Third viewing has left me worried about completing on this house

[Goldengamer]

We’ve been to view the house we are well on the way to completing on , surveys done, searches done etc .
It’s a 3rd viewing , we viewed for the 1st and 2nd time a couple of months back, this time was really to have a closer look. My goodness, it was filthy , cupboards dirty , floors not cleaned or swept . Unfinished DIY we hadn’t noticed first time round etc etc . The kitchen although newish has been very badly fitted and we are going to have to rip it all out . The survey picked up a few things but not the standard of work or cleanliness of the place . We are nearing retirement and it’s really daunting knowing we will have to start working on the house when we move in . Surely she will have to leave it clean and tidy when she moves out ? …. I’m sure when I filled in my forms for the sale of my house one of the questions was that it had to be left in a clean state . when my buyers dropped in to do a last viewing of our house it was spotless . I’m really having second thoughts but husband said don’t worry we can get a cleaner in to give it the once over before we move in but it’s the cost of renewing everything is bothering me . I’m 62 and really don’t want to be having to start again when I’m leaving a lovely house that’s been looked after. Can’t believe I didn’t notice it first time round . What do others think I should do ?

You don't say anything about why you offered on the house. Did you fall in love with it, is it the perfect size in the perfect area? If so then you should go ahead. Cleaning can be sorted, as can minor repairs. Every house has problems you don't know about until you move in. The ones you are looking at sound minor to say the least. It sounds like last minute nerves, understandable but not a reason to pull out on their own.

I’ve cleaned and redecorated every house I’ve moved into. If the survey hasn’t thrown up structural issues or damp then cosmetic stuff is to be expected. I’ve replaced kitchen doors and had new bathrooms fitted. Yes in a perfect world a house would be deep cleaned when their furniture and possessions are removed but I do know people where it hasn’t happened on completion. 3 viewings now should now tell you if the house is right or wrong. Presumably you liked the house area to view is there nice aspects to it that you can plan to worry less about the cleanliness.

I'm in the building trade and was thinking the same - if the wall ties are actually shot and causing issues (questionable because surveyors love finding non existent wall tie issues!!) but assuming they are, that's going to cost a lot to repair and is a structural defect, as opposed to a slightly rough wardrobe install or bit of grub.

If you want to go ahead with a price reduction, you would need to negotiate this through the estate agent and then let the solicitor know so they can alter the amount on the contract and their invoice. You might want to ask for a larger reduction as if they don’t reject the idea, they are likely to counter your offer.
Just going to ask loads of questions now which may help clarify what your viewpoint.
What would be the implications for you of pulling out now? Have you already sold or would you lose your buyer? Can you afford the repairs and redecoration if you can’t get the price reduced?

Thinking about the move, once you’ve had the deep clean done, can you unpack and get settled before doing the kitchen? Can you live with the kitchen while your knee is healing? Will the work needed feel more manageable once you’re more mobile and in less pain? Do you think it needs a great deal more work than many houses on the market? Does all the work need doing immediately? Once you’ve done all that needs doing, can you see yourself happy living there? Do you love the ‘bones’ of the house? What does your husband think?

You could do a cost-benefit analysis to help you weigh up the relative importance of issues: draw a vertical line down the middle of a piece of paper and list the pros and cons of going ahead with the purchase, pros on the left, cons on the right. Do another with the pros and cons of dropping out and looking for something else. (They are sort of reversed so there is overlap but other things also come up). You could do pros and cons about the house itself too.
Moving house is really really stressful and house buying is such an investment of time, money and energy. It’s natural to have some doubts so it’s a question of how much is understandable anxiety about such a big decision and how much is being triggered by genuine red flags and how much upheaval you can realistically cope with. Hope all goes well for you.

I don’t think the state of tidiness or cleanliness matters at all. A professional clean will solve that quickly. As for it showing that the vendors probably haven’t taken care of other things, I disagree. Your survey would have shown anything important.

The botched fittings are more serious, but I’m wondering how bad they really are. Could it be that your feelings about the mess/dirt made you super-critical about everything else?

You don’t make any mention of why you’re leaving your "lovely house" to move, or why you chose that new house in the first place. Presumably you really liked it when you made the offer!

I'm thinking that maybe you’re just feeling overwhelmed at the thought of the upheaval involved in moving. Houses are very rarely perfect in every detail. You could always try reducing your offer to allow for the correction of the things that are bugging you, though the vendors might well refuse.

This one for me. Does the house have your heart? Would you accept the state of it if you got a significant reduction on the price? With respect to your husband, is her normally an "oh don't worry we can sort it" sort of bloke and who ends up actually doing the sorting even if its only doing the booking in and managing the cleaners and tradies? I'd say in a marriage, house buying is one of those decisions where there has to be absolute alignment. For me it wouldn't just be the money that's an issue, although it would be of course, its the actual stress of getting everything fixed and replaced on top of selling your own house.
For me if the house didn't have my heart and I didn't think its was worth the asking price in its current state, then I would be refusing to go ahead.

It sounds like you didn't have a proper look around the first two times you were there. So you've messed up. Most people don't expect houses to be perfect when they buy them, needing no work. On the first viewing you should have been mentally adding up the cost of changing what annoyed you, to see if the house was still in budget or you needed to find something else.

We purchased a house that we thought was in reasonably good condition but when it came to moving day, the house was so filthy that it was unliveable.

We ended up spending thousands on hotel bills just before Christmas as we hadn't expected such bad condition. This was in addition to the house requiring new flooring (they had ruined carpets), repainting etc. There were a lot of poorly executed DIY jobs and once the builders came in, they discovered a lot of botch jobs and cover ups. It cost us around £20k in unexpected costs to remediate and huge amounts of stress.

The surveyor had failed to pick up a lot of issues and we briefly looked into the legal route for recourse but it all seemed expensive, time consuming, risky and stressful.

It's not too late to call it off!

We moved into a filthy house three years ago. To be fair, it was filthy when we viewed it and we knocked the price down a fair bit. We focused on the location and layout of the property and what we knew it could be. However we aren’t nearing retirement age and knew we would need to do a full refurb to make it right for us. Even with that knowledge we have discovered things that are a nightmare throughout the renovations. The day we completed we had to rip out all the carpets as they were so heavily smoke stained and smelly (sellers smoked indoors for years with no ventilation). It never felt properly clean until we had renovated each room, and three years on we are almost completely done.

I adore our home but I would never take on another property that needed so much in the way of cleaning and renovation for shoddy work. We have replaced everything - doors, windows, kitchen, bathroom, had to landscape garden etc. I agree with the previous posters who say that if somewhere is dirty and uncared for, there will be hidden problems underneath it.

Like @DeftWasp it’s the wall ties that’s the decider. We walked away from a property because of this. A builder took it on.
Don’t feel embarrassed to say no. Definitely not.
Have a happier retirement with more time and money than this property needs.
Back to Rightmove OP.

I think it depends on how much you like the house, its size, garden, location, local amenities etc. An empty house will be easy to clean. Even if you bring in cleaners, surely the costs won't be sufficient to make it not worth buying. If you wanted a well fitted pristine house, why did you ever choose this one that looked very much 'lived in'? I understand it's hard to take in everything on a first viewing, but this is your third. I've bought 3 times and never had more than two viewings. There are always idiosyncracies that you won't notice till you live there. Eg in this house we didn't notice that the power sockets weren't placed in the most sensible places.....

A badly fitted kitchen may be annoying but could you afford to refit and choose your own doors etc, rather than start over?

What even is a 'wall tie'? I've never heard of this.

Oh god I would walk away for the damp and the badly fitted bifold alone. These are both expensive things to fit - and replacing a kitchen on top? Even if you get a price reduction, you don’t want to face all that work.

OP you are leaving a lovely pristine house. Why are you moving at all?

You don't have to do it all at once. Just get someone in to give it a thorough clean, as long as it is liveable, any repairs and alterations can be done a bit aat a time.

I daresay the owner will give it a bit of a clean before leaving but don't expect miracles. You must like the house or wouldn't have sought to buy it, the problems sound cosmetic only and easily remedied.

Sixty-two isn't very old.

@researchers3
“Wall ties are structural fixings used in buildings with cavity walls. They securely join the inner and outer leaves of masonry together, allowing them to act as a single, stable unit. They are critical for structural stability, preventing wall bowing, and halting moisture transfer.”

I can’t even imagine moving into a new house and not replacing the Carpets that’s standard operating procedure, isn’t it?

You will have to clean when you move in it's not unusual. It's also common to find that there's more to do than you thought. I think that you're just getting the jitters as you are so close to moving. Employ a cleaning firm to go in and blitz the place if possible.

Its a while since I moved but we have never had to replace carpet immediately.

not in the house I moved in to. Stunning carpets, beautiful. And spotless. Why would you @Apprentice26

Because no matter how stunning or clean they are to the human eye they’re gonna have other people’s skin cells and dirt within them. I mean I hate Carpets at the best of times but any dirt is at least my dirt.

WALL-TIES OP? Questionable wall-ties?
This could be the most serious part of the deal. That could restrict you when you come to sell.
You have had a surveyor give an opinion I presume.

This is very peculiar. I imagine Covid was a particularly terrifying time for you and you basically became a hermit!

Do you never stay anywhere other than your own home @Apprentice26 ? No hotels etc?

Not particularly no
As I say standard operating procedure as far as I’m concerned get the house deep cleaned before you move in change all the toilet seats and change the Carpets
It’s not difficult hardly a dealbreaker when you’re buying four walls in a roof fundamentally