent. Or rather just getting more annoyed at them that they are pushing the whole thing back at us as overly picky buyers rather than looking for ways to make this sale work. I have no doubt this is the line they are giving the vendors, who are not particularly knowledgable about the whole house selling thing and relying on them for advice. I feel incredibly sorry for them as they have acted in good faith the whole way through, and the agents I don’t think set out to misrepresent but have been far too casual about the issue of the regs.

The date of the work isn’t clear but obviously post-dates the introduction of regs based on the builder and surveyor’s views. But we’re just being told ‘the rooms have been there for years, and there’s no way the council could make you stop using them’ (which is untrue).

The only person truly acting in our interest here is our solicitor, which is why we are acting on their advice.

The council aren't going to turn up one day and tell the owners which rooms can or cannot be used, simply not going to happen.

However, the fact that your surveyor has advised that the conversion isn't close to being compliant is the issue. Most of the building regs for a loft conversion are there for safety reasons, one way or another, that is the main concern.

If the conversion had been done in 1973 than the argument could be made that it was never going to come close to meeting todays regs. But if the work has been done in the last 10-15 years a reasonable standard should be expected.
Given the surveyors comments it sounds like too big a can of worms to go ahead with any further.

An indemnity is a pointless instrument in my view, it insures you against the risk of something that is simply never going to happen.

I’d try to negotiate first. Any future buyers will have the same problem about how many rooms it’s being advertised as. So it’s not like you’re being picky where other people wouldn’t. If the sellers realise that this isn’t an issue that will go away, then they may reconsider their price