Pulling out of house before exchange?

[p0ppyx]

I am sure I will get lots of mixed opinions on this. We have been stuck in a chain for the last 7 months and finally got an exchange and completion date for next month. However we have come across planning permission approvals to add parking to a block of flats that is next to the house. There is currently a hedge next to an access way which goes down the side of the house which provides some privacy between the house and the flats and this hedge is to be replaced with 6 parking spaces. The spaces would have to be accessed by driving round our house and the spaces will be directly opposite the front door and kitchen window. This has really worried us about losing privacy and the added noise around our house. We are also concerned this will put people off when we come to sell it as I feel it would put me off personally.

Are we absolutely awful people to pull out at this point? I would feel so awful, our seller has been lovely and helpful through this whole process.

I would pull out too. That's really shady of the buyers as they were supposed to have disclosed their complaint to the council. Its also poor of your solicitor to have not investigated it further.

No survey yet so just the searches done? And not very well!

Any update OP?

We pulled out. Estate agent completely understood, he asked the seller about it and she said she forgot. Solicitor is blaming her for him not picking this up on the searches which is crazy. Thankfully we can keep renting our current place as long as needed so back to searching again.

Forgot?!! Yeah, of course she did! You definitely dodged a bullet there. Hope your search for a house goes well 😊

Ah hopefully her reaction has made you feel better - what else was concealed?!

Maybe consider a new solicitor for the next one, hey?! So much money to miss something like this?

OP, you have done right. A dear friend was in a similar position to yours - had almost finished the process when her solicitor dug up planning permission for a number of new houses next door to her - the vendor “forgot” to mention it. She pulled out. I would advise anyone buying to exercise the utmost vigilance over checking applications for planning permission etc because building works can completely blight your house and change your living conditions.

You only incurred £350? So I’m guessing you had not your survey yet? Op you were quite a long way off exchange!

Not everybody has a survey. I never have. Always used 'no completion no fee' solicitors too.

She wants to be getting herself checked for dementia if she "forgot" parking so close to her house that she objected about and started a petition over...

Too have “never” had a survey undertaken before spending likely hundreds of thousands of pounds?

that was reckless brave of you!

and did you have a mortgage? Because a valuation survey is almost certainly required if so

I'm assuming the bill is low as there's been a cock up - this should have been flagged up to the OP.

We had a very small bill when a major planning application was missed when we nearly bought a house - we were only charged for the basic stuff up until the point of the mistake on the basis that nothing after the mistake would have been actioned had the mistake not happened (as we would have pulled out at that point).

I didn’t include our survey in this price, we had a £500 survey done back in October when our offer was first accepted. We were due to exchange on the 30th June.

Mortgage providers did their own desktop valuations, came free with the mortgage offers.

A survey on the other hand is only a snapshot and written so defensively as to make any possible come-back on the surveyor futile. A house, broadly, is what it is. We only bought lived-in houses where the owners had been there a long time.

The last place, we paid a builder an hour's rate to have a walk around, to see if anything jumped out at him, so I'd probably do that again.

What value were the properties in question?

for the sake for a few hundred or even more when buying a £700k property…. Didn’t even cross my mind not to do this kind of due diligence

Oh how annoying op!

I would pull out. As a PP says - the current owners probably knew about this planning and tbh to be harsh. If they had speeded up the sale you might well have brought it by now.

We were in the middle of buying a house many many years ago and were first time buyers. The owners told us at the second viewing they would be more than happy to rent and move out once the paperwork was done. Needless to say they didnt. Claimed they couldnt find a suitable house, then that they didnt want to put their furniture in storage and after 6 months we pulled out. They then claimed they WOULD move but I just didnt trust them.

I think you made the right choice good luck in your new search

All under 300K, never had a problem, 4 properties 👍

Ah might have taken a risk depending how far under £300k you mean!

I would be pretty upset with the solicitor tbh if they’d missed this.

Pull out, as said unthread, it’s not the house you initially offered on

You had a lucky escape. I bet the vendor will come back offering to drop the price.

It’s probably why she’s moving, and she forgot 🙄