Sewer causing buyer to drop asking price at last minute

[mike42]

Hi

Help!

We are or were about to sell our house to a developer who wants to put the house down and build a pair of semi-detached houses for which there is planning permission.

It has only just come to light that there is a public sewer running from the houses behind at the back of the back garden, underneath our house and on into the street at the front. The pipe is 4inches, I think clay and apparently in good condition (according to the buyer's tradesmen). There is a manhole at both sides of the house and in the back garden it is about 50cm to the bottom of the pipe and in the front garden chamber it is about 70cm to the bottom. Unfortunately, the pipe runs almost parallel (and crossing it) with the proposed party wall that divides the two proposed dwellings.

When the buyer learned of this just last week at a late stage in the legals, he came on site and originally thought it could be build over. But now thinks it might need to be diverted. There is about 1.8M of space around the new development at both sides. He thinks the cost of gaining agreement from Thames Water will definitely be "significantly in excess of 20K" and so he is asking us for a last second reduction of 20K.

I guess my question is could these kind of costs be realistic or do people think this is a simple case of "gazundering" where a few days before exchange when lots of money has been spent and arrangements made the buyer threatens to pull out ?

 

[Doggit]

It's not a case of the costs, it's really a case of who's the prime mover behind the deal. If you're selling the property on the basis of 2 homes can be built, then you'd have to drop the price, but if the developer is buying your house intending to develop the land, then it's his responisbility to bear the costs. If you were selling to a normal house buyer, then this wouldn't be an issue.

As it's a sellers market, it's normally a gazumping situation nowadays, so I'd say he's trying to dump the unexpected costs on you. Unless you're desperate to sell, I'd stand my ground, and tell him politely where to go; alternatively, tell him fine, you'll pay the £20K, but you're putting the cost up byt £25k first.

 

[Ian H]

With the amount of work they are planning, doing a bit of shallow drain work isn't going to make much of a difference.

Tell him to do one.

 

[^woody^]

It could be the oldest trick in the book, or genuine. However such a significant thing should have come to light much sooner in the process if he was on the ball.

If that house has value to a developer, then you could find another.

 

[foxhole]

Cost for agreement with Thames water is fixed and costs a few hundred pounds.

 

[mike42]

Thanks a lot for all your replies - much appreciated.

I've decided from advice received here and mates that "do one" is exactly what I'm going to do ! Apart from anything else he was on site no less than 4 times mostly with his tradesmen before he made his offer two months ago. Its taken two months for him to say this is such a big issue. It is btw, 750sqm of housing over three "townhouses".
I know I originally said two semis, but that was only to slightly camouflage it in case this developer reads this forum. But I really don't care about that anymore.
The strange thing is the house was never on the openmarket and I just assumed he was paying a good price - until we started looking for the next place so saw how high the prices are these days.

 

[Doggit]

Then as long as you haven't exchaged contracts, I'd call a couple of estate agents in to value the property. In this scenario, there's nothing to stop you asking for a premium in light of what he wants the property for. I'd say he was definitely trying it on, and I'd play the same game as he is; as long as you're prepared to pull out of the deal, then you've got him over a barrel.

 

[OvertonPlumber]

Well we had a very similar situation.
We owned the land pulled down a bungalow and put two semis in. However we had a 6" sewer that ran parallel with the outside wall of one building. The invert level of the sewer was 1.8 mtrs. Next door is a pumping station.
First things first we had build over arrangements with thames water 5k per house. Originally the sewer wasnt in the way the two manholes were outside our footing lines however the sewer curved into the way. It resulted in 2 months of nothing happening.
Eventually we had approval for a cantileved steel reinforced slab which is tied into the party wall. It was 12 " thick of poured tested concrete which half a ton of meshed rebar in.
The left hand wall of the left hand house is completly cantilvered with no weight bearing on the sewer.
Cost of calcs concrete . 10k
So 20k sounds fair.

Oh thames water are incompetant at best..

 

[Doggit]

Well that justifies his figures, but not his reason for asking Mike42 to pay for it. So he loses £7k per property - his choice to proceed or not.