Renovating between exchange and completion

[1]

Not sure what section to put this? As we seem to discuss a lot of BTL here I thought it was as good a place as any.

Just exchanged on a property. Its ex council and is currently vacant. I would like to complete ASAP but understand this particular council usually take 8-12 weeks. I have acquired a set of keys and am considering starting the renovations early so I can get a tenet in there as soon as we complete.

Whats the worst that could happen?

[btsidi]

If you've exchanged, you'll already have a completion date.

Why would you want to spend money on a house you don't yet own?

[Siscar]

Presumably so that once it's his it's ready to let out.

[pacoryan]

Once you have done the work the vendor could withdraw prior to completion and you would have to sue to recover the costs. Unlikely in the case of a Local Authority, more likely with a private owner who sees it as an easy way to get a refurbished house and is happy to fend off the inevitable legal claim which could easily cost you a similar amount to the refurbishment. And take months.

You asked for the worst!

[gibbon]

pacoryan said:

Once you have done the work the vendor could withdraw prior to completion and you would have to sue to recover the costs. Unlikely in the case of a Local Authority, more likely with a private owner who sees it as an easy way to get a refurbished house and is happy to fend off the inevitable legal claim which could easily cost you a similar amount to the refurbishment. And take months.

You asked for the worst!

How would the vendor pull out after exchange unless you break the completion date etc?

[Ean218]

I've done this on commercial property, but only with the agreement of the owners and all agreed prior to exchange. You need to prove proper insurance coverage and increase the deposit to cover calamities but most owners will agree.

The other way around, if I found out work was being done prior to completion, with no contractural agreement all bets would be off.

[1]

Seller won't give access, let alone approval to renovate.

However this is a vacant property and a highly incompetent local authority so Im struggling to see how they would find out? I would leave it a few weeks so the neighbours would assume we had completed.

Anyone know the legal situation if they did find out and want to pull out after contracts have been exchanged, is it a case of me having to take them to court?

[btsidi]

Have you actually exchanged?

[pacoryan]

gibbon said:

pacoryan said:

Once you have done the work the vendor could withdraw prior to completion and you would have to sue to recover the costs. Unlikely in the case of a Local Authority, more likely with a private owner who sees it as an easy way to get a refurbished house and is happy to fend off the inevitable legal claim which could easily cost you a similar amount to the refurbishment. And take months.

You asked for the worst!

How would the vendor pull out after exchange unless you break the completion date etc?

Exactly, they break the contract, it seems it isn't very punitive for vendors to do this and buyers can only recover costs they would otherwise not have paid. In this instance the buyer would try and recover professional fees, lender fees and the refurb costs. This is when you find your vendor is flat broke on paper and can bounce you around the legal system for a year or two at huge cost without losing a bean, until you get bored or run out of money. It doesn't take long to run up a £10k legal bill so before you start, you have to ask yourself what you can realistically expect to recover, and how much extra you can afford to spend while potentially not recovering anything.

You can have all the agreements and contracts you like, but they will be of minimal use against a determined p-taker.

If a buyer withdraws they lose their deposit of course.

[illmonkey]

We got the vendor to agree we could go in and paint the place once exchanged, but not completed. It was a bit of a mess, so we'd be improving it. Suppose we could have trashed it and pulled out, but we'd have lost a lot of money.

[kev1974]

1 said:

Whats the worst that could happen?

Squatters