We’re coming to the end of what must be the most frustrating, expensive, protracted and stressful house sale/purchase since house purchasing records began.

To cut a long story short, the house we are buying has had a loft ‘conversion’. Think more a loft with a loft ladder but with fancy wooden flooring, studded ceilings and walls with spotlights etc. Our home buyers survey pulled the fact that several trusses had been altered to accommodate the conversion.

Our lender refused to lend against the property until a structural survey had been carried out. The cost of the additional survey was £500 and was carried out by a structural surveyor recommended to us by the original home buyers surveyor. The vendor is a bit cash strapped due to a recent divorce (reason for the sale), so after a discussion we agreed I would pay the £500 and he would give me his £250 at a later date.

Fast forward several weeks, the structural survey has been carried out, the alterations/repairs have been carried out to the trusses/loft as per the engineers recommendations and all the work has been surveyed again and passed by the vendors choice of structural engineer as he thought the original engineer wanted too much for a second visit (which to be fair he did).

The vendor paid for the repairs/alterations as you would expect along with the second structural engineers report.

I mentioned to him the other day (via text) that he still owed me the £250 for the original survey to which he replied that I in fact owed him for half of the second structural survey which meant he owed me nothing. Apart from the initial structural survey I never suggested at any time that I would contribute to any further costs.

In my mind I was doing him a favour offering to pay half towards the initial survey, anything that the home buyers survey threw up was down to him to pay for as it’s still his property.

So before I go round and hoof him in the slats, am I a twunt or is he right?

For £250 against the price of a house, I’d probably just suck it up but remember not to buy him a beer if you ever meet him in the local

You’re right, it wasn’t discussed so he’s chancing his arm. You’ll probably let him off for an easy life but doesn’t stop you being angry about it.

Is that it?!?!
Let it go mate. A week after moving in, you’ll have forgotten in anyway.

You let kindness get in the way of a house sale and left yourself exposed to this happening, and sounds like the vendor took the opportunity to avoid paying. Humans are tossers.

What John says. £250, against the price of a house, is nothing but a short-lived, bad taste in the mouth. Assuming you still want the house, forget about it.

Yup, still want the house etc I just wanted to make sure I was right before I break out the bombers.

I’m not going to loose the house over it but it’s one of those little things that winds me up. With hind sight I should have left it to him but that’s the way it goes.

I will just wee in his shoes when I find out where he wants all his post forwarding to.

can you change your offer price by £250?

I would have presumed that if your lender was insisting on additional surveys, then you would be the one to be paying for them ?

I’ve never known a Vendor pay anything towards a structural survey, as the surveyor will be working for you, it’s your bill to pay.

Lets face it you were never going to get the £250 back. What if the engineer had recommended changes that the vendor couldn’t afford so the sale fell through, do you expect he would pay up them.

Still £250 is fa in the scheme of things.

For £250 against the price of a house, I’d probably just suck it up but remember not to buy him a beer if you ever meet him in the local

^ summed up for me in the first post

nealglover – Member
I would have presumed that if your lender was insisting on additional surveys, then you would be the one to be paying for them ?

I’ve never known a Vendor pay anything towards a structural survey, as the surveyor will be working for you, it’s your bill to pay.

Even though the structural survey is required due to his wayward alterations?

It was the home buyer surveyor that requested a structural survey as he was unable to value the property as he couldn’t determine if it was structurally sound or not.

It would be the same for any prospective buyer.

You said your lender insisted on a structural survey before agreeing to lend ?

So the surveyor works for you. Not the vendor.

Our lender refused to lend against the property until a structural survey had been carried out.

To be fair what I should have written was that the home buyer surveyor requested a structural survey as he was unable to value the property as he couldn’t determine if it was structurally sound or not.

Homebuyers report is the bare minimum, any extra surveys to be carried out are your responsibility.

Your having the survey done to protect your investment.

Tucks bombers back under bed.

Anyway, he agreed to go halves, so we did.

I didn’t agree to go halves on the second survey.

He owes me £250 irrespective of who’s surveying what.

So you can all sod off!

THIS its a bit shit [ for both of you to be fair] but that little a sum over a house purchase is best filed under suck it up and move on.

As neal notes they were working for you so , assuming you wanted a mortgage you needed the survey, and , assuming they wanted to sell, they had to fix it. You then needed the second one to get the mortgage so paying for one each seems pretty reasonable in the grand scheme of things

Play hardball and ask for £250 off if you really want to.

You presumably included the arrangement on the survey cost within the offer for the house so its quite clear what the obligation is?

I once took all the light bulbs from a flat I sold to a dickhead who messed us around and price chipped us at the last minute.

Chase the 250 and the first thing you’ll need to do on picking up the keys is go to the lighting section at B&Q.

Can’t you just wipe your bum with his mail before forwarding it on?

Can’t believe you’ve managed to get worked up over £250 in the process of buying a house! Sorry – move on.

Anyway, he agreed to go halves, so we did.

I didn’t agree to go halves on the second survey.

He owes me £250 irrespective of who’s surveying what.

So you can all sod off!

Ask something, don’t like the responses, tell people to sod off.

Charming.

As others have said, be thankful everything with the repairs have been made and signed off.

It’s 250 quid…..in the grand scale of things when it comes to house buying…bugger all.

That doesn’t sount too protracted, or expensive yet.

#seenworse

Pants but move along.

growinglad – Member
Ask something, don’t like the responses, tell people to sod off.

Charming.

I couldn’t find the tongue in cheek smiley.

As I said earlier, I’m not going to loose the house over it it was the principal of it that frustrated me.

I think qwerty has the right idea.

I’m surprised he agreed to go halves on the first survey but as he then went on to pay for the second one (I wouldn’t have done in his position, it’s your risk, but he’s obviously in a more pressing situation) I think you’re more than square and probably a little up on the deal.

He is a d1ck for not paying up as agreed, but I’d be happy that for a mere £500, you’ve got him to pay for another survey, sort the issue, and you have a possible claim against the surveyor if there are further issues.

Should always be in writing. After being messed around by our sellers we were very picky with them, so even demanded they buy us 2 new light bulbs as they were missing. We also billed them for removing an old bed and washing machine, which we asked to be removed and agreed but was still there when we moved in.

I decided to go at the whole house buying thing with my head not my heart and we ended up with a brilliant deal. I wasn’t prepared to be even slightly flexible with money, got 15k nocked of a 150k house after turning down two of there alternate offers (145 and 140).
The reason i did my research and new it was multiple relatives living apart selling a deceased parents house just before christmas. I actually regret not offering less.

I decided to go at the whole house buying thing with my head not my heart and we ended up with a brilliant deal. I wasn’t prepared to be even slightly flexible with money, got 15k nocked of a 150k house after turning down two of there alternate offers (145 and 140).
The reason i did my research and new it was multiple relatives living apart selling a deceased parents house just before christmas. I actually regret not offering less.

And with buyers attitudes like that, is it any wonder the vendors try to dick you around over the small things?

They didn’t have to accept the offer. A house is “worth” what somebody is prepared to pay for it, not some made up fantasy number in the vendor’s (or agent’s) head.

Although having said that, I recently bought a house from somebody I know (and trust), and sure as hell wasn’t putting in the cheeky offer the lawyer suggested at first. I have to live in this town !

But demanding they buy two new lightbulbs is the work of satan.

For £250 against the price of a house, I’d probably just suck it up

For £250 against the price of a house, people will expect you to suck it up and so will try to pull your pants down at every opportunity. See also, weddings. I’d be pursuing it as it’s what you agreed.

Also, assuming that you were going halves on a second survey (which you didn’t agree to), if he’s drafted in someone else who’s cheaper than the first guy then he’d still owe you money as you paid more for the first one, no?

Lightbulbs? Think yourself lucky…

This house we are in had an inbuilt bunk in a small room. It was torn out and chucked. Additionally the shed that was ’empty’ and ‘had not been used for 12 years’ that was buried behind 6′ high nettles turned out to need three tip runs of our people carrier to empty the junk they had hidden in there when the cleaned the house to market it.

I bought a house once where they had shown house with all nice door handles and silver electrical sockets etc. When we got keys, all had been changed to cheapest white….When I sold that one, we got a solicitors letter a YEAR later as the attic loo cistern had leaked, and they wanted recompense… 😆

We also, the night before exchange and the day we moved to Scotland, had some ‘friends’ who were buying our Sheffield house call us and say that money had fallen through, and that they were £5k short and would we drop house price, or they would have to walk away…

I think the seller has acted quire reasonably given he has picked up the cost for the 2nd survey. And £250 is change in the grand scheme of a house purchase. Just let it go…..shake hands and buy him that beer

+1 for you should count yourself lucky he paid anything towards any surveys that were for your benefit.

decided to go at the whole house buying thing with my head not my heart and we ended up with a brilliant deal. I wasn’t prepared to be even slightly flexible with money, got 15k nocked of a 150k house after turning down two of there alternate offers (145 and 140).
The reason i did my research and new it was multiple relatives living apart selling a deceased parents house just before christmas. I actually regret not offering less.

Classy. How did you do this ‘research’?

I bought my house from a bank (the deceased owner had done an equity release on it).

I enjoyed pushing them as hard as I could as there is zero need to use your heart where banks are concerned. (£43k off a £435k house).

£250 is a drop in the ocean when it comes to moving as you know. Suck it up. Move on, enjoy your new house. 🙂

had some ‘friends’ who were buying our Sheffield house call us and say that money had fallen through, and that they were £5k short and would we drop house price, or they would have to walk away…

I had that once; the morning of exchange. I told them to stick it.

Funnily enough, they found the cash fairly soon.

Mind you, they were not so cheeky as to get me to pay half of a structural survey that they wanted. That would have been barefaced.

Cougar – Moderator
For £250 against the price of a house, people will expect you to suck it up and so will try to pull your pants down at every opportunity. See also, weddings. I’d be pursuing it as it’s what you agreed.
Also, assuming that you were going halves on a second survey (which you didn’t agree to), if he’s drafted in someone else who’s cheaper than the first guy then he’d still owe you money as you paid more for the first one, no?

Exactly!!!

I’m still £100 odd in credit so to speak. Not to mention the additional surveys and work are due to his haphazard ways. If I’d have carried out the work on my property it would have been done to regs with the appropriate paperwork etc in place.

Why should I pay to survey repairs to his house??? If it had fallen through I’ve just funded the whole process for the next person who comes along.

Someone mentioned earlier to knock it off the price of the house but we agreed the price of the house prior to any surveys etc as I expect most people do? Anyway, will put it down to experience and wipe my bum on his post.