about to exchange contracts on a house - should I walk away instead?

[schipo]

Hello all, apologies for long post:

I'm pregnant (24 weeks today!) with pfb and in middle of selling one bedroom flat and buying a more child friendly house with a garden etc.

The house we found is a victorian terrace. It turns out that the basement in this house is a recent addition (but over 10 years old) and seems to have been dug out without planning permission or building control certification. A two story extension has also been added and a chimney flue removed without official approval. These could be more manageable problems though because they don't affect foundations of the house. Also, since we put offer in we've also discovered there's a party wall agreement with neighbours who are about to dig out their own basement.

Planning permission isn't an issue after all this time, but the lack of building control documentation (esp in basement) could be a real problem for a long time.

The seller (who has lived in house for 9 years) says they've had council come round to approve the works in last week and were told to put in fire doors and smoke alarms but won't be able to get us official documentation to prove this before we complete. Since they've spoken to council though they can't take out indemnity insurance about this I understand.

Anyway, I spoke to a structural engineer on Friday who strongly recommended that we just count our losses and walk away.

He says that without spending thousands of pounds drilling into basement foundations to make sure that underpinning etc no-one can really make any guarantees that the property is sound, and if problems are found the costs could be huge! He was also alarmed to hear about works planned by neighbours. They could uncover problems which we become responsible for.

Is this really our only sensible option?

I had thought that we could ask for a refund of some of our original offer price to so we can fix all these problems in our own time. I spoke to engineer imagining he could quote me a rough costs for investigation and any remedial work.

Any advice would be much appreciated

'Estate agent is getting quite irritated with me now,'

Yeah, because most are lazy who can't be arsed to actually work for their money.

And they don't have your best interests in mind.

"Estate agent is getting quite irritated with me now" Tough, he'll just have to work harder to save his commission then You have every right to ask these questions.

Maybe the property was for sale with another agent for a while.

I've not read all the comments here but I strongly advise you to not do anything without a full structural survey and insurance etc.

I bought the most gorgeous Victorian house even though I had misgivings because I felt that I had committed and had to go through with it. It cost me a fortune - there were endless problems and I was lucky to be able to sell it for what I'd originally paid even though I sold at height of market.

If you have any doubts or misgivings please, please do not get entangled in this property. The estate agent will be cross - he wants his cash. The seller will be cross - they want out. This is for you though and you must put yourself first.

Well, the difference between a new build is probably that the foundations aren't over at least a hundred years old, and then someone disturbed them!

Think you've bent over backwards to try and sort out the various problems with the property. Could understand it if perhaps the owner was elderly and didn't know about the building regs, and dug up the basement, but this is a surveyor who has had ample time to get it sorted out, both structurally and administratively.

It may be the case that he doesn't think there's anything wrong with the foundations, and is just so arrogant to think otherwise, but it's a gamble.

Do you have £5,000 to do the underpinning to determine whether the foundations are stable? Or rather, could you afford to lose it?

I'd walk away. I walked away from a purchase last summer when I was 36 weeks pg, and had already given notice on my rented flat. Since we found out I was pg we have lived in six places. Baby's now 6 months and we have made our final move to purchased house.

You actually don't need all your worldly possessions around you when you have a new baby (assuming healthy etc, and that you live in a place where shops are walking distance). We moved a couple of times with just the three of us and a stuffed-full Peugeot 106. It was actually the happiest few months of my life (ignoring the waste of money trying to buy the house which fell through). Just me, my man and my boy, a moses basket, a suitcase or two of basic clothes, nipple shields , a car seat, a bag of sleepsuits and some nappies.

walk away. please.

The vendor is at it. Big style.

I think some of the best advice I had when househunting last year was - think about what happens when you sell. Whether that's years down the line, or if your circumstances changed and you needed to be able sell up - don't burden yourself with something that seems like it could present problems or has a dodgy history that you will then be trying to offload onto someone. The house we backed away from had been on the market for ages and dropped its price - and we realised that could well happen again when we came to sell it.

We were told that for the best bet you want no outstanding/unsolved problems, good location, and garden.

If you go ahead with this purchase then, sorry, but you are insane.

agree with clam

It sounds like the vendor may know a drill will confirm problems, so he's not willing to lose his own £5k. He's also hoping you'll just go for it, move in and inherit the problems.

I was bullied by an estate agent when I was talking about pulling out and I didn't have a full structural done and discovered that the 'settlement crack' between the extension and the main building were in fact collapsed drains due to the soak away being exited under the extension...I bought it and have regretted it for various reasons ever since.
I hate estate agents with a passion

Really OP; I'd walk away very fast!

The agent is getting irritated because s/he has had this unsellable house on the books for two years and you are the first person in a LONG time who looked like they might be sucker enough to be talked into it.

It's been on the market for two years. Wouldn't any sensible owner who knew there was something putting buyers off pay the piddling 5k for the drilling? Then the agent could say to every person looking oh no, perfectly ok, here's a copy of the report.

Could it be that as a surveyor himself, he is well aware that this house is a veritable landmine of shit, and he's waiting for someone naive enough to bumble in and take it off his hands?

I agree with clam too and tbh I don't know why you haven't pulled out already.

my advice would be to call the EA today and say you are with drawing your offer and don't get involved in a conversation.

I would also not use this EA to buy another property.

That's whatI said ninedragons! you just used bigger words ~ I wason a small word day...!

Bumping to see what happened here. Any news, Schipo?

oh, we dropped the house! we walked away !
thanks for all your help

We've got no regrets either. It was such a relief to finally let it go, and virtually the day we did a house I really liked ages ago never got to see because someone put an offer on, came available again.

So we saw it and we loved it. It's smaller, cheaper and nicer and still has small basement flat we can let if needed. It's been in same hands since 1982, and has no chain. We're even hoping to complete by end of month when we complete on sale of flat.

Also keeping fingers crossed obviously re results of next building survey.

Meanwhile I've been watching with interest what happens to other house. So far it's back on market with a 15k cheaper asking price (although still more than our offer price) and is apparently under offer again.... I hope they warned next lot of buyers about lack of building regulations and ongoing party wall issues etc.

That's great news. It's funny how these things work out. I hope the new house works out for you

Result!

That's fabulous news, I'm so pleased for you.

Good news. You really dodged a bullet. Come back and update us when you get the local gossip on the pile of shit house and the poor sod who eventually buys it.

Thats great news . These things always work out for the best. There is always a reason, you just might not know it at the time.

Great news!

Hope your purchase proceeds smoothly and quickly.

Great news - definitely the right thing to have done. Best of luck with the move to the new house