Andy Coates Blog

 

Part 1 Here

So just to recap where we are in part 2, Me and my girlfriend began the search for a house, we set a budget, got a mortgage agreement in principle, trawled through loads of adverts, viewed several properties, and then put an offer on a house, and finally decided which mortgage package we were going to take. Phew!!

After we had decided on a mortgage package we needed to get a survey done, even though the bank had agreed to lend us the money they wanted a survey to make sure that the money they lent wouldn't be lent to buy a house that was about to fall down. The survey options came in 3 different flavors from colleys surveyors:

• Basic survey level 1 (valuation): With this type of survey the surveyor checks out the house and basically says that the house is worth what you are prepared to pay for and if it is in good structural condition or in need of repair. Basically you get a yes or no answer with this, no details are included about roof, heating electrics etc. (VERY BASIC)

• Level 2 survey (property Check): The level 2 survey is much much more detailed than the previous one, the surveyor inspects the property and writes 1 or 2 paragraph about nearly every aspect, Windows, ceilings, roofs, checks for damp, heating, electrics and anything else which is easily visually accessible.

• Level 3 survey (building Survey): This is similar to the level 2 survey but it goes into much more detail, this includes a detailed analysis of construction and a rough estimate of what repairs, if any, would cost. This is the top end survey!

We decided to go for the level 2 survey just for piece of mind and if there were any repairs to be done we could negotiate this in the asking price of the property. Not only did we need a survey we also needed to find a solicitor to do all of the Conveyancing (this is handling all of the land searches, money transfers and all legal things about the house and buying process!). Our mortgage adviser had suggested a solicitor and we had be suggested another solicitor by the sellers, there was allot to choose from and decoded to ask friends and family who they had used in recent times as we thought we would get a better opinion. After allot of asking around we decide don a local solicitor as everyone who had used here gave her glowing reviews, you cant get a better impartial recommendation than that! We called the solicitor and she said she was happy to handle our conveyancing and we just needed to supply her with ID and an initial admin fee. From here we gave our solicitor the addresses of the property we were buying, our mortgage adviser information and the contact details of the agents who were selling the house. From here it was out of our hands, we just had to wait for the survey to come back and the land, etc searches form the solicitors to come back. Two weeks later (which seemed like much longer) the survey was complete and i went and collected it from the local offices.

HORROR!

The survey didn't paint a good picture of the house! A chimney breast had been removed and there were no certificates to say that adequate support was provided, the back-boiler central heating air vents had been blocked up and needed unblocked and checked by a qualified engineer. Some of the roof tiles were cracked and a ridge tile needed replacing, it was recommended in the survey that some underfloor joists needed replacing which meant that the floor would need to be ripped up. Immediately my heart sank, I called my girlfriend to tell her the news and she was equally unhappy. Unsure what to do I spoke to my parents and asked what they thought as they were the most qualified people I knew from moving house several times!! They recommended I speak to the vendors estate agents and try and negotiate the price, I called and spoke to the girl who was dealing with this property and she requested a copy of the survey so she could show the vendors and negotiate the price with the vendors. I went about photocopying the survey and was about to drive over to the estate agents when my dad came out with a pearl of wisdom, he said…..

"Do you really want to give a copy of a survey to the sellers for free when you have just paid nearly £500 pound for it?"

This was sound advice, I had never thought of that, I wanted to get the problem sorted out as quickly as I could and was overlooking things. The agent was working on behalf of the seller and all of their interest lye in getting the best possible price for the property, giving them a copy of the entire survey would have been a terrible mistake. Instead I copied all of the bad points I had told the agent over the phone and dropped them off at the offices. 5 days passed and I had heard nothing so i called the following day, the agents had said that they were still in talks with he seller and that they were currently getting quotes for repairs. I waited a few more days and called again for an update and was told they were still waiting for quites to come through.

Estate agents!

In the mean time I had been talking with my girlfriend and we were unhappy with the way things were progressing, after we had got the survey back we felt like the asking price was much Much too high for all of the repairs which needed to be carried out, many of them were just small but there was allot of them. We decided to pull out of the deal because of this, we called the agents and told them this and they said that we should hang on for a few more days and see what the sellers would drop the price to before finally pulling out. A few days later we called back again for an update and were told that they were still waiting for quotes, we then told them that we were definitely pulling out as we were going to look for anoter property as there were too many repairs needed doing to this one, we were then told we needed to call back after the weekend to speak to someone else who was handling the paperwork! BY this time we were very unhappy with the way things were being handled and were getting frustrated with the way things were (not) progressing.

After the weekend I called back and spoke to another girl from the estate agents, she said she would call the vendor and tell them that we were defiantly pulling out and she would call back. About 30 minutes later I got a call back and was told that the vendor knew nothing about us wanting to pull out of the deal and couldn't understand what was happening, I explained d the story again and said it has been far too long were unhappy with the deal and we were out.

Communication breakdown or put off tactics?

Looking back it appeared that the seller had not been told of what was happening with the sale of the house and the agent were trying to sort out any issues without their knowledge. It may not have been like that but I cant think of any other explanation. After this experience I would never deal with this particular estate agents again and recommend others against using them, I know I'm not the only one who thinks this after speaking to many other people who have dealt with them.

Take 2

After pulling out of the previous deal we started the whole process again, we managed to halt the solicitors searches so we hadn't lost any money there but we had lost our surveyors fees. But it's better to live in a sturdy house than fret about £500!! Currently we have had the survey done which came back well, our mortgage has been approved, and now we are just waiting for searches to come through and solicitors contracts to be exchanged. So until we get all of the searches finished thats all i can tell you, but be sure when we complete I'll blog the rest. And yest, that is the house we are buying at the top of the page!

Andy

If you enjoyed this post please feel free to buy me a gingerbread late! mmmm!