For Sale Flats

[Mr Saxon]

Wouldn't wash with me.
Are people that easily conned?

Estate agents tend to be as bent as 9 bob notes when providing all the info is concerned. That's why I haven't set foot in one for 12 years.

[Kritou]

At what stage in “discussions” with an estate agent can one step back from any contractual obligations in the event you purchase the property but from a different agent, or indeed directly from the seller?

[Nick2]

The #carbon-neutral aspect of a sustainably-fuelled woodstove, is actually a major plus-point!

Bollocks!!!

[said]

there are hundreds of flats for sale. Why don't the estate agents give all the information on each flat.

They have to tell you the EPC rate.

I would like to know the Council Tax band,
Does the flat have a water meter, if not the yearly water bill.
Has the flat got electric heating or gas.
How much the maintenance fee is.

A few months ago a flat was for sale very cheaply. I read the information and the maintenance fee was £3,495 per year.

An estate agent will only tell you the good parts. Best to make a list of what you need to know and ask them directly. By law estate agents are not allowed to mislead you, but many of them do so by the omission of facts.

There are several houses in Southport which are located over Jaynes Brook tributaries. These houses cannot be insulated, it costs a huge lot of money. They are likely to be more damp than most houses and some are even prone to settling - but an estate agent will not admit that, he needs to sell the house. Holes commonly appear on Alma Road because of a tributary, another hole recently appeared in Duke Street near the crossing, the nearby car park is already sinking.

[bensherman]

Our house sales system is a mess.

We know people who have twice had sales fall through and know that on the second occasion the agent told a buyer with cash ready they couldn't view the house, because an offer had been accepted. The sellers didn't even know about this buyer.

Often the conveyancers are little more than postboxes for their paperwork. They send buyers standard forms completed by the seller ( eg whether planning permission had been needed or obtained) without checking that the seller understood the questions.

I also think that the Blair government idea of a house sellers pack made much sense. One survey, one search, good for all buyers. I am aware of a property that the same surveyor has been paid three times to survey ( and still got it wrong!)

[local]

Searches go out of date and problems arise suddenly.

As we all see regularly with the holes that appear often within a few days in our roads.

Planning applications, policy changes, for an expensive purchase a good current survey is important from someone batting for you.

A bad one is next to useless.

[Alikado]

Searches go out of date and problems arise suddenly.

As we all see regularly with the holes that appear often within a few days in our roads.

Planning applications, policy changes, for an expensive purchase a good current survey is important from someone batting for you.

A bad one is next to useless.

It only needs a qualifying date on the Info

[bensherman]

A friend of ours is responsible for a family member who lives in a flat on Westcliffe Road. But is about to leave that flat having only lived there a few months.
Since she moved in , in the summer, nobody has been able to calculate the electricity bill. Because the meter is elsewhere on the property and nobody has access to it.
Yet a leading local estate agent advertised this flat, took her money and that of the owner, despite not having established that there was such a fundamental problem.

[bensherman]

Searches go out of date and problems arise suddenly.

As we all see regularly with the holes that appear often within a few days in our roads.

Planning applications, policy changes, for an expensive purchase a good current survey is important from someone batting for you.

A bad one is next to useless.

You are confusing different things. A survey is not the same as a search.

Our home on the Isle of Wight was surveyed THREE times by the same surveyor in the space of fourteen months..the last time being us. Even then he missed something vital, the absence of which caused us much difficulty and expense, and I made him refund to me the survey fee.

What he missed was there from the beginning.

The person selling the house to us had to pay her solicitor for two previous failed sales, as well as the one that went through, for doing the same basic tasks.

No wonder the professions opposed what Blair wanted to do, as the current system pays them to do sloppy work multiple times.