House buying drama!

Richand

Richand

Richand

Associate
Joined
3 Jun 2006
Posts
295
Location
Nottingham
Hi Guys,

Me and my partner are looking to buy a house, we have viewed a few now and went to see one on Wednesday night which we really liked.

All been recently refurbished, combi-boiler in Dec 2012, new bathroom with bath and separate shower, all rooms re plastered and new carpets etc all really modern and excellent.

the owner is also going to leave all white goods, a really nice sofa and other bits and bobs, we don't have anything as we share a house at the minute so that helps us a lot.

now, problem is I asked the question 'is there anything I should know about the house?' she then shows me the roof...

the back of the house the roof is terrible, one side missing big chunks of tiles and showing the rotten and broken batons underneath, the felt is still in place, problem seems to have been a crawler that had got under the tiles and destroyed the roof.

She says she has have a quote to redo the whole roof for £5000 and is willing to knock this off the price. I would have knocked her down regardless of this fact anyway as she was asking a lot more than any other house has sold for on the same street.

Should I knock say £7k off her price as the sorting of that roof is a massive issue, 2-3 days without a roof on the house and time of work, being messed around etc, the quote is just the tip of the cost to me.

Also, the mortgage company may well refuse my application when the survey takes place as I'm sure a half patched up roof knocks a significant sum off the valuation.

I have asked her to provide me the quote paperwork from the roofer as I want to see its from a valid company not just "my mate says it will cost £5k"

house is a 3 bed ex council semi.
 
Get a survey done before you agree anything. Seems strange to spend so much renovating a house to then leave the roof till last, that's the first thing I would do to seal the house.
 
The owner doesn't live in the house anymore, says she lives in her Nan's house who is now in a home and needs to sell to pay for her care.

her brother lives in the property now.

She was very vague on the quote, I asked for paperwork and she said she had left it at home. I had to ask her about the roof for her to tell me about the roof, somehow thinking that a survey wouldn't pick this up anyway?!

I do wonder what other skeletons are in the closet as she didn't exactly fill me with confidence.

another thing that bothers me is her family live next door, which means if she some how feels hard done by on the sale, they can make my life hell...!

house buying is a pain in the ass!

£5k in the midlands to re do a roof isn't exactly a rip off unless the beams need redoing if its been wreaked for sometime. a full survey would be done due to the roof and her vague behavior.

funny comment she made was 'all the viewers have been put off by the downstairs bathroom'....not the gaping holes in the roof and your above average asking price!?! some people.
 
Richand said:
The owner doesn't live in the house anymore, says she lives in her Nan's house who is now in a home and needs to sell to pay for her care.

her brother lives in the property now.

She was very vague on the quote, I asked for paperwork and she said she had left it at home. I had to ask her about the roof for her to tell me about the roof, somehow thinking that a survey wouldn't pick this up anyway?!

I do wonder what other skeletons are in the closet as she didn't exactly fill me with confidence.

another thing that bothers me is her family live next door, which means if she some how feels hard done by on the sale, they can make my life hell...!

funny comment she made was 'all the viewers have been put off by the downstairs bathroom'....not the gaping holes in the roof and your above average asking price!?! some people.
Click to expand...

Now you given a few more details, it's all very strange,especially offering sweeteners by including white goods, etc, starts my alarm bells ringing & with her family next door, my advice would be AVOID buying it,you might end up with a life of hell.

Remember that old saying, 'Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts' .
I speak from experience on this, as Macca said you always get a building watertight by doing the roof first.

Having a downstairs bathroom will put a lot of people off, especially if there also no upstairs toilet, having to come down in the night, is a pain in the ass.
I wouldn't even waste the money on a survey, just start looking for another place.
 
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I would bet that roof work would be considerably more than 5k. Why hasn't she fixed it before putting it on the market? What other problems could be lurking up there? Damp?
 
Walk away tbh, you would certainly fix the roof before renovating the interior if its as bad as it sounds.

I assume the vendor isn't selling through an estate agent? If they are, I personally wouldn't ever consider negotiating directly with the vendor, which it sounds like you are?
 
I agree, why would you spend all that money on extensive renovations.

She has even knocked rooms into 1 etc, putting in french doors and double glazing but yet the roof is open in places with many missing tiles.

She is selling with an agent and I dealt with them who pleaded ignorance to the roof, I purposely avoided it when talking about the property to see if they would mention it, not once did they bring it up, I then mentioned it and they are all "oh, she mentioned that did she" and "yes we advised her she might get knocked down on price".

Estate agents don't give a crap about buyers I have learnt from that.

Walking away from it, good luck to her.
 
I don't know why you would even think about a house that has clear structural defects unless its an absolute steal or you know what your looking at.

I'm glad to see you moved on.
 
It is a steal and near my children and family.

3 bed semi for 78k (minus 5k for roof).

I love living in the midlands ;)

oh and my partner loved the house and was telling everyone and showing pictures...!! women and houses are not sensible!
 
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Are you sure the roof needs redone? If the felt is still in place and it's just broken battens and missing tiles it wouldn't be a difficult job to replace either if you can get the same profile. Tiles about a £1 each and the lath isn't expensive either. Of course it depends how many are missing.

If the felt is still in place it may not be too bad either regarding damp as the felt runs into your guttering so providing there's no holes in it, water shouldn't get in.

Just hard to know without seeing it as what could be described as large chunks missing might be only half a dozen tiles.
 
I assume you are having to get a mortgage to buy the property? The lender will probably require a survey and they may well insist the work is done before they agree the lending.

I had a survey done for the house we are buying - the lender insisted on doing their own survey (a right con at £350 for each that I've had to pay)

We looked at one house that had had a room conversion done on the double garage - I'm 99% sure any lender would have required the conversion to be put back as it was a poor job.

The lender wants to make sure they are lending on a house a)worth the money and b) easy enough to sell on if you don't pay and they have to re-poses.

If you really want this house I would have your own survey done as well as the lenders - yes it costs but in my position there isn't anything I don't already know about the house we are buying. I would also say that your lender has done a survey and the lender requires the work to be completed first before they will lend you the money.

Blame the lender so the seller doesn't get funny with you. You might not care but its always easier to move if you are all friends during the process.
 
If you are genuinely intending to buy, then get an extensive survey (with insurance) done. Get the estimated cost of repair from either the survey, or a structural engineers report to list what needs doing so you can get a quote.

Personally... I'd walk away from roof trouble.

Word of advice... do NOT take a house sellers (or estate agents) word on anything. Always get it stuff checked out for your own peace of mind. (and for your bank balance.)
 
as above if you are serious about it- get a couple of builders/roofers quotes for yourself. Organise to meet them at the property and see what quotes you get from them.
 
Glad to hear you're walking away, when I was looking for a house we went to see one and on the second viewing I went up the loft, I could see daylight all over the roof.

Walked away from that and found a nicer house in a nicer area, these things have a habit of working out for the better.
 
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