Buyers coming around with builder 'to check utilities '

[Yellowmelon1988xx]

Currently selling our house, nearly at the end of the process ( we hope )

Just had the EA asking if they can come around eith buyers and s builder/ trades man as they been advised by their solicitor to do so

Is this normal practice? When we last told our house it was during lockdowm so this didn't happen

All the searches etc have come back

Slightly worried now

My immediate thought is that they'll try and drop the price- dirty tricks.

@menopausalmare so if YOU were buying a house and found something wrong with it on a survey (building or electrical), then it would be "dirty tricks" to try and negotiate a drop in price to take account of the remedial work needed? Hmm.

Is it an older house? Do you have electrical certificates for all work you may have had done?
Why would you not have a boiler serviced if you are selling? It's like getting the EPC rating.
I would have asked for these earlier.

I would have dealt with it a lot sooner as a buyer. This happened to me. My buyer left it 'til the 11th hour to get a builder round and pressure me to lower the price. I was 35 weeks pregnant and she knew this. Dirty tricks.

@menopausalmare in your case, yes, the timing does sound a bit sneaky. But not all demands for extra inspections/surveys should be regarded as a cynical attempt to get money off. The OP's buyers sound pretty invested, have visited a few times, done searches etc.

And you can always say no to a demand to drop the price.

I don’t think it’s unusual to expect the boiler to be serviced. I’ve bought two houses where I believed their guff about the boiler and they packed up almost instantly and had to be replaced - I was bloody stupid, before anyone points it out. For the sake if £100 or whatever, do it. If they drop out then you have it for the next buyer.
The electrics? No! That’s not normal, let them pay for it, if you agree to let them in!

We paid for the electrical check for ours, to keep things moving, then found some of the the work that had previous been signed off wasn't up to scratch and we ended up spending another £1k! So don't do it!!

I would send them a folder detailing the boiler maintenance. The electrics they can deal with themselves later… agree they’re looking to drop the price!!

Yeah they can pull at any time. I had four consecutive buyers pull out of a flat purchase on exchange day a year or so back.

Normal to expect evidence of checks and expect seller to pay for usual checks if they have not been undertaken. They may ask for indemnity insurance paid by seller which is also normal practise.

Buying a house without doing the checks or having paperwork would be silly. Often the sewage system is not mapped with provider and this may affect planning requirements. The questions are often say on someone's computer for ages and the delay may not be the sellers fault.

Nothing you said rings any alarm bells for me.