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Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2019 6:23 pm
by Tomous
Wow.

So we’ve just been informed by our surveyors that they’ve had 3 or 4 calls from people asking to discuss the report that aren’t us. Even on one occasion giving my wife’s name but failing to give the correct password.

Wow. :lol:

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2019 8:51 pm
by The Doom Spoon
Poncho wrote:My girlfriend and I are buying a property. We also had a building survey done and the report made it sound like the house was going to collapse at any minute - there's a lot of arse covering to shift through to work out what the real problems are ("The roof looks fine, but it could also blow away so better get someone in to confirm it's fine." Vague stuff like that.). Our report had a list of all the costs and it was close to 20k, but most of it was stuff that wasn't critical to my mind (or a 'red' problem as ours used that traffic light system). I'm not paying £2,500 for two new doors because he thinks they "may" not be secure enough (listed as a red/critical issue), or £1,500 to get rid of some moss on the roof.


That doesn't seem right at all. My wife and I completed on our house and moved in just over a month ago. When our servey come through it was purely matter of fact and any advisories were backed up by evidence. Your solicitor would of had a copy sent to them. I would seek advice from them.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2019 8:42 am
by Poncho
Just to be clear, the roof blowing away bit was a made up problem exaggerating the kind of safe arse covering advice a survey seems to contain, in case that's the bit that concerned you the most. :lol:

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2019 4:47 pm
by pjbetman
Tomous wrote:Wow.

So we’ve just been informed by our surveyors that they’ve had 3 or 4 calls from people asking to discuss the report that aren’t us. Even on one occasion giving my wife’s name but failing to give the correct password.

Wow. :lol:


strawberry float em off, mate. Snide banana splits. Probably pull out of the deal when someone else offers higher.

Edit: Plus your lender will retain some of the money until the work is done.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2019 4:52 pm
by Errkal
Tomous wrote:Wow.

So we’ve just been informed by our surveyors that they’ve had 3 or 4 calls from people asking to discuss the report that aren’t us. Even on one occasion giving my wife’s name but failing to give the correct password.

Wow. :lol:


Isn’t that illegal so could be investigated?

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2019 4:54 pm
by Tomous
Errkal wrote:
Tomous wrote:Wow.

So we’ve just been informed by our surveyors that they’ve had 3 or 4 calls from people asking to discuss the report that aren’t us. Even on one occasion giving my wife’s name but failing to give the correct password.

Wow. :lol:


Isn’t that illegal so could be investigated?


It’s not just a little illegal, it’s very illegal.

We’re still considering what to do about that.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:13 am
by Tomous
Vendors have pulled out. They offered a £4k reduction but after speaking to the surveyor at length, he was estimating £6-7k in urgent work required immediately and £6-7k in the next 12 months. We felt a £10k reduction wasn’t unreasonable. They also hadn’t provided a completion certificate for the extension or any certificate for the electricity so we were very uncomfortable with that anyway.

We do wonder if they’ll come back to us in the next few weeks and are just trying to force our hand but we’re comfortable with our position. We’ve held our ground when the estate agents have been absolute banana splits and have tried to bully us at every step of the way, lying through their teeth throughout. Not to mention the attempted identity fraud. banana splits.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:15 am
by Jenuall
Really tough situation but sounds like you have made the sensible choice.

Like you say there is a good chance they might reconsider and come back to you - anyone else they try to sell to are going to find the same problems so it's not like they are going to be able to just ignore it.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:40 am
by Tomous
We're weighing up making one last offer of compromise and suggesting £7k reduction-so to meet in the middle and to cover the immediate works required. We do really like the house and so providing they can provide all the necessary electricity certification (we obviously want to be comfortable it doesn't need rewiring or anything like that because that would be a big expensive/job) we could probably accept that.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:42 am
by pjbetman
Tomous wrote:We're weighing up making one last offer of compromise and suggesting £7k reduction-so to meet in the middle and to cover the immediate works required. We do really like the house and so providing they can provide all the necessary electricity certification (we obviously want to be comfortable it doesn't need rewiring or anything like that because that would be a big expensive/job) we could probably accept that.


Nah, sounds like a cluster strawberry float. Find somewhere else. Thousands to choose from.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:55 am
by Tomous
pjbetman wrote:
Tomous wrote:We're weighing up making one last offer of compromise and suggesting £7k reduction-so to meet in the middle and to cover the immediate works required. We do really like the house and so providing they can provide all the necessary electricity certification (we obviously want to be comfortable it doesn't need rewiring or anything like that because that would be a big expensive/job) we could probably accept that.


Nah, sounds like a cluster strawberry float. Find somewhere else. Thousands to choose from.



We did feel like that after the report and I’m more that way inclined but my wife really loves the property. Speaking to the surveyor helped. He said “it’s a nice house that needs £6-7k in immediate work and then you should be okay” which doesn’t feel too bad.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:19 pm
by pjbetman
Tomous wrote:
pjbetman wrote:
Tomous wrote:We're weighing up making one last offer of compromise and suggesting £7k reduction-so to meet in the middle and to cover the immediate works required. We do really like the house and so providing they can provide all the necessary electricity certification (we obviously want to be comfortable it doesn't need rewiring or anything like that because that would be a big expensive/job) we could probably accept that.


Nah, sounds like a cluster strawberry float. Find somewhere else. Thousands to choose from.



We did feel like that after the report and I’m more that way inclined but my wife really loves the property. Speaking to the surveyor helped. He said “it’s a nice house that needs £6-7k in immediate work and then you should be okay” which doesn’t feel too bad.


I should've validated my reasoning with a caveate - if it's your dream property or close to it, then it'll be worth an extra £6-7k. A lot of it depends on the remedial works needed. If you need the damp proof course doing, then it'll be weeks of disruption. If its a leaking roof, then it'll be minimal disruption, maybe a week or two. A rewire will take a week but then theres the patching up to do with wires in walls etc. The vendor needs to realise that its YOU having to be affected by the disruption, so a £5k job is probably £7.5k with the disruption (hotels?). Might be worth asking your estate agent if the vendor would be willing to get the work done prior to the sale - might get them thinking of the hassle it's gonna cause.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:42 pm
by Tomous
pjbetman wrote:
Tomous wrote:
pjbetman wrote:
Tomous wrote:We're weighing up making one last offer of compromise and suggesting £7k reduction-so to meet in the middle and to cover the immediate works required. We do really like the house and so providing they can provide all the necessary electricity certification (we obviously want to be comfortable it doesn't need rewiring or anything like that because that would be a big expensive/job) we could probably accept that.


Nah, sounds like a cluster strawberry float. Find somewhere else. Thousands to choose from.



We did feel like that after the report and I’m more that way inclined but my wife really loves the property. Speaking to the surveyor helped. He said “it’s a nice house that needs £6-7k in immediate work and then you should be okay” which doesn’t feel too bad.


I should've validated my reasoning with a caveate - if it's your dream property or close to it, then it'll be worth an extra £6-7k. A lot of it depends on the remedial works needed. If you need the damp proof course doing, then it'll be weeks of disruption. If its a leaking roof, then it'll be minimal disruption, maybe a week or two. A rewire will take a week but then theres the patching up to do with wires in walls etc. The vendor needs to realise that its YOU having to be affected by the disruption, so a £5k job is probably £7.5k with the disruption (hotels?). Might be worth asking your estate agent if the vendor would be willing to get the work done prior to the sale - might get them thinking of the hassle it's gonna cause.



Understood-just to clarify, our understanding of the work is that it isn't so disruptive that we'd have to move out.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 12:15 pm
by Tomous
Well, I don’t know how but we’ve exchanged! :cool:

We actually gave the go ahead and had confirmation of the exchange while on a night bus in South India :slol:

We negotiated a £7k reduction in the end, as well as exchange and completion dates we were comfortable with.

We’re very happy with the outcome although I must say the vendors started acting very emotionally and irrationally towards the end. They seemed to think we had been messing them around when in reality, we’d been holding our ground and going through the process exactly as our solicitor recommended. I think they thought that as first time buyers we’d be easy to bully and manipulate into doing things when and how they wanted.

Their annoyance at us seems to stem from us not meeting the deadlines they were imposing on the process even though we are under no obligation to cut corners just because they want us to. Also, I genuinely believe their estate agent is one of the thickest people I’ve ever dealt with.

Either way, just need to sort out the stuff for completion, pick up the keys in 2 weeks, and we can put the whole process behind us and start moving forward with our new house :D

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 3:57 pm
by Moggy
The property management company have emailed me today with an offer to reduce the amount I “owe” by 20% if I pay them before 4 November.

Honestly if they had gone with 50% I would have just damn well paid them, but 20% is taking the piss when I know I am in the right.

They are also unable to calculate 20%, the outstanding “debt” versus their new discounted total is more like 8.53%. :fp:

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:14 am
by Moggy
They accepted my offer of 50%!

I wish I had offered 30% now. ;)

They are still strawberry floating around though, they said “please make payment in the usual way” and so I went back to their most recent invoice which has different bank details to the account I usually pay to. I emailed them to query and they have come back with another (completely different) set of bank details.

Cowboy strawberry floaters. :x

Once this is paid off (and they have confirmed!) I am looking to move. I can’t deal with these pricks anymore.

My advice to everyone is never buy a leasehold. Just don’t do it.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:17 am
by Oblomov Boblomov
That's great news, congrats. Still very painful to have to stump up half of it but at least you can move on now.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:24 am
by Moggy
Oblomov Boblomov wrote:That's great news, congrats. Still very painful to have to stump up half of it but at least you can move on now.


Yeah just getting it over with is enough to cheer me up. I am still expecting the wankers to pull a fast one somewhere though, I just don't trust them.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:48 am
by Drumstick
Nice one Moggy mate. So how much do you have to pay them? :dread:

We're looking to move at the moment. Somewhere slightly west of where we are now, like Chichester, around there.

Re: Buying a house (and renting)

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:51 am
by Moggy
Drumstick wrote:Nice one Moggy mate. So how much do you have to pay them? :dread:


Just over £5k. Thieving bastards that they are. :x

I am hesitating making the payment due to the bank details changing, my lack of trust in them is making my brain scream "IT'S A SCAM!!". I have an email confirming the details they want me to pay to though so I have that back up at least if they try saying they never received the money.