Estate agent refusing additional viewing before signing; Probate not granted yet

[Vanilla]

That waiting time is in Dublin, though, mf- in other parts of the country probate can be granted in about 8 weeks.

 

[trasneoir]

The more buyers see a house the more minor defects they spot. When I sold my house the buyers tried to ask for 10k off on closing day due to 'defects' they had spotted on 2 'measuring' days.

That makes sense, and I can see why an EA wouldn't want to facilitate a half dozen visits just to "kick the tyres".
From my reading of the situation, OP has visited once for the open day, and now the EA is making a fuss about facilitating the engineer's inspection.
There's a big difference between "10k" in scuffs and scratches and the 50k in subsidence/asbestos/pyrite/radon/mold that could be in this house for all anybody (on the buyer's side of the fence) knows.

 

[MrEarl]

You can see the house a week before close. This seems reasonable to me. The more buyers see a house the more minor defects they spot. When I sold my house the buyers tried to ask for 10k off on closing day due to 'defects' they had spotted on 2 'measuring' days.

Thats a different sitution, where you guys clearly had contracts signed and were preparing to complete, with the purchaser trying it on at the eleventh hour.

I wonder if the purchaser could get a message to the vendor through the two solicitors, regarding the Estate Agent ? If the vendor is reasonable they might tell the Estate Agent to grant access ? Nothing to lose imho.

I would still be seriously thinking of walking away from this deal...... you could let the estate agent know this and see what the reaction is, don't actually do it (quite yet), just test the water a little to see how they react.

 

[stiofan85]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all of the helpful replies. It has been a stressful few days and the comments have been a great help.

Lots of phone calls going back and forth but have finally got access using a surveyor. After he talked with EA he agreed about how difficult they are to deal with. At least it's not just me!

Had a long chat with the missus yesterday and despite the difficulty we've had, assuming the survey doesn't indicate anything wrong, we'll proceed. We've a good few reasons really, and as difficult as the EA and vendor are to deal with it's not quite enough to pull out. Although I've been on the verge of doing so several times over the past couple of days.

It's a measured risk and I'm definitely not happy about it but when we weighed up our options, going back to looking for another house isn't one we want to go with. This isn't an emotional attachment to the house - it's just logistics around her work and mine, and we've a baby on the way. It took us ages to find a house that suited us as I'm out of the country for work a lot and she works shift work in a different county at the moment. Going back to the market, running the risk of finding another house needing probate, or the owners in a chain etc.... when we weighed it up it made more sense to stay the course.

I just hope there's nothing wrong in the survey. I've a BEng in Structural Engineering, although I never worked as an engineer. I'll never live it down if I missed something!