Buyers solicitor being difficult

[Mehmeh22]

So we had an offer on our house in September from a FTB. It took them 6 weeks to get a mortgage offer.

In November the buyer was starting to get annoyed at how slow the sale was going and said she needed to move by end of Jan.

There is a chain involved with three other houses. Ive had a lot of bad luck with that, but all being well, we should be completed by end of March at the very latest.

The buyer got annoyed at the delays with the chain and has been putting on a lot of pressure to move sooner. But here's the thing. Her solicitor is from one of those huge companies that employ monkeys for peanuts and who have no knowledge of the system whatsoever. Looking at their reviews, they are known for this. They just don't understand the lease system in the NW

My solicitor has passed on everything he can and he said in normal circumstances, that is enough, but the buyers solicitor refuses to accept it. And is charging my buyer for all sorts of stuff which has so far got to £4k (just for the purchase).

My buyer is now not accepting the indemnity policies for the extension that happened 25 years ago, before my time (and I had been upfront that it did not have building regs), and is demanding 10k off the price or for me to pay for a surveyor to check the extension. Baring in mind, she has been putting on pressure to move asap for about three months.

I can't reduce due to us putting an offer on a house and we are at our limit.

What do we do?? Im so close to telling the buyer to jog on!!!

I called their bluff in the end and said I was not reducing and not paying for a survey. They threatened pulling out so we said we will put the house back on the market.

They came back later to say they will pay for the survey. My solicitor thinks the survey is pointless. Im keeping it on the market anyway.

Lets see. Thanks all!!

Fingers crossed that can of worms you mentioned stays sealed ;)

Survey will most likely reiterate lack of building reg and planning permission.

But you cant expect retrospective building regs from something built 25 years ago. Its stupid to ask for this. This loft conversion is not considered a bedroom either!

Is it described as a bedroom in your sale particulars?

You bought it without the necessary paperwork
At the moment it’s your problem
As soon as the purchaser buys it it’s their problem
That’s what I would advise them and I wouldn’t care if you thought I was being difficult

You can get retrospective building regs for works completed 25 years ago. In fact you can get it for works since 1985
It’s called a Regularisation Certificate.

6months is a long time for a purchase to go through
Id be getting very peeved at this stage

What reasons did your solicitor give for thinking it’s pointless as it seems very unusual advice for part of the building being sold without permissions

This is not the case if a property doesnt have building regs
Mortgage surveyors do not open up to check the build and compliance which is what OPs property needs

No idea if there’s planning either ?

Why don’t you speak to the EA and get them to have a chat with the buyers. They probably have no idea what they are doing and are being guided by their solicitor.

A solicitor would know more about this than an Estate Agent

The buyer can not open up the building rather can only do a visual inspection.

The data on important structural elements needed to check if the "new" build bits are up to code will be hidden under render and paint and flooring.

Any professional will list all the visual issues with a long list of "dont know as its not possible to inspect".

Never the less the buyer should have commissioned a survey as its on of the biggest purchases they will ever buy.

The lender only wants a estimation on the resale value of the house as a recoverable amount. Unless there is a massive downturn the site and rebuild cost will be less that the sale value. The two big lender risks are the building is distroyed or a bankrupt buyer.
A full survey at this stage would not mitigate either risk so the lenders best option is to reduce the loan amount

I never described it as a bedroom. Its a 3 bed with a loft room. If they want a regularisation certificate, why would I be selling it as a 3 bedroom and surely I should increase the value as it would be a 4 bedroom property?

I don't care they are being difficult either really. I'm over it because this has been dragged out for no reason.

My solicitor says it is a pointless survey at this point because it is not classed as a bedroom, the surveyor wont be able to pull apart the room to check the work and it was built a long time ago so if it was going to fall apart, it would have done so by now

Of course your solicitor is right, if it isn't described as a bedroom in the particulars then it doesn't matter whether it has the certificate from your point of view. Either they want the house as the three bed it is being sold as, or they don't. Hope it all works out for you.

No
If it’s been converted as a loft room it needs building regs

Paying for the survey will cost you a lot less than 10k. I just did similar for a place I’m buying and a thorough check from a chartered structural engineer was £850.

I agree with the OP's solicitor, she said it isn't claimed that it is a habitable room, but as a loft room. It would be different if it were being described as a bedroom.

Not if they are one of those dreadful conveyancing firms. Perhaps the OP's buyer found it was cheaper to use a conveyancer rather than a proper solicitor? You seldom deal with the same person twice and if you call them nobody knows what is happening or who can help you. My son's seller used one and they were utterly useless and ridiculously slow.

It’s been converted as a loft ‘room’
The structural support insulation etc etc etc must conform
As an Architect I assure you all it needs building regs

If thats true, how did the house sell 5 times before without them? I dont even know when it was actually made so I wouldn't know what building regs it would need to comply to.

I don’t know
Maybe the buyers didn’t care
Maybe they took out indemnity, not that that’s worth much
or
Some conveyancers and solicitors are just crap

That would suggest 10 solicitors/Conveyancers are crap, which seems unlikely.

The person who made the change would have known when it was done, and even they didnt get retrospective planning permission within the 10 years it was done.

There are indemnity policies in place because that really is the only way to get around this, other than bringing it up to regs, which would change the value of the house.

Of course it would be amazing to have all the documents needed for all changes, but the house is 130 years old. Im lucky I have the assignment document!

You don’t need to bring it up to current day regs
It needs to confirm when it was built
Think you originally said it was converted 25 years ago
So basically in accordance with regs in 2000

It’s not that rare people developing properties and not getting the permissions. People cheat the system. It happens a lot and subsequent buyers clearly didn’t know, care or get it checked to see if it’s safe and complies.

Im assuming it was 25 years ago. It was definitely 20 years ago when they sold the house because the indemnity policy is for then.