Owners of house (bank) requesting surveoyor pre accepting offer

Nalz

Hi folks,

We've put in an offer (2nd and final offer) on a repossessed house (owned by a bank). The estate agent in question rang me today and informed us that the bank wanted us to have a surveyor in to check it but haven't accepted our offer. It's been on the market a good while now and the estate agent is pushing for them to accept our second offer.

Is this a common occurrence? The estate agent suggested that if I had any builder mates to ask them to do it and he'd arranged for us all to check it out.

I find this all a bit odd! Anyone have any experience similar to this? Any advice? I don't want to fork out 200 quid or more and then for the bank to just turn around and say no to our offer.

Thanks

Nalz

I've just read this
http://www.thepropertypin.com/viewtopic.php?t=50258

seems like its regular enough

johnnyskeleton

Strange that the vendor's bank would want you to carry out a survey. In an ordinary deal they would have no interest in same and it would only be your bank (if you were getting a mortgage) that would want to see a survey in place.

Possibly, and this is what would set alarm bells ringing for me, is that a previous sale was agreed, a survey was done, and then they backed out on foot of it. So, to prevent this happening again, the bank want the survey done before agreeing the offer.

While you might be concerned about losing €200 on a survey now, I would strongly advise getting a good quality survey done now, even if it is €4-500.

Money for a survey when the sale doesn't go through is not wasted. If there is a serious problem with the house, you've just saved yourself tens, possibly hundreds, of euro.

PhoenixParker

In any house sale either party can pull out before contracts are signed.

Your risk in shelling out for a survey before they've agreed to a sale price is no greater than your risk in shelling out for a survey after they've agreed to a sale price. Admittedly it feels different because you have the nicety of a verbal agreement.

Normally a survey is done after a price is "agreed", but that agreement can easily evaporate if a higher offer comes along. The reality is that agreeing a price is completely meaningless in any legal sense so your situation pre and post bid acceptance is exactly the same.

bleary

The bank has to agree your sale offer. This will take some time and need more than one approval.

In theory it seems they are willing to do this but what they don't want is to go through this process then you get a survey done ,lower your offer based on the survey and then have to restart the entire process.

I would take this as a really good sign that they are ready to accept your offer

Nalz

Thanks guys... any recommendations for someone in the north west of Dublin?

Cheers

Uriel.

Just don't share your survey report with the bank when you do get it done.
Just use it to inform your decision making as to whether to proceed further with the purchase.