I finally received an email from the agent, regarding the 4-plex. It was basically a cut-n-paste email she received from the Seller in response to our request made earlier this week. In it, the Seller basically says the items the inspector recommended needing repaired were not major and are things he could - and would - do himself. Additionally, he said the heating units and water heaters the inspector recommended were old and were nearing the end of their usefulness would not be replaced. He said that a lot of the work we requested to be done was already done - by him. And, get this, he said due to the work he has and will do, he will be raising the sale price.
I called my wife the instant I finished reading the email - we both laughed (well, I did anyway - she was fuming mad).
I told her I would send the agent an email and try to follow-up with a phone call. So, after getting off the phone, I hurredly wrote the following email response to the agent:
Hi {Agent},
Based on the email from the Seller, we would like to void the deal and have our ${xxx} deposit returned. We are not comfortable AT ALL with the Seller making these repairs himself as we will ultimately be held liable if something occurs later with a tenant and/or visitor to the property. The Seller may assume some of the inspector's recommendations are not accurate, but we feel a LOT more comfortable with a licensed inspector's recommendations than with the Seller's. We had asked that the major repairs be made by a licensed professional and not the Seller himself due in whole to the liability issue. Based on the inspector's own observation that the Seller had tampered with the electrical system illegally in the past further solidifies our concern with the Seller's repair work. Additionally, the property was originally listed for $30,000, but later changed to $32,000, which we wrote the contract for. If the Seller wants to raise the price again, he is all but welcome to do so, however, we will not be purchasing the property based on a new, higher price, nor will we be pursuing the deal further since the repair work was not adequately completed by a licensed professional as outlined above.
Please relay this information to the Seller and send us our deposit as
soon as possible.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Regards,
{Our Names}
I'm pretty sure based on the way things have gone, we should have no problem getting our deposit refunded, but the way our luck has gone this year ...
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2 comments:
I don't blame you a bit. I've never heard of a seller doing repairs themselves. What are you supposed to do--trust him? Repairs should be done by a professional. If he were interested in paying for another inspection after he performed the repairs and extending your inspection deadline, I guess it might be alright. But, he's not willing to do that--he wants to raise the price on you! Sounds to me like he sabotaged the deal purposely for some reason. Or, maybe he's just crazy.
My (and my wife's) feeling is that once he got hold of the inspection report, he knew immediately what needed to be done and thought he held all the cards. It really PO's me that we paid $600 for the inspection and he gets to find out what it said (lesson learned on my part - will protect myself in the future with a better inspection clause). He mentioned that he set such a low price to "move the property more quickly" and any repairs he'd have to do would be reflected in a higher price. What's funny about that is it's now some 8-10 months later since I first found the property listed and it still hadn't sold. Really makes you wonder.
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