Qualified letter of Acceptance from sellers - alarm bells ringing or standard fare?

[mortgagemoans]

Apologies in advance as this is a bit of a long one. Have also posted this on the Property board.

We are going to see our solicitor this week who has received the qualified written acceptance from the sellers of the house we hope to be buying (our offer was verbally accepted over 3 weeks ago) I know that all will be revealed (hopefully) when we sit down with the solicitor, but they've sent through the letter and I am slightly concerned about a few of the 'qualifications'.

It would appear that the house is being sold by the Executors of the estate of a deceased parent. We know that the house has had lots of work done in the past few years (it's got new floors, new boiler as of 2016 and the roof has been re-tiled in 2016). At some point the 2nd bedroom has been reduced in size to allow a dividing wall to be built with proper access via a staircase to the loft which is the 3rd bedroom.

The house has been in the ownership of the executor's family for 25 years. The following points that reference the Scottish Standard Clauses (Edition 2) appear:

"Condition 2 shall be held as delete"
"Condition 4 shall be held as delete"

"Condition 6 and 8 and Standard Condition 3, 4 8, 9 and 12 shall be held as delete. The Seller is selling as an executor and is therefore not in a position to confirm the contents of these conditions. The subjects of sale are sold as seen with no warranty or guarantee been given by the seller in respects of the subjects of sale or any contents therein."

"Standard Condition 21 shall be held as delete" (but it says to refer to a Property Enquiry Letter that we haven't seen as yet)

"Standard Condition 22 shall be held as delete" (but it refers us to a Coal Authority Report that, again we won't see until we sit down with the Solicitor)*

There is also a clause stating that the previous owner of the Land (an Estate that was sold to the developers in the late 1940s) still has what appear to be Mineral Rights to the land beneath the property.

A quick glance at the Scottish Standard Clauses (Edition 2) would indicate that the numbered Conditions above concern any information/knowledge/guarantees about proposed planning permission, work carried out on the property, working condition of any services, disputes etc. That seems to me quite important stuff that they're saying they can't give any assurances or guarantees about.

Should we be worried? Or should we be confident that our own Solicitor would advise us not to proceed if they thought there was anything worrying in the above qualifications? We are First Time Buyers so have not gone through this experience before.

Any advice gratefully appreciated!

It's all part of the process. Your offer would have been in a standard form, with the exception of the price and entry date, so the striking out of standard clauses is normal and the seller can't guarantee things that our outwith their power or knowledge. There are usually a number of 'missive' letters exchanged between seller and purchaser's solicitors, often over a period of weeks or even a couple of months, before the missives are concluded and the contract is legally binding. Your solicitor will advise you.

Thanks Steam. I’ll try not to panic unduly 😄

Our solicitor explained that the point of the 'standard' clauses is - well, the clue is in the name: they are meant to be the standard clauses that both parties agree on! However, apparently some solicitors routinely try to delete particular clauses.

You'll probably compromise: accept some changes and not others. Be guided by your solicitor, they deal with this every day and it's part of reaching an agreement.

Ok we are in England but have just sold my dad's house as executors with limited title guarantee. Standard for such a sale.

You can still do all the necessary searches and surveys to satisfy yourself. At least I assume you can in Scotland?

We had a meeting with the Solicitor and expressed our concern that the Seller wasn't giving us any reassurances on the heating, roofing, loft conversion and that we were feeling concerned by this. They are going back to the seller with our concerns and there was talk of getting indemnity cover for any work that might have been done that they don't have any paperwork/certification for. The Solicitor didn't seem unduly concerned but we are nervously waiting to hear how the Sellers respond. The Solicitor was going to request that they get indemnity insurance to protect us should there be any problem with planning permission on the loft.