Red flags in buying our first house! Advice?

[devon_91x]

Hi guys, haven't been on here in a while so sorry if this is in the wrong section.
Me and OH are in the middle of buying our first house. Our offer got accepted in the middle of April and there was no chain either side. The vendor was selling as she said he had a very sick elderly mother who lived down the next road and she was forced to sell her house to live and take care of her mother. Sad situation but fair enough. She seemed to be in just as much of a rush to get things completed as we were. Fast forward 14 weeks and we still haven't even got round to exchanging yet, and now we are beyond annoyed.

The first hold up we had was after the survey was done. A few red flags come up, the main one being that the garage was converted into the second bedroom a few years back but it was a flat roof, and according to the surveyor the roof seemed too low down and basically not up to standards. We tried to compromise with the vendor and asked to take 3k off of the original selling price to cover the work we may need to do when we move in. She refused. We contemplated pulling out but decided we really liked the place so we would continue regardless. The other thing that flagged up was that the boiler didn't fire up when tested. Vendor claims it was switched off and we just asked for the gas certificate to be sent to our solicitors so we know everything was ok. That took her around 5 weeks to produce as she claims she couldn't find it. We think maybe she didn't have a certificate in the first one but eventually she did produce one so she must had got somebody to service it, fair enough, it was sorted eventually.

Since then the searches have been going through and everything came back fine. She has really taken her time in answering any enquires that were raised but we have been extremely patience and put it down to her sick mother and we have tried not to keep pestering the estate agents. In one of the forms she claimed that last year, during the storms, a roof tile came off which caused a leak in the main bedroom. She claimed on the insurance and it was sorted. Our solicitors have been asking for weeks and weeks now for the insurance paperwork to prove that the work was done efficiently. She hasn't produced it and today we got a call from the estate agent to say that the guy who done the work on the roof, his house got struck by lightening and his computer isn't working. Honestly what kind of excuse is that?! We have been beyond patience but we are at breaking point now and are stuck on what to do. We already know there is work to be done regarding the flat roof and now we potentially have a problem with the main bedroom roof?!
OH is going to call the estate agent tomorrow and say we are fed up. We want the paperwork sorted out by Friday. We also want to arrange for a roofer to go round and check everything over for us, and a plumber to make sure the boiler is actually working as we are now questioning that. If she doesn't agree to this are cutting our losses and backing out.
Does this sound fair? Sorry it's so long! We are so upset and angry as we really loved this house, we looked at about 18 before this and really took to this one straight away, but I feel like the vendor is taking advantage of our age and the fact we are first time buyers and just taking the mick!! We are so lost on what to do, I just wondered if anyone else has been in a similar situation and what we could do?! Thanks in advance x

 

[Larkspur]

Sounds more than fair to me. I do think the vendor is taking advantage, and perhaps has something to hide. All the faffing around and excuses would be ringing alarm bells for me.

I'd encourage you to put your foot down with this vendor, in the knowledge that although it's a pain to have to start the house search again, it's a lot less than the pain of making a bad investment in a home that's not right.

When my OH and I were looking for our house, we probably looked at 50+ places before we found our place. We even went to a few auctions of places we loved enough to do due diligence on and were prepared to bid on, only to find the going prices were WAY above what we had been told. It was really discouraging.

But when we finally got our place, I was so relieved that we had missed out on the other places, as we absolutely love our home. It all came together super-fast and easily too, basically we saw it on a Saturday and by the following Friday evening we owned it.

There are always going to be things you find out you have to deal with after you buy a home, that's par for the course. So if you are going in with a sense already that some things may be being hidden from you or the vendor is being evasive, tread extremely carefully.

It's hard to remember when you are in the flush of love with a new property, but if there's one thing our house-hunt taught me, it's that there will always be another house you can love. I've had that "YES, this is the house for us!" feeling multiple times. You just have to keep the faith and keep looking. As the buyer, you are actually in the position of greatest negotiating strength, but it's easy to forget that when you are fixated on a particular property.

 

[Quartz]

First off 14 weeks is still well within the average time - these things take time (Partly I think due to solictors taking time and working multiple cases. Information has to go through different people each of who can take time to pass things across.

Secondly I have been in the position of having to find documents for a house sale thinking i have lost them and trying to get hold of the electrician who did it before finally finding it. Then having to get it to the solicitors it took me the best part of 3-4 weeks.

BUT I find the fact that she refused to drop money on something that was wrong, the fact that there is something wrong and the issue with the boiler all to be red flags I would not be happy with