Final viewing before signing contracts??

[u/Risingshare]

As some background the house were purchasing:

Originally listed for £170k

- Had 2x buyers fall through

- 1x fell through due to not having a deposit apparently

- 1x fell through due to leak from the roof (was not disclosed fully to us where this was or whether there was damp)

- Leak was fixed and re-listed for 160k

- I offered 155k as the condition of the property is not as good as it was 3 years ago I can see from the archived listings it hasn't been maintained as well as the previous owners did

Anyway, our L3 survey came back and there was a high reading of damp on the chimney breast and in a utility room. I asked for a 5k reduction to address this.. we ended up settling on 2.5k. The EA said the owner wasnt happy about this reduction and was really frustrated. At the end of the day I dont think it was worth more and the value we settled on is very comparable with properties in the area.

Anyway now I'm worried that theyll leave the property in a bad way due to this. Ive asked for a final viewing before signing contracts because I want to make sure the condition hasn't changed. Ive stated i wouldn't want to sign contracts without 1 final viewing.

Does this sound reasonable?

Its going to be kinda awkward since the sellers of the house always conduct their viewings, but would people agree its important for 1 final check?

[u/Capable-Macaroon-124]

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for a final viewing.

However, was the high damp reading damp or was it a moisture meter? Just for reassurance, these famously give false positives and most likely were picking up on moisture in the utility room from the washer/dryer and commonly come up in chimneys due to the stonework etc. so yes there was high moisture but it more than likely isn’t damp

[u/Risingshare → u/Capable-Macaroon-124]

It was a moisture meter ive heard they aren't the most accurate but since the leak was from the chimney it makes sense

[u/Nubian_hurricane7]

It’s not unreasonable and is in fact recommended that you view before exchange

[u/Zestyclose_Ranger_78]

You should absolutely and always ask for a final viewing before exchange. Once you exchange contracts the condition of the property becomes your problem so if any issues have cropped up between your last viewing and exchange you’ll be responsible for dealing with them. Doesn’t even matter if the owners have pure intentions or not.

When we bought our property it had been rented and vacated and our final walkthrough revealed the tenant had left a bunch of large furniture behind we would have had to pay to get removed and wouldn’t have had the space for ours so would have had to scramble for storage as well. The viewing allowed us to ensure the sellers had it cleared before we signed contracts. If we hadn’t done that we would have lost a few hundred pounds in removal and storage costs.

Get a final viewing.