We're buying a house from a lady who is very difficult to say the least. The house belonged to her mother, who died in the spring. This lady is obviously very wealthy and is the sole beneficiary of the proceeds of the sale (in excess of 400k) so the financial side of this isn't an issue.
She's reasonably elderly and has been incredibly rude to us throughout the sale process, for example, agreeing to a return visit after we'd agreed the sale (so we could measure up) then refusing to let us in the front door when we arrived - raising her voice etc. She is refusing to take the property off the market despite the fact we've paid £1000 for survey and searches. I can understand that she is upset that her mother has died and she may have issues with "letting go" but even so, I've never met anyone quite so rude in my life.
The EA is sick to death of her (apparently) as she rings them twice a day. Like us, they just want to get the sale pushed through. As far as she's concerned, the property is still being marketed.
TBH the house needs everything you can imagine. We know this already and we're buying the house at a price that reflects this. It's a good opportunity to create the house we want.
We've just had the survey back and it turns out there's some damp in the sitting room. We haven't had anyone to look at it yet but I'm wondering what advice you'd all give with regards to renegotiating the sale price based on this?
Our current property had some damp when we bought it 13 years ago - we had an estimate for the work and reduced the sale price accordingly. I know this is common practice but TBH this lady has been so nasty to us that I don't want to rattle her cage and jeopardise the sale. On the other hand, if this is a fair thing to do, I feel that her nasty dealings with us is making us too frightened to approach her about the problem with the damp.
The survey also says it needs rewiring, replumbing etc. We were already planning to do this next summer but the survey says it's an urgent safety issue to have the electrics and gas checked out. We have two small children and don't want to be living in a death trap in the short term but I'm worried she'll refuse access to the house for these issues to be checked. She's convinced the place is a palace and has no problems because her parents spent lots of money on it, but unfortunately that was 50 years ago.
Any thoughts?
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Property/DIY
Reducing offer at survery for damp?
17 replies
twosoups · 23/12/2010 19:57
OP posts:
GiddyPickle ·
01/01/2011 13:19
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