Safe Luxury

Home Sale: Are We Responsible for Paying for the Electrician?

We are in the process of selling our house (closing is on Feb 19th.) We've already gone through a LONG negotiation process with the buyer. Inspection has been completed, and we fixed all of the areas of concern. Both parties signed off on the addendum to the sale, addressing the fixes, and at this point, we are just waiting to make sure the buyers loan goes through (it's an FHA loan). Today the loan company said they will not approve our buyers loan until a small area of the house is painted (note: no concerns about paint came up in the home inspection) and the electrical panel in the house is inspected and deemed safe. The buyer is now demanding that we pay for an electrician to go to the house and review the electrical panel again, and to have the painting completed. Isn't it the buyers responsibility to take care of these items, since they are items being required for HIS loan? Have you ever heard of a mortgage company requiring items that were not addressed in the inspection? Keep in mind, we are losing a HUGE amount of money on this sale, and are just barely able to come up with the funds for closing, so we don't want to pay for things if we don't have to. Any thoughts? Update: We have already paid $1k in repairs after the inspection, on top of the $5k seller assist we are giving the buyer, plus the reduction in the offer. All told, we are in for about $8k in costs at closing. The electrician's fee and paint will be less than $100, but we've already been bled dry by this buyer, so we just want to know if we HAVE to pay for these items, or if we are just getting taken advantage of. Our agent is new to the business, and doesn't have the experience to know when to push back. One more update (lol): The electricity in the house is old (fuses, not breakers) and it did come up in the inspection that the wiring was old, but not a huge safety issue. We agreed in writing with the buyer that we would fix everything from the inspection except for the electricity because it was so expensive to rewire the whole house. He agreed that he would buy the house with the electricity as-is, and would pay to have it fixed at his discretion.

Public Comments

1. 300$
2. Don't do it!! Its up to them!!! Cheeky ppl!
3. I have NEVER heard of a lender telling a seller or buyer that something needs to be painted. Is the area to be painted already painted - maybe with lead paint??? The electrical is a gray area. However, you did have an inspection. At best it will be a couple of dollars. I would pay it and move on. However, I would only do this after I saw the requests IN WRITING from the lender (not the buyer).
4. At this point your realtor should be the one taking care of this matter, that is if you have one. The FHA loans are stickler for peeling paint. On the electrical panel, it was inspected by their hired Home inspector so they should have come out earlier. There's so much involved and details are not clear. The bottom line is, the deal won't close without this taken care of. Probably the report was there but was not addresses. The best thing is to sit down and negotiate again.
5. It is the seller's responsibility because it is still your house. Do you want to scotch your hard-fought deal over a $150 for the electrician AND paint?