Renegotiate after offer accepted because of neighbour?

[TheLondoner00]

Had an offer accepted recently. As part of the searches and due diligence, my solicitor flagged that the next door house just received planning permission to create a set of flats and do a full roof and back extension that extends past the property we are trying to buy. This will partially block the sunlight and reduce privacy because the neighbour’s top floor balcony will overlook into the property. There is no way the sellers can deny this because this is exactly what they submitted to the council as an official ‘objection’ during the consultation phase (no idea how this still got approved by the council, but here we are).

As this will significantly impact the property and my ability to sell it on in the future, can I renegotiate my offer? If so, what is a reasonable amount to put forward?

For context: the offer that was accepted was almost 10% below asking, but the property had been on for awhile (likely because it was overpriced), there were no other offers, and I think the sellers are desperate to move on

How does the current price compare with others in the area? If it's lower, the sellers may argue they have already taken this into account in the selling price.

Pull out.

You will have the disruption of the construction phase, then the noise and inconvenience of having several flats next to you...

The sellers were hoping you would not find out and this is the reason why they are selling...

They should have been honest from the start (I assume you asked the agent why they wanted to move?)

Get the reduction agreed now for the reduction in value / amenity due to the proposed works.

Then if you discover further issues on survey, they are entirely different issues and you can negotiate on them.

If they are digging a "holding trench" as if were, it sounds like they are planning on pausing the flat development until the market improves (which makes sense) - but it will be a risk that they could start very disruptive and noisy work at any time.

But it sounds like you will be getting a super house for a good price, so I can see your dilemma. I'd be asking for at least 5-10% more off. I wonder if an estate agent could give you advice on the reduced value once flats are up and so you'd have something in writing to negotiate with?

Book another viewing and take along your most sensible friend (maybe one who's saying pull out) or building adviser. Go stand in garden and plot out where flats will come to and visualise what disruption will be. Look at the street and where the parking will be for lorry after lorry and eventual people in flats.
After that then decide

Walk away, that's a major project with a year or more of disruption

Decades ago a relative was a builder with a big detached house in the nicest part of town surrounded by his building yard. He built flats on his building yard and made a lot of money. A relative lived in the house until a few years ago and the house was sold for the first time.

big, 5 bed detached house with a large garden went for 280k when I’d have expected a house in that town of that size to go for 500k plus. Lots of people came for a viewing, got as far as the drive and left without coming in when they saw the flats. So it definitely affected the price.

we wouldn’t proceed.

This is obv not in London then (and apparently nobody comes ting is). Every other house here is flats and to be honest it’s not that bad (although very different if it is good quality vs targeting housing benefit tenants).

I am between 2 houses split into flats and it’s totally fine… I never really notice anyone, but they are privately owned/some are rented. Some of the housing association buildings split into flats I have seen elsewhere can be a bit rowdy though.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the building work - anyone can do building work at any time so at least you know what you’re getting yourself into here! I would however expect somE money off the agreed price now the nature of the purchase has changed. It’s really up to you to determine how much of an impact the development would have on you and therefore the value of the property.

+1

I think everybody is going to see a lot more intensive residential development in the very near future.

The current immigration estimate for 2022 is 700,000. That might be revised upwards due to less people leaving the UK.

Rents are going crazy due to lack of supply and additional housing is desperately needed.

I'm expecting planning rules to be massively relaxed - e.g. it will be ok to build houses in gardens, ok to demolish a house and build 12 flats, etc.

I'd ask for at least a 25% additional discount (in London) and walk away if they refuse. Outside London, there are probably enough detached houses to withdraw the offer and look for another house.

I am going to disagree with everyone! We live on a tree lined street with large detached houses and semi detached ones. There is also a new build block of flats. Would I want to live next door? Personally, no. But because of the size of the plots it doesn’t crowd the houses on either side. It isn’t so awful and those neighbouring houses will have lost some value. So to answer your original question, yes - I would most certainly ask for a further reduction. Maybe starting at 10% (depending on the size of the block, maybe more). But I would also be aware of what the block will look like. Further away from us there are some new build flats, also in the residential area, that are gigantic monstrosities. They are so huge, and are utterly dwarfing the houses on either side. Those I would never live next door to. They will have trashed the value of the houses. But they are built over two or possibly three original plots.

You have nothing to lose by asking. TBF, they kept that info back. Before you negotiate, work out what your response will be if they say no or counter the offer. I think an extra 5% is fair considering the circumstances.

Thank you for the views! To clear up confusion that may be going on here: it's not a block of flats. The neighbours are converting the detached house next door into 5 separate flats, an increase from 2 separate flats today.

I've decided to ask for a 5% price reduction (~£125k) and see what the sellers say. Indeed this is key information that neither the sellers nor the EA disclosed at the onset. Any buyer of this property will see this come up in searches. I will walk away if the sellers don't budge on price.

I think you should ask for 15% and have 5% as your limit. They've lied by omission and are moving for a reason.

I would renegotiate I'd be pulling my offer, the noise the dust no way. You'll not be able to enjoy your home initially then there's the several neighbours in the new flats to take into consideration. Absolutely not.

Wouldn't not would!

For a £2.5m house, I would be demanding a lot more off than 5%. They knew the planning was going to be taking place, and they didn't tell you. They were hoping to get their millions and be on their merry way! Go for 15% off.

I think the issue is the vendors not mentioning the development! The OP also says the house is well decorated and ready to move into. My spidey senses would be saying are they also trying to distract me with decor from spotting some peculiarity that will only come to light once they move out. For me the trust would have gone by now.

Have the vendors lied in response to a question specifically about planning applications? If not, they have not been deceptive. There is no legal requirement to disclose all the negative aspects of your home when selling (many of which are subjective in any case) and objecting to a planning application is not a dispute.

What you must do as a vendor is answer questions honestly. I believe you can decline to answer questions too, but obviously that allows conclusions to be drawn.

I wouldn’t like this as a buyer either, but it was uncovered by doing the usual checks and the op can now do what she wants with that information.

At least the new neighbours should be decent as they’ll be paying 500k per apartment, or more.
But 2.5m on a bit of an unknown? While prices are at their peak? No way.

At least the new neighbours should be decent as they’ll be paying 500k per apartment, or more
You can't be serious? 😂

Quick update: We asked for 5% off which the sellers immediately refused and within hours the property went back on the market. We're not going to budge as there is no way we're spending £2.55M to live next to a building site for 6-12 months and have to take the long term risk of noisy neighbors and loss of light and privacy. At minimum, we'd need to see some kind of reduction on the original price that we agreed before all of this new information. This is something any buyer of the property will see as part of the searches, and maybe those people wont care as much as we do, but unfortunately, my husband and I care. Alas, it was not meant to be.

On the bright side, we got our mortgage approved at a great rate before all of the rate rises that are coming rest of this year (starting with tomorrow's BOE announcement!). Literally got it through in the nick of time! The bank has agreed to port it over and it will be valid for the next 6 months. Having now spoken to 5+ mortgage brokers, general consensus is that rates will continue to increase until end of this year (the earliest), so we're thrilled to have gotten this through just in time. We're FTBs and we're now in an even better position to proceed with any future property we see. Fingers crossed!

I think you dodged a bullet there OP.
It is going to keep coming up as an issue, I'm really surprised that vendors didn't snap your arm off to be honest.

Good for you op. A better property will turn up. 💐💐

Deadly serious.
The OP was going to pay 2.5m for the full next door house, the neighbours house will be converted into 5 flats, therefore to make it profitable it needs to make at least the 2.5, otherwise why convert it?
More likely 600k each. This is London.