Engineer's report before going Sale Agreed

FrStone

Further to my previous emails and your bid of X on Y. We have not received any higher bids.

The vendor will not accept any offers until any proposed purchaser gets an engineers report on the property and is happy to proceed after that. Therefore I am requesting you to organise an engineer to inspect the property and if after that you are happy to proceed then they will make their decision.  

I received the above on a property that I bid on. Is it normal to get an engineers report before going sale agreed? Or is it likely that the auctioneer is trying to get me to pay for an engineers report while he try's to get in higher bids?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Canyon86

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058214370/engineers-report-before-going-sale-agreed

In my case I went sale agreed and then got the engineer to take a look at the house.

Do you think there will be something major wrong with the house is it second hand etc?

If you get the report done keep all the content for yourself as you ll be paying 500 quid plus for it,

Markcheese

Always thought that a vendor should have a full engineers report on a property before offering it for sale ,

So that anybody bidding would know where they stand ..

Expecting every bidder to individually get a report before accepting bids , seems a bit off -

I m guessing there's something off with the house - and a sale has fallen through previously ..

Emma2019

Normal course of business is sale agreed first and then get a surveyor to make sure nothing is wrong.

Otherwise you could be throwing away money on a survey for a house that goes way out your price range

Bass Reeves

An engineer report could cost well over 1k. Last time I looked for one was about 2015 and was quoted 800 euro for a two bed. Previously to 2012 you had no come back on the engineer now his liability insurance is on the line.

It would be highly unusual to expect buyers to get an engineer report unless a house was going to auction. Write back and tell them to disclose any know issues and you will bid on that basis.

chooseusername

I think it's just badly worded,

maybe meant this;

Further to my previous emails and your bid of X on Y. We have not received any higher bids. The vendor will not accept any OTHER offers until any proposed purchaser YOU get an engineers report on the property and is happy to proceed after that. Therefore I am requesting you to organise an engineer to inspect the property and if after that you are happy to proceed then they will make their decision.  

iColdFusion

It does sound like there is something wrong with the house that they don't want to tell you about but a previous sale agreed has fallen through because of it, think you need to ring the estate agent and ask them straight up whats going on but be reasonable and say your budget includes for some repair work you just need to know what the potential issues are so you can get quotes from builders now and an engineers report could take a few weeks to sort.

Victor

the estate agent is marking your cards to say they don't want you pulling out due to a building defect. That they suggest engineer and not building surveyor suggests it may be a structural issue.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118060421#Comment_118060421

Would you really advise people to rely on a survey paid for by the vendor?

Markcheese

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118061904#Comment_118061904

Rely on it ? Gawd no - get your own surveyer once it goes sale agreed -

But I'd use it as indicative before the hose went sale agreed - if you ended up bidding on 10 houses (or interested in bidding ) , that'd be 5 grand inspection fees ...

Kurooi

I think you need to level with the estate agent, get a very clear confirmation that you're the top bidder, nobody else is bidding and if you're happy with the report they will take you up on the bid. They don't have to but at least get their word on it.

That survey is a lot of cash to throw just to bid on a place. Getting that done while you're still in bidding phase is NOT normal. And yeah it's likely there is something wrong with the place and they're shooting until they find someone that will fall for it.

chooseusername

It's highly unlikely all bidders would have to get a survey done while the bidding is still open.

The e.mail in the op sounds like the vendor wants to go sale agreed with op without actually using the phrase.

Still officially on the market but no more bids taken until op is happy with his survey.

Markcheese

Viewed a house many moons ago in the bad old boom days and while viewing the estate agent told us they werent accepting bids from anyone with out a survey - ok - 20 mins after we left the auctioneer rang us to say he had a "pre - bid" ,and if we were still interested we'd ,have to go higher , .. house turned out to be an expensive wreck, loads of structural issues,( we walked ) , but the same house came up for sale several more times without any major work - never with any caveat in the listing about structural work ..