To offer lower or no?

[MotherOfRatios]

Viewed a 1 bed first floor property £200k Woolwich I like the area, however there was no pictures of the bathroom.

I viewed and the bathroom needs some
work it's just gone on the market I want to offer lower but my gut says they'll say no.

There's a whole in the bath and bath panel (the inside one is blurred so haven't uploaded)

WYD?

update
The housing association are just plain lazy instead of ringing the property management agency she decided to email them knowing an email would probably take longer to get a response from. I rang them up today as I eventually got hold of the name of the company I rang them immediately and they said we no longer managed that block of flats they did pass me the details of a new company.
It seems that the property management company for the building is very new. Just awaiting to see how to get the service charges from them.

Why are you doing this? Your solicitor should be requesting an LPE1 pack that the vendor will pay for.

That will have all the information about service charges, ground rent etc..

This thread has become very confusing to me...

@Ginmonkeyagain the vendor will not be paying for the LPE1 pack, the buyer will - hence she is asking the questions. If you read upthread, it is complicated.

@MotherOfRatios I’d be walking away at this point. If you buy this property and you need to get hold of the freeholder/managing agent, it is going to be difficult. I wouldn’t have any faith in them resolving anything. You still don’t have a firm answer as to whether or not you are buying a share of the property or a whole lease do you?

No. The vendor pays for the LPE1.

The buyers solicitor requests it from the vendors solicitor.

The buyer pays for the survey.

On thr LPE1 form it varies.

However, all flats I've viewed do list the Service charge and ground rent so I'm not going to pay £250 when the standard is that this is listed information you can see when viewing a property.

The management agency have excellent reviews and seem like a really good company. it has just been an extremely poor process from the housing association and estate agents. I've had to do a lot of the work that they should have done.

Once I know the service charge, I can then make a firm decision as to whether to proceed or not.

Update at last a SC!
so I've rang the Property Management company today and they told me it is one service charge for the year but billed in 2 halves, I asked if this would go up/down and he said no, but I can't understand why they can't just have one bill for the year? The year runs October-october I have emailed with a summary of our conversation and asked them to agree or disagree with what I have written and I will await to see what they say.

It's common to have it split in to two bills. The service charge and how it is levied will be in the lease.

This is for your conveyancer to advise you on.

Ideally looking to seek feedback as much as possible as conveyancing fees for the property are £3.5k which is quite expensive so if I can prevent a costly mistake, I would rather do that.

Which is a good idea but that will only get you so far. To answer some of your questions you need to see the lease. Which you won't see until you engage a conveyancing solicitor as they will read it and advise you on any issues.

Remember you aren't buying a flat, you are buying a lease. So the important thing is what it says in the lease, not what someone who answers tbe phone at the management company tells you.

I admire your persistence OP. I would have pulled out long before now.

I just know my personality and I'm the type of person who can't rest until I've exhausted something, otherwise I end up thinking what if.

@MotherOfRatios have you located the lease on the LR yet? It will have a separate title number to the freeholder’s interest as I mentioned upthread.

I know the freeholder and I have seen the current owners lease, but mine would be different as hers was a shared ownership lease.

@MotherOfRatios I think you are at the point of now needing specialist advice. It is possible that the building was granted planning for shared ownership only, so you need to check that. You should also be aware that leases are not like tenancy agreements. You can’t just devise a new one if consideration is due to the existing leaseholder or their heirs - there are specific legal processes to follow. This may well alter the price especially if a fresh lease is granted. It will undoubtedly not be straightforward either.

The price can't be altered shared ownership properties have to sell at the RICs valuation unless the seller is happy to pay at the difference back to the Housing Association and given this ultimate has no money, I doubt she would do that.

Once I get the EW1 then I'll instruct Solicitors, if there isn't one of them, I don't think I'll go ahead with it. It's too risky

Update ESW1- she sent it across this morning and it is a B2 listed building which means it does have cladding that needs removed she said in her email Work is in place to fix this but no timeline of when so I have emailed back to say what is the timeframe of fixing the issue? Because if it's not within the next three months, I don't want to buy it.

A sidenote, I actually feel sorry for this old woman because if I don't buy it, she's going to really struggle to sell it because of the complication of it being a shared ownership and the bathroom and the cladding. The government should be ashamed.

This flat seems to have too many issues, I would be pulling out now the cladding has come to light. Yes it’s a shame for the old woman but you have to put yourself first.

It's got B2 listed cladding? Good god walk away now.

Are the leaseholders currently funding a waking watch?

I spoke to my mortgage broker. Don't ask me why she was willing to respond to an email on Sunday. But she rang me shortly after she knows all the problems I've been having and she said we have to think about carefully. I've got a really tight budget, and she said it depends lenders are willing to lend depending on if there's plans to fix it then there's not really an issue, but if there's no plan to fix it all they're saying work won't begin until the end of the year there's no point touching it

Yes the HA is funding waking watch for the building.

Yeah. Walk away. Fast. I feel for the laseholders stuck with this but do not knowingly lut yourself in this situation.

Yeah it wasn't the best news to wake up to this morning and I really do feel for the elderly woman who is really stuck. I have some friends who work on helping old people in these kinds of situations so I have asked the estate agents if they could ask her if she'd be happy to get in contact with me, as if I pull out, I'd still offer some help as someone that does a lot in housing/has connections to various campaigns.

I have a friend who works as a volunteer on a cladding campaign and she has spoken to some people this morning and they've said I'm right in my approach unless the work is not planned within three months then walk away.

It's such a shame, but I'm so glad I haven't spent a single penny up until now.

Update
they have no plan to remove the cladding, so I have withdrawn my offer.

Sorry it didn’t work out this time @MotherOfRatios