Problem following inspection. What do to?

H8GHOTI

My dad is gone sale agreed on his house. The buyers sent some guy around to check the drains on the property.
It turns out the owner before my dad, built an extension and covered over a manhole. This guy has said because of this he was unable to complete the inspection. He needs access to the manhole which requires digging up the floor in that room.

We’ve owned this house for 20 years and never had any problem with the drains and didn’t even know that this was the case. The drain guy is not saying there is actually a problem just that he’s unable to check it.

He found a couple of small things which my dad has agreed to rectify. However, whatever happens with this manhole will be costly. The estate agent has said it needs to be done. If the sale falls through, the next buyer will have the same problem.

While I agree it wasn’t clever of the previous owner to cover the manhole like this, there does not seem to be any real consequences. Like I said we’ve never had any problems in 20 years. I just don’t want my dad to be taken advantage of and spend money on any needless expense.

Anybody got any thoughts on this? Any similar experience?

Gumbo

You can build over a manhole no problem but you must provide access elsewhere by way of a new man hole or access point for rodding etc

Did the previous builder put access anywhere else behind the extension in the rear garden?

It shouldn’t stop a sale tbh, as there’s plenty of properties constricted with no manholes or access points from the start.

godtabh

kceire wrote: »

You can build over a manhole no problem but you must provide access elsewhere by way of a new man hole or access point for rodding etc

Did the previous builder put access anywhere else behind the extension in the rear garden?

It shouldn’t stop a sale tbh, as there’s plenty of properties constricted with no manholes or access points from the start.

as long as there is an AJ or manhole 40-45m upstream/downstream there is no issue.

H8GHOTI

Update on this.
My dad found a manhole at the end of the drive, within 40m. But this wasn’t good enough. Everyone involved insisted a new manhole had to be put in place just outside the house, about 5m from the covered manhole, or the sale would fall through. This and a few other drain repair jobs came to €5k.

After the work was done, the estate agent has said the buyers are pulling out and are now blaming the electrics. This about 4 weeks after their engineer called. My dad was told verbally that there were no problems.

This is obviously very annoying. Surely some electrical issues should have been identified weeks ago? It’s an oldish house, so this couldn’t be a surprise to them. As with the drains, there has been zero problems with the electrics over the last 20 years.

My dad has spent €5k on what would appear to be completely unnecessary work just to get the sale over the line. But the buyers have pulled out anyway. Is there no recourse here? It appears deposits are completely meaningless.

godtabh

Doubt they were really interested or found some where else.

It was a booking deposit which is 100% refundable.

Alkers

Zero recourse, you shouldn't have carried out the works, very surprised your EA advised you to.
Stuff like this can be up for renegotiation after going sale agreed but there is no obligation to rectify them before the sale completes and almost every house sold will have some issues found in the survey which are not rectified.

Mitzy

Any booking deposits paid to an estate agent are fully refundable until contracts are signed. There is no legal obligation on either side to complete the sale/purchase until that point.
Unfortunately I can't see who your dad would get recourse from.
The only way he could have got a refund was if the buyers signed contracts and paid a non refundable deposit of 10% subject to your father doing the works. Did your father get legal advice before he did the works?

ZX7R

Your father's house was examined. By a suvayor what he points are only recommendations, your father does not have to do the work.
Unless it's structural no action is required.
Price the house to reflect said issue if you like, let the buyer foot the upgrade.

alias no.9

The lesson to be learned is that any remedial work should be completed as part of the contract of sale if possible, agree the scope of work to be undertaken in the contract, scheduled to start after the signing of the contract and be finished before completion of the sale.

H8GHOTI

godtabh wrote: »

Doubt they were really interested or found some where else.

It was a booking deposit which is 100% refundable.

Yes I believe they have found somewhere else and were looking for some excuse.

H8GHOTI

Alkers wrote: »

Zero recourse, you shouldn't have carried out the works, very surprised your EA advised you to.
Stuff like this can be up for renegotiation after going sale agreed but there is no obligation to rectify them before the sale completes and almost every house sold will have some issues found in the survey which are not rectified.

100% agree on the EA. Not happy with him over a couple of different things. His opinion was if this work wasn’t done the sale would collapse but also every other buyer in future would have the exact same issue. I called bullsh!t but he went ahead and got it done because of the fear of losing the sale.

ELM327

H8GHOTI wrote: »

Yes I believe they have found somewhere else and were looking for some excuse.

They don't need an excuse though, nothing binding was signed.

H8GHOTI

Mitzy wrote: »

Any booking deposits paid to an estate agent are fully refundable until contracts are signed. There is no legal obligation on either side to complete the sale/purchase until that point.
Unfortunately I can't see who your dad would get recourse from.
The only way he could have got a refund was if the buyers signed contracts and paid a non refundable deposit of 10% subject to your father doing the works. Did your father get legal advice before he did the works?

Not from a solicitor, no.
He got advice from EA, bad advice but since he’s a professional in selling houses, he trusted him. A few other things would lead me to believe he is incompetent and I have told him to fire him and get someone better when putting it back on the market.

All other checks were done (engineer etc..) and he was told everything was ok. The issues with the drains were the only thing that needed to be done before the sale.

H8GHOTI

alias no.9 wrote: »

The lesson to be learned is that any remedial work should be completed as part of the contract of sale if possible, agree the scope of work to be undertaken in the contract, scheduled to start after the signing of the contract and be finished before completion of the sale.

Yes. Or the buyer does the work after buying the house if they want.
You would think the EA would know this.

H8GHOTI

ELM327 wrote: »

They don't need an excuse though, nothing binding was signed.

Ya I’m aware of that. But I guess they didn’t want to just say they changed their minds. Having some excuse makes them seem less like assholes.

Sale agreed regulations should be more stringent but that’s a different discussion. The last 4 weeks or so we’ve been moving all the furniture out etc.. Now they’ve changed their minds at the drop of a hat and my dad is left living in a shell of a house instead of a home.

Doop

There was always a chance the buyer was going to pull that stunt. I would never do any work based on a report produced by an advisor to the potential purchaser unless it was something minor or something which will damage the property further if not addressed is a leak.

The preferable course of action would have been for your father to knock 5k off the price (if he so wanted) or else tell them like it lump it is what it is.

Unfortunately there is no recourse for your father. Is this in a part of the country where sales take time and are slow? I cant see why one would be so keen to placate a purchaser otherwise.

Anyway I guess you've got to chalk it up to experience in this case. Hopefully another purchaser comes along shortly.

H8GHOTI

Doop wrote: »

... Is this in a part of the country where sales take time and are slow? I cant see why one would be so keen to placate a purchaser otherwise...

No it’s a good area but it’s a big house and wouldn’t suit many people. These “buyers” put in a bid soon after it went on the market. My dad left it a while before accepting and there wasn’t any other bids forthcoming.

All this hassle with the drains happened about 2 weeks after sale agreed. He wasn’t really happy doing the work but was told it had to be done. If he refused, he believed the house would go back on the market and given the apparent lack of interest he decided it would be better to fix the problem rather than go back to square one. He also believed this was the last obstacle to the sale going through. So spend €5k to “guarantee” the sale goes through in a week or two or wait maybe months for another buyer.

Claw Hammer

The day you buy is the day you sell! This would have turned up years ago if there was a proper survey done. Nothing as expensive as a cheap expert.

Dolbhad

Drains testing is carried a lot more in the last few years where before it never was. It’s always seems to be in engineers report to have a drains test carried out and legal advisor will say if engineer says that do it. I think the issue would have been highlighted anyway.

I’m not sure elsewhere but in Cork, if drains are an issue, it appears sellers will fix it or reduce the price to reflect the value of work to be carried out. Now maybe your dad should spoken to the solicitor first and made it a condition of sale. But it’s done now and I think it would have been dealt with in someway.

Nothing is set in stone until contracts are signed. Maybe when your dad as a bid he’s happy to accept, He should insist purchasers carry out the engineer survey first and purchasers be happy with it before he accepts the offer to not waste time.

spaceHopper

Sorry for your dad's hassles, next time look at this as a negotiation tactic they wanted your dad to drop the price by 5 grand so that they could do the work but wouldn't do it because it wasn't needed.

Same with the wiring, we bought a 1960's house and ended up renovating it. It's to be expected that any older house will have to be rewired.

If I were your Dad I'd add the 5 k onto the asking and put it back on the market he maybe he would want to get a better EA who would have advices in the first place to drop the price or commit to doing the work after contracts are signed.