Selling House, Last minute claim in for water escape; What are my options?

ECO_Mental

Hi,

Story is, I have a house in the process of selling to the current tenants. Very close to handing over contracts for signing about a week away every done and ticked. They have been approved for mortgage etc.

Anyway got a phone call on Monday morning about some cracking on ceiling and a wall or two nothing major. They got an engineer and dug a trial hole next to the sewerage manhole and discovered that the ground was very soft and some remedial work might have to be done.

Obviously they want this done before they sign, I have contacted my insurance company and got the ball rolling. Insurance assessor out today and met my engineer and they are going to appoint their engineer I presume to asses damage from the leaking manhole.

My fear is that this will take a few months to iron out and I just want to sell the house.

What are my options??

1. Hold off on Signing until every thing is finished(dont want to do this, as its being dragging on for long enough already, over a year)
2. Proceed with signing in the next week or so and work through the claim with my insurance company. Is this possible? since I mightn't be the legal owner of the house in about 4 week all going to plan and I will have canceled my premiums.
3. Take a reduction in the asking so the owners can do the works themselves and I get a refund from the insurance company(possible? only thinking out loud)

Anyway, any suggestions.

Thanks in advance
EM

killers1

ECO_Mental wrote: »

Hi,

Story is, I have a house in the process of selling to the current tenants. Very close to handing over contracts for signing about a week away every done and ticked. They have been approved for mortgage etc.

Anyway got a phone call on Monday morning about some cracking on ceiling and a wall or two nothing major. They got an engineer and dug a trial hole next to the sewerage manhole and discovered that the ground was very soft and some remedial work might have to be done.

Obviously they want this done before they sign, I have contacted my insurance company and got the ball rolling. Insurance assessor out today and met my engineer and they are going to appoint their engineer I presume to asses damage from the leaking manhole.

My fear is that this will take a few months to iron out and I just want to sell the house.

What are my options??

1. Hold off on Signing until every thing is finished(dont want to do this, as its being dragging on for long enough already, over a year)
2. Proceed with signing in the next week or so and work through the claim with my insurance company. Is this possible? since I mightn't be the legal owner of the house in about 4 week all going to plan and I will have canceled my premiums.
3. Take a reduction in the asking so the owners can do the works themselves and I get a refund from the insurance company(possible? only thinking out loud)

Anyway, any suggestions.

Thanks in advance
EM

These things can be handled very quickly by the insurance company. Once their assessor signs off on the quotes you have got (or should be getting ) to get the work done then it can be carried out immediately. The potential purchasers I wold imagine will want to hold off signing anything until such time as their surveyor re-inspects the property and assures them that the problem has been rectified satisfactorily. I think you should nail down a timeframe with the ins co before considering other alternatives like the ones you have outlined.

ECO_Mental

Yeah,

I was thinking I would call them and let them know about the sale of the house, but I just want this to get settled ASAP. They mightn't have a problem with it all and they might say work away with signing and we could work thought the claim even though I wasn't the legal owner.

But as you say this could move fast, they had the assessor out within a day, and the work isn't as major as I first thought, but this will still take a number of weeks...

The purchaser has a letter of offer from the bank 20th March and that is valid for 90 days so that gives me until the end of June. Time is slipping by

coylemj

killers1 wrote: »

The potential purchasers I wold imagine will want to hold off signing anything until such time as their surveyor re-inspects the property and assures them that the problem has been rectified satisfactorily.

+1

And the liklihood is that their bank won't release the money until the issues have been resolved and the surveyor signs off on the work so there may not be any point in trying to devise a short cut.

Dropping the price may suit the prospective new owners (might allow them to spend the money on something they consider more important) but probably will not satisfy their lending institution.

I'd forget the short cuts, get the problem fixed and then close the sale.

killers1

And the liklihood is that their bank won't release the money until the issues have been resolved and the surveyor signs off on the work so there may not be any point in trying to devise a short cut.

In all probability the bank will never be aware of the issue as they won't necessarily see a copy of the structural survey unless the property is over 100 yrs old. Even still a prudent purchaser won't be willing to sign off till the issue is sorted. In my experience this could be resolved within a couple of days do maybe investigate the timeframe with insurance co as your next step and have someone lined up to carry out the work once you get the green light...