Sale Agreed now Bank won't lend until Opening Up Work Done on House to Inspect Cracks

Hi, I have been sale agreed on a house for 6 weeks and was expecting formal loan approval this week, and then to be signing contracts next week. Instead, the bank have asked that 'opening up' work is done on the house to throughly investigate a crack on the exterior of the house, and repair this if necessary. The crack was mentioned in the structural report (house is 100 years old) but the overall jist of the report was that the house is structurally sound. I suppose just to cover himself the engineer mentioned the crack and said that it is something that should be investigated in the next year or so and may cost up to €2k.

I have gone through my solicitor and the estate agent with this request and have just been advised by the estate agent that the sellers no longer want to deal with us and they are going to go to the underbidder instead (who apparently is a cash-buyer). They are (probably rightly) very annoyed that this has only come to light now and they don't want to have to get any intrusive work done to their house at this stage.

So, my questions are; has anyone any experience with this situation? Is there anything I can do here or is it just at the discretion of the seller? Is it crazy that a bank is asking for this work to be carried out on the house given that I don't even own it? Also, does it sound like the bank is just stringing me along and if it's not this, it'll be some other reason not to lend to me (the bank is KBC)?

Myself and my wife are pretty devastated with this news now as we thought we had found our ideal home.

Thanks

As the bank's primary security is the house itself, they will want to make sure that there is nothing in it that could affect their abilty to sell it if necessary. So if the structural survey recommended that a crack be investigated, that's what they will want. Otherwise, from their perspective, the crack could turn out to be something much larger than it first appears.

If the surveyor recommended that the crack should be "investigated" then evidently he doesn't know the full extent of it either. Personally I wouldn't be keen to buy a house in such circumstances. What happens if you buy the house, get the crack investigated then and it turns out to be a major issue?

I know it's probably not what you want to hear but I don't think any bank are likely to ignore a survey that recommends that a crack be investigated.

Thanks, owners have now given permission to carry out the works so we will be able to see if it is big problem.

That's good news, and it is far better that you know exactly the significance of the crack before you purchase.