The joys of (potential) home ownership

[denny]

Just sent this to someone to let them know what was happening with my ongoing flat purchase, figured it was worth sticking it on here too...


Short version (no, really, this is the short version):

The building belongs to the council. It has fucked windows. The council have a work order on it to replace all the windows. This is generally quite expensive for everyone living there.

However...

The flat I'm interested in has already had its windows replaced. So, no problem.

Or is it?

Turns out, the owner didn't get planning permission, or council approval, or anything useful like that. So, the council might come look at the windows, go 'these are shit', and replace them again. And charge me a lot of money (not to mention the hassle involved).

So...

I tell the seller they have to get retrospective council approval for the windows before I'll buy the place.

They come back and say they don't have time, but they'll give me a couple of grand off the price in case I end up getting stitched by the council.

I phone the council this morning, to try to find out exactly how bad the cost implications are. After an hour of ringing around half a dozen different offices, I get a bloke who knows exactly what he's talking about. He tells me how much the bill for the building repairs (it's not just the windows apparently) is going to be per flat:

"25 grand mate."

Once I've got my jaw off the floor, I thank him and phone the estate agent, to tell them I'm pulling out. They say they understand.

Estate agent phones back 20 minutes later, says the seller has offered to knock the 25 grand off the price. I say 'make it 30' because I'm annoyed now (and 30 grand off the price takes me from 3% to 1% stamp duty, which saves me another 5 grand). They double-check and say 'okay'.

I instruct solicitor to make revised offer at new lower price, and mortgage broker to get mortgage offer altered.

Estate agent phones back again to say the seller wants me to get a breakdown of what the 25 grand is paying for before they'll sign anything. I say "Get it yourself, you cheeky fuckers!"

So yeah, dunno what's happening really. Fun eh?


Update:
Estate agent just rang again, to say that 30 grand is a lot of money to knock off the price, and would I consider "splitting the difference". He pointed out that the building would be nicer once the work was done and the flat would then be worth more. In reply, I pointed out that the flat is currently in a state of disrepair, and is therefore worth less - the repairs will get it back to square one. He started talking about property values and I pointed out to him that I was trying to buy a home, not make an investment. There was some other bluster and obstinance (guess who was offering which), but the short version is that I've refused to adjust my offer.

*waits*

Comments

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Slightly confusing update from the seller there. I guess it's good that there's still hope, but it would be nice to know one way or the other. Have you heard back from them since? *hughug*

[kelemvor.livejournal.com]

Wow.
Think I'm glad that I'm stuck with renting for a the foreseeable... Good luck!

[cokephreak.livejournal.com]

I bet you're glad you checked the cost of the windows before everything went through.
I wonder what they're going to be doing to them thats costs so much (?)

Good for you for getting the £25K off. Good luck in getting the other 5

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

They're fixing the roof and various other problems with the building at the same time.

[dakeyras.livejournal.com]

That all sounds like fun and games - it's interesting that I've not yet heard of *anyone* I know having a simple house purchase / sale.

On a related note, what effect does this have on the Grand Opening Ceremony?!

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I strongly suspect it's unlikely to happen on the planned date.

[kotenok.livejournal.com]

Yup, I got screwed out of a fair chunk of money right at the last minute when I sold my flat - leasehold property, owned by the local authority, who suddenly divulged (a week before the initial exchange date) that they were planning to do work to the building in the following 12-24 months. Each household's share of which to be £7500. Not anywhere near as pricey as in this case, but still painful enough.


Leasehold property is not something I will be going *anywhere* near again unless I can absolutely avoid it. Sadly that does render a lot of property in London off the list, but then the chances of my buying here are so small anyway that it's not likely to be too much of an issue.

[arachne.livejournal.com]

Y'know, at this point I'd be tempted to just drop it and find somewhere that isn't going to be a building site for however long. 25 grand per flat's a lot of work (especially for council stuff, they do like to keep their costs down). I'd also wonder why whoever did your survey didn't notice that there was all this work needing doing (I'm thinking for that amount of money it *must* be structural)

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Roof and windows mostly, plus replacement of a building-wide heating system with per-flat heating. My flat is ground-floor, and has already had the windows replaced, so I guess someone doing a basic mortgage valuation (I didn't get a full survey done) wouldn't have noticed anything much.

You reckon councils get this kind of thing done cheap? Personally I figured the council get stung for more than the work would cost an individual.

I am a bit concerned about how long the place is going to be covered in scaffolding, but I'm not sure how much I'll actually care in practise... I never open my curtains anyway :)

[arachne.livejournal.com]

From my experience (living on council-owned blocks, and knowing people in councils in Scotland - latter may not be applicable) council tenders are a bit of a joke - by law they have to put work out to tender but the companies that used to be part of the council, back when they did all the work themselves, do the work at low prices.

It'd be the building noises that I'd be worried about - next door have been completely gutting the place (to be fair, it needed it) for a month or so, and I swear if I hear drilling into wall one more time I'll do someone an injury ;)

(Also, something that popped into my mind after I'd replied above - a friend who's a lawyer in the property side of things is advising friends about to buy to hang on just a few weeks - I know people have been saying the bottom has to fall out for a long time, but at the moment it's actually starting to show signs of it - things are looking iffy from the selling point of view - possibly why your seller was so keen initially to knock 30k off the price, but could look very good very soon for buyers)

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I'll be homeless in a few weeks :) Also, don't think I'll get a mortgage again... I got in just before all the sub-prime lenders shut up shop with this one.

If it does fall through, I'll be looking to rent for another year I guess, see what happens then.

[arachne.livejournal.com]

Aaah, hadn't realised (or had forgotten) that notice had been given on the current rental.

(eek, sub-prime - those words fill me with The Fear)

[hythloday.livejournal.com]

Estate agent phones back 20 minutes later, says the seller has offered to knock the 25 grand off the price. I say 'make it 30' because I'm annoyed now (and 30 grand off the price takes me from 3% to 1% stamp duty, which saves me another 5 grand). They double-check and say 'okay'.

Or in reality...estate agent stews for a while, mentions to his manager that you've pulled out, manager says, "OK, the guy selling is desperate to sell, just tell this guy that the seller has dropped his price and we'll sort it out", agent rings you back, tells his manager that you're being bolshy, manager says, "yeah, whatever, just keep him hooked". Estate agent then rings the seller and says that you've asked to knock off 15K...etc.

[pooloftrees.livejournal.com]

Bloody Hell! - Good thing you found out about that before you bought it, else I can't guess where you'd get £25 grand from...

Good luck with getting the estate agent and seller to go your way, from what you described it doesn't sound like you'd actually gain much benefit from the work, but with all the inconvenience (the roof only helps in the sense that it will ensure that you don't get damp coming through [except that the flat(s) above would definitely have noticed before you'd have a problem], and as you said, the windows are already done [unless they have to go], the only major thing of benefit is the heating I guess...)