Retention of funds from vendor - is it possible?

[sonibb]

We're buying a house, just had the survey done and the pre-report chat with surveyor has thrown up a few things that could cost in the region of between £10k and £40k

We could negotiate off, and take the money out of our deposit amount without it changing the LTV. Then do the work with the money we hold back from our deposit.

But, what we've never been able to ascertain when buying houses is the following -
Is it possible to get a retention for works from the vendor? So a mechanism that there's an £x amount pot of money from the vendor which is held on completion, and then the work is done from that? That way we don't need to faff with our mortgage lender - i guess our fear is that we've got a decent rate locked in and will our lender see any opportunity to hike the fee if we start making amends.

Previous conveyancers said it wasn't possible but we did do similar when we were FTBs...any experience?

It’s possible if everyone agrees. They are unusual because it’ll impact on what the vendor can afford to buy, they won’t get a “closed book” on the house, they can drag on and be a pain in the arse… but if everyone is amenable to it, they can work, and typically you’ll be given a date to get the work done by to make sure it doesn’t drag on forever.

Its likely that the vendors solicitor will advise them against this, though. Especially for £40k.

Thanks - vendors have already brought their onward purchase with cash (and have possession of it).

Not quite the same situation but we did similar when buying our house. But it was because a small wall had been moved in the house and the law had changed since it had been done. The surveyor asked for the plans and completion certificate from the council, which didn't exist as hadn't been required years before.
It was going to hold up the sale for months so our solicitor and vendors solicitor negotiated a sum of money which we held back. It was vendors responsibility to get architect to draw up plans, submit and then get council to inspect once we had already moved in. Then our solicitor transferred them the rest of money