Problem with house - fair to ask for a reduction in price?

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Sydney100

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We put an offer on a house back in August but are just in position now to sign contracts as the vendor was gathering various paperwork and certs.

It now seems that whilst planning permission was obtained and certified as complied with, the compliance with the building regulations is not completely satisfactory ie, they didn't have an engineer overseeing the work. We just found this out yesterday and are due to sign tomorrow our solicitor said we could be in trouble if we go to sell the house but that the architect drawings all looked good and the surveryor said all the work looked good. We are also waiting on the bank to say they'll even give us the money because of this issue, apparently it does come up alot with extended houses and the bank shouldn't have a problem.

We're really nervous now as I really don't want to be stuck with a house we can't sell on in the future, we've spent so much money on solicitors, surveyors I really don't want to back out and start looking for a house all over again. Do you think it would be reasonable to go back to the vendors and ask for a reduced price on the house to reflect this issue, I hate to do this to them but I really don't fancy handing over 750K for a house that mightn't be sellable in the future, I'm sure theres no problems with the work but those certs seem to be important for re-sale!!

All opinions welcome!
 
Sydney100 said:
our solicitor said we could be in trouble if we go to sell the house but that the architect drawings all looked good and the surveryor said all the work looked good.
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Is your solicitor actually qualified to give a professional opinion on architects' drawings and surveyors' reports?
We're really nervous now as I really don't want to be stuck with a house we can't sell on in the future, we've spent so much money on solicitors, surveyors I really don't want to back out and start looking for a house all over again.
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You need to be VERY careful here!
Do you think it would be reasonable to go back to the vendors and ask for a reduced price on the house to reflect this issue
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Yes - of course. But even a discount may not be worth the hassle that you could be buying yourself into.
I'm sure theres no problems with the work but those certs seem to be important for re-sale!!
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How are you sure? Especially if...
the compliance with the building regulations is not completely satisfactory ie, they didn't have an engineer overseeing the work.
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Thanks for that I'm just wondering is this out of the ordinary, there must be an enormous amount of houses up for sale with extensions, do they all have engineers overseeing the work?? Is it just our house that doesn't??? I'm just wondering do people go ahead in situations like this or is this house basically un-sellable?
 
Sydney. You could be in bother. The first thing is that if you haven't got an approval from the Bank, when they receive a Title report, they are likely to hold matters up, or decline the advance of money, especially the way the market is at present. I am sure the vendor is a very nice person, however they would of known, or been told, of the requirements when selling a home. You might and should have your own engineer to check the property. This is lapse on the part of the vendor and you are taking a serious attitude -- correctly. As the same would occur no matter who was buying the property, this should have been dealt with - Alarm Bells ring in my Head - why wasn't it done. They have left themselves wide open for any purchaser to renegotiate the price -- so go ahead offer a lessor price
 
I just saw your reply to the previous Post. The answer is YES. I pulled out of a purchase, after selling our own home, as the new house had no certification. My solicitor told me not to proceed as there could of been problems. So I withdrew, although the vendor offered me the house to live in. The matter of certification took him the best part of 9 months to settle and he was an engineer. The local council but him through hell as he didn't build the house according to plan. I bought elsewhere, and when the property was placed on the market it took over 6 months to sell, at the height of the boom
 
If they knocked a 100K would you have gone ahead? Was thinking of offering them 100K less otherwise we'll have to step away!
 
Sydney -- Have you got the money to complete ?? Cos you mightn't be able to get it otherwise. If you have, yes I probably would take a chance of offering 100 k less. Have you got an engineer to discuss the matter with ???
 
Re: oblem with house - fair to ask for a reduction in price?

I imagine what the difficulty here is in the format of the cert of compliance available. Banks prefer to obtain a certificate with the engineer declaring that they supervised the various stages and certify compliance with planning and building regulation, but here it sounds like there is a certificate of compliance where the engineer either didnt supervise at the relevant stages or he hasnt included that in his declaration. So the first thing to do is to check whether the original engineer actually DID supervise the various stages and just hasnt included that in his declaration cause if thats the case he can now give an amended declaration. If however he didnt supervise then thats the only cert that will ever be available for this house. What usually happens then is that the purchasing solicitor advises the bank that they wish to qualify their undertaking on the title to say that only this type of cert will be available and not the usual '5 point' cert as it is becoming known. In my experience most banks will usually accept this amendment or qualification without too much difficulty. So I wouldnt be over worried about it and if I were acting for the vendor I would not advise them that this was something so problematic that they should accept a lower purchase price. While it is a flaw its not insurmountable.
 
Hi sydney100,

Is the certificate of compliance that isn't compliant for an extension or for the whole build? If it is for an extension and if it has been surveyed, I don't think I'd be worried but if it is for the whole build I would be worried that an engineer had not been out to have a look while the house was being built.
 
We have mortgage approval for months but the bank may not release the money because the cert isn't there or they may put some kind of special condition on the mortgage. The house itself is covered by homebond the extension which thereare two amount to about 1500 sq ft so its half the house.

I don't exactly what the story is just that the solicitor said they dont' have a cert to say an engineer oversaw the build. I don't know any engineers but I'm going to go to talk to my surveyor and see if we were to buy at a very reduced rate could we then try obtain a cert....I have no idea if this is possible.
 


I'm sure the extension is fine the surveyor thought so but thats not really the point, the point is we may not be able to sell without the cert and may end up stuck with a house.
 
mercman said:
I pulled out of a purchase, after selling our own home, as the new house had no certification. .... The matter of certification took him the best part of 9 months to settle ....as he didn't build the house according to plan.
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This case is completly different to Sydney100's case.

Sydney100 said:
It now seems that whilst planning permission was obtained and certified as complied with, the compliance with the building regulations is not completely satisfactory ie, they didn't have an engineer overseeing the work.
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Your situation is not uncommon. Many houses with extension would lead to this exact case.
As Vanilla's posted, i would not get over worried about it.
As for asking for a €100k discount... you wish and could dream about it but i doubt your dream will come true (at least for reason exposed in your OP)...but nothing prevents you to gazunder.
Well, never know, Santa may exist..
 
Thanks but our solictor is telling us its a big problem as in we may not be able to sell the house in the future so I'm thinking thats a big probem and the house should be reduced to reflect this. All advice I'm gettng is to back out and not touch this house with a barge pole but we need somewhere to live urgently, have fallen in love with this house, and have spent a good bit already on fees so I really need to know what I'm getting into - you and Vanilla think its not that big a problem, all th other posters think its a massive problem. Waiting to speak to my surveyor to see what he thinks
 
Sydney - it is a massive problem. The vendors did a half a job and for some reason chose not to finalise matters. In the market we are in, go for the discount, and make sure whatever the surveyor tells you, can be put in writing.
 
We recently put a small extension on the kitchen (Well, last Jan), and an engineer called out twice to check the foundations were correct and at a later stage in the build. It wasn't particularly expensive or time consuming. I would be wary of a house that doesn't have this done.
 
Sydney100 said:
Thanks but our solictor is telling us its a big problem as in we may not be able to sell the house in the future so I'm thinking thats a big probem and the house should be reduced to reflect this.
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Fair enough... if you believe so, i think it is more a question of make or break rather than price as I don't see how a discount helps the situation. What's the point paying €650k instead of €750k if you believe it is not resalable (hence theoritical value being €0).
 

Did you have to go through planning?
What type of cert did you get at the end?
 
We didn't have to go through planning as the extension was too small (I think this was mentioned in the cert), as far as I know it's a normal cert for an extension.
 
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