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Hi all, apologies for the length of this but any advice/input would be greatly appreciated. My wife inherited her late father’s house a few months ago, and we’re in the process of selling. Around the same time it went on the market, we started viewing houses just to get an idea of what was out there. Completely unexpectedly, after just a couple of weeks we found a place that we absolutely love. After a rocky start with the sale of the inheritance, we eventually accepted an offer and immediately put an offer on the place we’d found. We ended up accepting £25,000 under the asking price for ours, and offering £5,000 over the asking price on the other house, which obviously isn’t ideal but it seemed like that’s what we had to do to get what we wanted. We recently got our level 2 survey back on the house we’re buying. We’re not really sure where to go from here in terms of what would be reasonable to ask of the vendors, or what we should expect to arrange ourselves once we move in. We’ve already asked if they would be willing to get the electrics tested ASAP, and were met with a resounding no. Here are the apparent causes for concern, but we’re not sure what would be considered routine maintenance or an over-zealous surveyor: Seal window frames with silicone Repair water-damaged sink base unit and worktop in annexe Add safety film to the glass in kitchen door Repair cracked/loose tiles, silicone and grout the showers in all bathrooms Plaster skim finish to garage ceiling to improve fireproofing Fix creaky floorboards upstairs Repair distorted lead cover flashings on flat roof Repair/redecorate timber fascias and soffits Repair of the brick boundary wall required within 1-3 years Repair/replace noisy extractor fans in bathrooms Remove debris from flat roof Tests and inspections required: Asbestos tests for all ceilings as this may be present based on the age of the property Full electrics Gas services Hot water tank On the flip side, we’re having some issues with our buyers. My wife’s father was a hoarder and absolutely trashed the place, and we’ve spent the last 18 months clearing it out and fixing it up as best we can. The main problem with our buyers stems from their ever-changing list of demands. They are an elderly couple who have viewed the house 4 times - twice before putting an offer in, and twice afterwards. To try and keep clearance and moving costs down, we offered them most of the furniture and fixtures free of charge - a couple of couches, wardrobes, chests of drawers, etc. They told us they’d like to keep quite a few items, so we then arranged and paid for a house clearance company to remove the rest. Weeks later, the buyers came for another viewing and said they’d changed their mind on half of it, and are now expecting us to get rid of a load more furniture. At the same time, they’ve suddenly announced that they want us to demolish and remove the garden shed and fix a hole in the fence, along with repairing a leaky shower. We later found out that there was nothing wrong with the shower, and they’d turned it on during a viewing and hadn’t turned it off properly. They are also asking lots of questions that we simply don’t have an answer for, such as codes for a burglar alarm that we didn’t even realised existed. It’s all feeling very frustrating as they’ve had ample opportunity to bring these issues to us in a timely manner, and they didn’t. At this point, is it reasonable of us to tell them we’re not doing any more? We expected the house to be sold as-seen, especially given that it’s a probate sale. The last thing we want is for them to pull out, especially given how slow the market is at the moment, but we also don’t want to keep dumping money into the place just so we can get rid of it. I guess the crux of the matter, as first time buyers and first time sellers, is that we don’t know what to expect. Is this normal or are we getting messed around unfairly?
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