Buying A House

[monkfromhavana]

Bumping my own thread for some more advice, this time on the exciting world of renegotiating the purchase price.

Had a Homebuyers report that suggested might be a damp issue, so got a damp company out who said that there is a failure of the DPC on one small wall with a quote of 1,000 (VAT included) to remedy along with a list detailing the works.

Obviously this needs to be rectified, but how do we go about it (given we like and want to buy the house). do we just ask them to sort it? Get cost knocked off purchase price, negotiate each paying a portion?

I suppose it's down to how demanding/arsey us or them can be, but any advice? Experiences?

[Mr_Simnock]

I would at the least knock £2000 off the asking price, you may very well need the other grand to sort further damp issues that may no doubt surface after you have fixed the current one.

[paruses]

I've never heard of solicitors wanting this level of info.

I would suggest binning them off asap, get a new solicitor - get one that's near you physically and is not a large practice. When they ask you where your deposit is from, just say 'savings' then that's the money laundering check done and dusted.

Then camp out at their office until they do their job.

This approach has worked for me many times when buying a house.

Also agree. Buying a house isn't difficult but it is an opportunity for 3rd parties to make a lot of cash for spurious reasons. I don't see how this excessive paperwork is addressing any of the money laundering checks.

I was lucky to have a shortfall of funds (a few thousand, not tens of thousands) made up by my parents. The only paperwork needed for that was a statement from them that it was a gift with no expectation of being repayed and they had no claim on the property . That was to appease the lender.

[TrenterPercenter]

Bumping my own thread for some more advice, this time on the exciting world of renegotiating the purchase price.

Had a Homebuyers report that suggested might be a damp issue, so got a damp company out who said that there is a failure of the DPC on one small wall with a quote of 1,000 (VAT included) to remedy along with a list detailing the works.

Obviously this needs to be rectified, but how do we go about it (given we like and want to buy the house). do we just ask them to sort it? Get cost knocked off purchase price, negotiate each paying a portion?

I suppose it's down to how demanding/arsey us or them can be, but any advice? Experiences?

Knock cost off the house not sure how small the small wall is here but the £1000 sounds a high estimate; stick with it and don't piss about trying to "win" another £1000 off the owner - not a nice thing to do/and it might well backfire.  Just say I've been quote £1000 for the work which can be viewed and ask them to reflect this in the price.

[paruses]

Yes - one reason to have a solicitor / estate agent is that you ring them, tell them what the situation is, and have a specific demand (all the money off, meet half way, pay for an indemnity policy etc depending on the issue). They pass it on and come back with a counter or an OK or they say no and you go from there.

Don't forget this is probably as stressful for the other party too. And also don't forget it's easy for us to offer this advice with hindsight but it was equally stressful at the time.

[JamesTC]

My report found a few minor issues. Got some money knocked off for it. It was literally just calling my solicitor, explaining how much it would cost and getting them to knock that off the price. It was all sorted out in a five minute phone call.

[robhug]

They'll probably knock it off the price, no questions asked. Unless its a very highly sought after property with lots of people interested where they'd probably tell you to take it or fuck off.

[monkfromhavana]

The estate agent seems to have fallen out with us over the issue :D I just sent one e-mail with copy of quote, works required etc and saying that we would split the cost 50/50 with the seller (which I think is very fair). Also said that seller was free to get own quotes from other companies that may be cheaper.

Received an e-mail back along the lines of "I have finally been able to digest your email...".

God forbid I try to be proactive and get things moving a bit quicker rather than running everything through them first (they were aware of the issue and that we had arranged a damp company to go out, so it can't have been much of a surprise).

[robhug]

100% trying to scare you into forgetting the whole thing and pay for it yourself, its yet another shithouse tactic they employ with absolute impunity. Just ask them to pass it on to the vendor and  say you hope they haven't got indigestion.

[gilbertharding]

My brother and sister and I sold our late parents' bungalow last year. I don't know if we're soft, or what - but when the buyers, quite a way into the buying process, discovered that the garage roof leaked, and then submitted what seemed to me (who had just paid to have our own garage roof replaced) to be quite a high price... we gulped and said 'yes'. The discount was quite a small percentage of the asking price, after all.

But I appreciate that we are probably in a minority of house sellers at the moment who merely wanted to be rid of the property and didn't need a specific amount to fund the purchase of another house.

[Ferris]

I think it's more common than one would expect. I remember doing a walk through of our place on the day we were supposed to get the keys and our agent gleefully pointing at things and going "ooh don't think that's right!", then recommending we ask for $500 off and halt the purchasing process until they agree.

Like... mate were already a way under asking and have told them to fuck off twice, pissing about for another week while we get everything signed again? To save ~275 quid on a house? It's like a penny a month off the mortgage, are you literally mad? No thanks.

Perhaps everyone does it though.

[monkfromhavana]

Thankfully we're not quite at that late stage yet. Surely it cannot come as a huge surprise to anyone though, the HomeBuyers report said that there might be an issue with damp with one of the walls and to get it checked out - this was sent to the Estate Agents. Then the damp company went out and looked at it, then we submitted their findings and quote to the Estate Agent. They can't expect buyers just to have issues presented to them for them just to go "fuck it, we'll pay for it all".

[gilbertharding]

I think it's more common than one would expect. I remember doing a walk through of our place on the day we were supposed to get the keys and our agent gleefully pointing at things and going "ooh don't think that's right!", then recommending we ask for $500 off and halt the purchasing process until they agree.

To be fair, 'quite a long way into the process' is exactly the point when you would be most successful in negotiating money off  - though I'd be surprised if it would work on the day you're moved in. Best to do it before you'd signed the contracts, I'd have said.

[katzenjammer]

Thankfully we're not quite at that late stage yet. Surely it cannot come as a huge surprise to anyone though, the HomeBuyers report said that there might be an issue with damp with one of the walls and to get it checked out - this was sent to the Estate Agents. Then the damp company went out and looked at it, then we submitted their findings and quote to the Estate Agent. They can't expect buyers just to have issues presented to them for them just to go "fuck it, we'll pay for it all".

It depends. If I were selling my house for what I thought was a reasonable price for its condition in a rising market, and I wasn't in a desperate rush to sell, I would not be knocking much off the price whatever the homebuyers report said.  Most of them are bollocks anyway.

[TrenterPercenter]

So when we were buying our gaff the owners fell out with the person up the chain over who was paying for some woodworm treatment; they got themselves into a situation where neither would backdown because of the principle which basically ended up with the sale falling through, 2 weeks before closure.  This billy big bollocks attitude meant we had to wait 6 months before we could move in pay a load of extra rent and reduce our agreed mortgage fixed term by 6 months (after begging them to give us an extension so we didn't have to pay again for my partners self-cert process).

We then got hassled by these owners when because of them doing this our solicitors had problems with getting the mortgage extension sorted at the point of sale with the wife of the owner phoning me and saying something to the effects of "you know we have a lot of money riding on this move".  We eventually moved in and whilst I was ripping up the shitty floor they had installed (on top of rotten cardboard boxes for insulation) in the middle room found that the whole of one walls skirting board was rotten and had damp where the DPC had failed; they (the owners) had covered this up with furniture and painted over the high up damp patch prior to the survey being done.

So we ended forking out another £600 for a damp course and re-plastering.

People act like cunts and don't think of the consequences when comes to houses; the high-level stress that it all incurs creates a situation of us and them invoking game theory into their approaches.

If there is damp (and the possibility of damp is not the same thing) they should pay for it; the price of the work not twice the price just incase. It will be completely down to how desperate the owner is to sell plus whether in their side of the game theory bollocks they might be losing somehow.  I'd probably stick with this if it was me but I think if an unreasonable quote went in originally then it might have complicated things (not saying that is on you that is the person quoting the work).

[monkfromhavana]

Christ, I feel like a right cheapskate now.

[TrenterPercenter]

Christ, I feel like a right cheapskate now.

No don't feel like that it's not your fault; it is the damp proofer; did they know it was a survey recommendation? Some of them; because it isn't the consumers money put the price up, I'm just saying it can cause problems.  I've got no idea how big your wall is either ours was approx 4x1.5m (an L where the old fireplace was).  Does the £1000 cover the re-plastering?

Don't worry about any of these things overly you'll soon cotton on that houses are a massive element of the economy; not just buying, selling, renting but the surveying, insuring, upkeep and restoring it's a minefield; a giant bucket of economic cash that a large portion of the population are dependent on for work and income.   This 50-50 thing sounds like they have gone "that is a bit high, he is trying to haggle, right lets go 50% and see how much we can get this down" that is what people do and some people love it "the art of the deal" strutting about the place gleaming because they ripped someone off like a real man does.  The thing is you have a quote which you sent (this was a very smart move) you can go well look this is what I was quoted can you get me another quote as if we can get it done properly and cheaper then I'm happy; it is in the owner power to refuse or not but this is the risk from the start. I guarantee they will accept 60-70% of the cost but why should you pay anything.

Otherwise is it a pincher movement from the very damp proofer that quoted you; they over-charge; the owner pays half and you end up making up the rest.  Nice business isn't it for the damp proofer.  You've been quoted 1k you are not at liberty to pay half of something that is in etiquette the owners responsibility; they've said they thought it was high well they should get another quote that is market rate in their eyes and pay it all.

Btw the procedure should really be;You: this is a problem I found which was not detailed against the price what are you going to do about this? Them: I'll get someone to quote the work and take that off the price.  You: thank you, can you let me know who it is you will be going with so I can liaise with them and get the certificates.

Whatever you do don't beat yourself up about this it's all a load of bollocks really just typical shite that comes with high value purchases.  You should really put on some ill fitting jeans and invite yourself round to the house; then spend an hour tapping and listening to the wall whilst showing everyone your arse crack and going "hmmmm, wait a minute hmmmm, I've seen walls like this before!"

[Pancake]

Bumping my own thread for some more advice, this time on the exciting world of renegotiating the purchase price.

Had a Homebuyers report that suggested might be a damp issue, so got a damp company out who said that there is a failure of the DPC on one small wall with a quote of 1,000 (VAT included) to remedy along with a list detailing the works.

Obviously this needs to be rectified, but how do we go about it (given we like and want to buy the house). do we just ask them to sort it? Get cost knocked off purchase price, negotiate each paying a portion?

I suppose it's down to how demanding/arsey us or them can be, but any advice? Experiences?

Ask for a reduction then ignore it, DPCs rarely fail and all remedies are bullshit

[Pancake]

Expect resistance though, when we sold our last flat the survey found damp. We did our own invetigation and it was a microclimate forming where the sofa was pushed against a solid external wall, where internal air moisture was condensing and being absorbed by the plaster. So we told them to swivel.

[TrenterPercenter]

Ask for a reduction then ignore it, DPCs rarely fail and all remedies are bullshit

This is true; in our case the DPC had not already been done on that wall (though had on the others) and the guy that did it said they don't fail and gave me a certificate which states it is insured to not fail for 99 years!  This was an injection thing we've not had any problems for nearly 3 years since.

This however for Monk is coming from the survey so it would be interesting to know why they thought there could be damp? My finger of accusation and peoples eyebrow is forming around the damp proofer here (says the DPC has failed, wants £1000 to fix it).

[Icehaven]

We moved into a (rented) house in March and in the last few months since it started getting colder and wetter we've noticed damp patches forming on some walls and green mould growing on various bits of furniture or shoes/bags etc. I've never lived anywhere where anything like that's happened before and have no idea, other than ventilation and heating (in other words throwing money out of the window) what to do about it. I'll have to let the letting agent know if it gets worse but right now they're refusing to even ask the landlord for a carbon monoxide detector (which I thought was a legal requirement in rental properties but apparently not unless you use solid fuel. Again I've never lived in a rented place that hasn't got one before so looks like we've just got a proper cunt landlord.)

Without going into the frankly ridiculous reason of how we found out, but there's also a gap under the whole house about 4ft deep, with a few supporting brick walls. I don't know if this has something to do with it or if that's normal, but it probably also explains why it's fucking freezing in there even when it's not that cold outside. If we were in the US it'd be a prime native American burial ground situation.

[Pancake]

I've only scanned the thread but aren't the standard surveys pretty superficial? Like they'll give you the problem but not necessarily carry out any investigations.

My only experience is with old buildings with a (I think) lime mortar DPC, but damp is more likely to be bunged up guttering, or anything that causes rain to run down the exterior wall, exterior soil or building that's been built up above the DPC, or just internal moisture (common where ventilation has been blocked by double glazing, blocked air bricks, installing carpets or laminate flooring over ventilating floorboards)