Hi all, not posted on here in a long time (lurk occasionally but rarely post) but I'm looking for a bit of advice... Think this might a long post though so settle in
My husband and I are currently looking to buy our first house, had been looking at a few places and found one that (IMO) is ideal, well within our budget and in reasonably good condition needing minimum work to move in. We placed an offer 3 weeks ago and on Monday finally heard that it's been accepted. (long story, solicitors seem to have lost contact with the owner)
The property has been empty for around two years, and has been on the market for just over a year. (owner seems to have bought it for his grandson who from the sounds of things found our town too quiet and interfering) There's a patch on the kitchen ceiling approx 1x2m where the plaster has come down. It's in the middle of the room away from any plumbing. The bath has a shower attached to the tap but no bracket or shower curtain rail, there's also a small patch above the bath that looks like it's come from condensation as the extractor is missing it's front (obviously broken). There's a crack in the rendering on the back wall, the garden is a bit of a mess and there's a covered gap where there used to be a gas fire fitted. There's also laminate flooring in 3 rooms (all connected) that we hate so would probably want to replace it with carpet. It also needs a ruddy good clean as the previous tenant neglected to take a lot of his things with him, including the contents of a fridge/freezer he left behind!
None of this bothers me, the price we'd be paying is £13,000 below the 2013 home report valuation and I can't see any of the work costing too many pennies seeing as we have friends who are plasterers and plumbers and my mum and uncle have volunteered to tackle the garden. There's also laminate flooring in 3 rooms (all connected) that we hate so would probably want to replace it with carpet.
H has now said he's not interested any longer and to withdraw our offer. Despite the fact I've fallen in love with the place and there's not a single other property on the market that I'm interested in, even ones at the very top end of our budget. (Believe me, I've looked hard over the last 3 weeks thinking we weren't going to get this place!) We move in with my parents at the weekend as we've had notice to vacate the place we're currently renting so I'm keen to have some form of plan of action before we do.
Having spoken to several people about it, all are in agreement that it's a great opportunity and we'd be mad to let it go. H however seems to have been on a mission to find something wrong with it. On Monday afternoon he apparently had a chat with someone from the housing association (this is an ex council house we're looking at) who says that he wouldn't touch one of these properties with a barge pole! He claims that there's damp underneath the plaster and that if we try to take any wallpaper off we'll end up removing all the plaster with it. I spoke to my dad about it last night as he used to be a building contractor and he was very sceptical about this and said that if there was damp in the place it'd have shown itself by now as it's been empty for so long? Also there was damp testing down in the home report, surely it'd have shown up then too? In the interest of trying to receive a fair unbiased response, there have been damp issue in some of the houses in this area and it was something we both discussed prior to reading the home report and making our offer.
I'm trying to work out if H has a point, or is searching for issues simply because he's scared of committing to a property? Or possibly it's an issue with 'us'? He's not properly talked about it with me, the closest I've got to having an actual conversation was this morning before he left for work. I wanted to talk last night but he ate dinner, had a shower and went to bed before 8pm. Pretty much he just shouts it's got damp, I'm not f***ing interested and storms off. Not exactly constructive or helpful ☹️
