lollyno1

hi all

House is just about a week or two away from completion, or so I thought till i phoned the buyers this evening.

She said shed recieved the surveryors report and i wouldn't like what it said.

Well i didnt! Seems he thinks the conservotory with wooden frames is unsafe. God knows how he determines it to be unsafe unless hes refering to the glass in the roof, which i know is not saftey glass. My buyers have phoned my EA and sent the report to them,

I did say to the buyer i was not prepared to drop the price and if need be will pull the bloody conservatory down. its watertight, and secure. Buyers where well aware that it needs replacing and seemed quite happy with this.

Now my heads in a mess, im thinking the worse case scenario i can and cant wait to go to bed just so I can get up in the morning to a new day.

Why do these things happen late in the evening when you cant contact anyone for advice.

Im stressed to death now and withdrawing my resignation that I put in today at work.

I feel my buyers will bullying me into something as they now know my plans, and hes a BIG fellow and theres only little old me!

sorry to ramble and whinge but if i didnt get this off my chest i think id explode.

regards

lolly

thewoodz

oh i really feel for u. my mum's just had someone pull out of her house sale because of the survey. she has lived in the house for 30 years and apparently the people she brought it from didn't get planning permission for a garage extension. its over 30 years ago if it was that important why wasn't it mentioned when my mum brought the house
we're dreading putting ours on the market
k winging its way to you

thewoodz

sos lolly must spread it around before i give it to you again. sending hugs your way instead

busterboy

Don't let your buyers bully you...I allowed that to happen and I am £24k down because of it....and my nights are filled with revenge fantasies.

Sometime if you start to give in, it becomes a never ending list of concessions (always on your part).

lollyno1

Thanks anyway...i think theres more chance of the bloody sale falling through than the conservatory falling down. Yours reply has just remiinded my something my conveyensor said as well, (shes the buyers daughter-in law) about the extension. I sent the all the plans that I had, and she said there seems to be a permission letter missing... :scared:

Why wasnt i told when i bought the house...!

OMG more things to worry about.

busterboy

...can you make friends with someone good at the local council?

Ozzidoc

You probably didnt need planning permission for a conservatory - it depends on its size. Check with your council.

cresta57

That's quite correct, from memory planning constraints are put in place by local councils. Our local council decreed that a conservatory with a glass or polycarbonate roof was a temporary structure and therefore was exempt from planning applications. Most LA's sang from the same basic song sheet. Even if planning approvals have changed planning is not retrospective so if you didn't need one to build you don't need one to sell.

OP, If your buyer suggests a lower price tell them that they were well aware of the state of repair of the conservatory, you consider they are just "trying it on" and as such you intend refusing as your plans are now on hold for 12 months while you remove the offending structure and re-market. Stick to your guns and tell the buyer any lower offer at this late stage of the game will most definitely result in you removing the house from the market after refusing the offer. Point out if they offer less and you refuse they break the contract leaving themselves out of pocket for survey costs.

donna

We had a similiar experience,ours wanted a letter from the council to say permission wasnt needed,that could have taken up to 6/8 weeks to get ,which we didnt have.In the end i got them to send through the details/outline of what you did need permission for and ours was under the sizing or except from needing one.This was then sent to their solictitor.I did this myself and explained our case to the nice council woman and she did her best to help,from memory i think she wrote a covering letter for me.
Good luck,i know i was on tenderhooks.
donna

lollyno1

see im in such a state! i didnt explain myself, the planning permission that is deemed missing is for an extension that was put on the house about 10 years ago. I had the plans given to me by the previous owner, and I know they had a big red stamp on them saying passed, but as for letter given permission, i cant say. The plans where with a lot of other documents about 5 ins thick and have been stuck in a box in the original big brown evelope since 2001.

As for the conservatory falling down, if thats the problem, as you say cresta, the buyers were well aware of its condition. I assured them its watertight, which it is and they were happy with that. I think its the wording of the surveyors report, ie unsafe. Well if it falls down now im insured!

Thank for the advice...ive been to bed once and have woken up now, hence being on here gone midnight.

cresta57

Take a few deep breaths, Council will have a record of any approved plans they may charge you a small fee to confirm the details. The plans with an approval stamp are more than sufficient as they usually have a signature through the stamp by the planning officer. Try not to worry to much about the report your agent should give you a copy if you ask, your solicitor could then advise the best course of action.

Wendy

Hi Lolly,

We had a similar thing with our house when we were selling up, the surveyor picked on our roof and electrics, there was nothing wrong with either

Our solicitor told us that there are an increasing number of surveyors getting sued these days for not picking up on things like roofs, electrics etc. So I'd hazard a guess that he is covering his arse and that you shouldn't worry too much.

Your solicitor should be able to tell you what you need to do next, maybe getting a builders report may help.

moneypenny20

I know it's easier said than done but I really wouldn't worry yet. Our surveyor mentioned about three or four things. None of them were actually an issue, he was just covering himself in case of later litigation.

One of the "problems" he picked up on was our entire back wall had virginia creeper growing all over it. He decided it was compromising the structure of the wall and would have to be ripped down or basically the house would fall down Our buyer was understandably a bit worried until I explained that virginia creeper dies back completely each autumn and there is 100% guaranteed nothing wrong with the wall. It turned out the surveyor hates any gardening, plants, grass - anything outside and therefore knew nothing about virginia creeper.

He also said our chimney stack was about to fall down as all the pointing had disintegrated - clever considering he didn't have binoculars or a ladder. Our buyer arranged for an expert to come round and check - we agreed that if there was a problem we would pay for this guy and get it repaired, if there was nothing wrong, she would pay. - Expert explained to her that the entire stack had very obviously been repointed in the last three years and was as sturdy as anything.

As Wendy says - just covering themselves. Hope it all goes through quickly

Wendy

Funny that, that's exactly what the surveyor said about our roof.

moneypenny20

Roofs of any description are an easy target for surveyors - high up, fairly hard to prove either way without some expense, and guaranteed to worry the bejesus out of the buyer