Selling a Vandalised House

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Unfortunately, some properties fall victim to vandals and it doesn’t matter where the house or flat is located, nor what type of home it is. When you’re trying to sell a vandalised home, you’ll likely encounter some obstacles that don’t exist when selling a non-vandalised property. Yet it’s still possible to sell a vandalised home fast and for a profit, and this guide explains how.

1. What is considered to be a vandalised house?
2. How vandalism can affect the sale of your property
3. Reporting and declaring vandalism when selling a home
4. Should you fix damage from vandalism before selling your property?
5. Four options to find a buyer for your vandalised home
6. Top queries about selling a vandalised house or flat

What is considered to be a vandalised house?

Vandalism is a broad term that can refer to many different criminal offences, but the common feature among all of the covered activities is that there has to be some reckless or intentional damage that the perpetrator has caused to another person’s property in some way. Property can refer to houses and flats, but it can also refer to belongings like a car or bike.

In order to qualify as vandalism for the purposes of prosecution if the culprit is caught, there are a few factors that must be satisfied for a successful case. There has to be clearly reckless behaviour or clear intent by the person that damaged or defaced the property, whatever was damaged must belong to someone else, and the damage must have happened without the owner’s consent, as one UK law firm explains.

For residential properties, acts of vandalism can include breaking windows or doors, spray painting graffiti either outside or inside a home, starting a fire that leads to arson damage at the house or flat, causing harm to the building’s structural integrity, smashing roof tiles, destroying fixtures or fittings, and many other similar types of crimes that can leave a home in need of repair.

Vandalism can be more common at empty properties where nobody is living full-time, because it can be harder for the owner to monitor and protect such homes from a distance – unless they invest in expensive security guards and other deterrents. But vandals can also strike at occupied and furnished properties, causing potentially hundreds of pounds or more of damage, and the next section of this guide explains how that can hinder the sale of your home.

How vandalism can affect the sale of your property

If you’re the owner of a vandalised property that otherwise is in great condition – meaning it has no other issues that buyers might consider to be negative, like subsidence, an undesirable location such as in a high risk flood zone, or some other drawback – and you’re struggling to sell the home, then it will be a fair assumption to say that the vandalism is the key factor making it harder to find a buyer.

In those situations where the home has been vandalised and you’re not able, or do not want to, repair the damage before selling, it is likely to make buyers view your property negatively. For example, if vandals have committed arson at the property and some of the walls are still covered in smoke or otherwise fire-damaged, this will be unsightly to buyers on viewings. They will look at your home less favourably, and could even completely lose interest in owning it.

Or some potential buyers might see the damage from the vandalism and be willing to purchase the property with the intent of repairing it themselves, but they will want to discount the projected cost of that work from the asking price. If you agree to this trade-off, it will naturally reduce the amount of profit that you can expect to make from the sale because you’ll get less money for it.

Having a property with vandalism damage can also make it harder to sell, because some buyers could be concerned about crime in the neighbourhood. Even if the vandalism was an isolated incident, it’s possible that a prospective buyer could worry that the incident might be a sign of broader problems with local crime, and therefore lose interest in your property as a result.

Reporting and declaring vandalism when selling a home

Should you be in the unfortunate position of owning a home that has been damaged through an act of vandalism, there are two important actions to take: report the damage, and declare it.

Reporting the damage means taking advantage of the UK government’s website for submitting information about vandalism. It’s only available for people living in England and Wales, but letting the authorities know about the vandalism has occurred can help with the development of crime statistics and decisions on policing levels in your area.

Declaring the damage is perhaps even more important, because this refers to letting potential buyers known that the vandalism exists, or did exist if you have repaired the damage.

You’re required by law to disclose certain information to prospective buyers, and recent crime levels in your neighbourhood can fall within the range of data that you’ll be expected to share. Because vandalism is a crime, you should disclose that it has happened at your property, regardless of whether you have taken steps to mitigate or completely repair the associated damage.

Failing to reveal this information to a potential buyer can cause you some major legal problems in the future if someone purchases your property and then finds out about the vandalism and the fact that you hid it from them, so it’s best to completely upfront and honest with buyers.

Should you fix damage from vandalism before selling your property?

Whether or not to repair the damage from vandalism before trying to sell your house or flat will depend on your unique circumstances, including the amount of time and money you have available to spend. Some owners might be able to invest funds and effort into fixing such damage, effectively removing the problem before they try to find a buyer for their home.

Fixing the damage can potentially help avoid the situation where someone wants to purchase your property, but they want to offer less than your asking price because they are factoring in the expense they will have to pay to fix the vandalism once they own the home. Yet not everyone can afford such work, nor are you required to fix the damage before selling.

If you decide to sell your home "as is" without repairing the damage from the vandalism, you have to be prepared that many buyers might ask you to lower the asking price for a couple of reasons. First, they will think that the damage reduces the overall value of the home, and want to pay less for it. Second, if they will have to repair the damage after they become the new owner of the property, they’ll want to deduct the cost of the time and money involved from your home’s sale price.

In the event that you do not want to, or cannot afford to, fix the damage from vandalism before selling your home, proceed carefully when fielding reduced price offers from buyers. It’s useful to write down an honest budget for the sale of your home that includes all of the costs, such as paying for a removal company, any fees that you might have to pay estate agents or auctioneers, the outstanding balance on a mortgage, and more, because this will help you find out the lowest price at which you can sell and still make a profit or at least break even.

Never sell your home at a loss, unless you absolutely have to because of urgent financial problems, because this is likely to create more difficulty for you in buying your next property.

Four options to find a buyer for your vandalised home

When you own a home and want to sell it, there are four common methods to select from in order to find a buyer: trying to sell on your own, selling via an estate agent, using a property auctioneer, or selling to a fast buyer.

There are certain benefits associated with each of the four options, but also some notable disadvantages when using some, such as extra costs or making it harder to sell fast. Review the details of the four selling choices below and see which approach best fits your wants and needs, and identify which will best help you to find a buyer for a profit and without any stress.

Trying to sell on your own

Selling this way means you will be responsible for all aspects of finding a buyer for your vandalised home. You’ll have to prepare the listing that includes photographs of the inside and outside of the property, along with text descriptions of its main features like the number of bedrooms and its total square footage. Then you will need to pay to advertise the listing in local newspapers and online, and take calls from potential buyers interested in the home.

Anyone considering purchasing the property will want a viewing where they can tour the exterior and interior before deciding whether to make an offer. When selling on your own, you’ll be responsible for scheduling and leading viewings, which can take up a lot of your time.

And it’s also your responsibility to handle any offers from buyers, and to oversee any serious offers through to exchange of contracts and receiving the sale proceeds. All of the steps combined require a lot of time, money and effort, and that’s why selling by yourself is not recommended unless you have experience with finding buyers for properties, or you have family members or friends who are such experts and are willing to help you sell your home.

The most obvious, and perhaps only, benefit of selling this way is that you won’t have to pay any fees to an estate agent or auctioneer, and therefore can keep all of the sale profit. But consider instead selling your home to a fast buyer like LDN Properties, because they never charge any fees, and you won’t have to do any of the work required when selling on your own.

Selling via an estate agent

Estate agents will significantly reduce your workload when selling a vandalised property, because it will be their duty to prepare and advertise the listing, organise viewings, and see any serious offers through to completion, making this method at first seem like an attractive option.

However, estate agents expect to get paid for doing all of this work, and if your home sells they will charge you commission often based on the final sale price for your property. This fee will be subtracted from the house or flat sale proceeds, and whatever is left after you have taken care of any other expenses will be your net profit. This can make estate agents far from the best choice if making a good profit is your top selling goal.

Selling via this method might also take a very long time, and it’s not unheard of for some homes to remain on the market without getting any serious offers for several months, and in worst case scenarios more than a full year. Therefore, if your main target when selling your property is to find a buyer within the shortest timeframe possible, you should consider other options.

Also note that some estate agents might know how to sell a limited range of properties, and they may not have the knowledge or skills to sell problem homes such as those with damage from vandalism. Always ask specific companies about their past success with selling a home like yours, as this will give you insight into whether they’ll be able to find a buyer for the property.

One trick that estate agents sometimes use is to quote you a very enticing asking price for selling your home, despite secretly knowing that they will only be able to interest buyers at a lower rate. They do this in an attempt to have you pick them for selling your home, so that they will get the financial benefit of the commission you’ll pay if they are able to find a buyer for the property. You can avoid falling for this trick by looking on property sales websites for the current and past prices of homes in the area that are similar to yours, and asking other estate agents for free sale price quotes, and then calculating the average of all those values. The resulting figure should be a much more accurate estimate of the viable price you can ask for your home.

Using a property auctioneer

Auctions are inherently unpredictable; your home might not receive any bids, which means it doesn’t sell, and you’ll have to start afresh with trying to find a buyer. It could get just one bid at the reserve price – the lowest value at which you agree your property can sell – and this is a binding sale agreement that the winning bidder can sue to enforce if necessary. Or it may get many bids at ever-increasing prices, which may result in you making a decent sale profit.

It’s vital that you select a reserve price that can generate a profit for you, even after you subtract the auctioneer’s fees and other expenses, because you don’t want to sell your home at a loss.

Typically, an auctioneer will charge commission based on a property’s final sale price, although it might be higher or lower with some companies. Always ask whether the fee is negotiable, and if it’s possible to make the buyer be responsible for paying some charges.

You may be given a choice between auctioning your home through the modern method or the traditional method. With the modern method, your listing will be able to accept bids 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from the moment it’s live until the moment the listing expires, and the top bid at that time will be the winner. With the traditional method, your listing will be advertised for several weeks or longer, and then an auction will occur on a set day for people to place bids.

If you’re trying to sell your home swiftly, an auction might not be the best choice no matter whether you choose the modern or traditional method. That’s because you’ll have to wait at least a few weeks or more between the date on which you list your home for sale and the date on which the auction occurs or ends. And if your property sells, the buyer usually has about 28 days to sign all the required legal documents and complete their other necessary steps. Some auctioneers may allow more or less time, so always ask companies what deadline they set.

Just as some estate agents might not know how to sell a vandalised home, the same is true for auctioneers, as some are only able to auction a limited range of properties. Ask companies for proof of their past success with selling vandalised houses or flats at auction, because this is information that honest auctioneers should have available and be willing to share. Beware of any auctioneer that has tried to sell vandalised property before but never succeeded, because this suggests that the company could struggle with selling your house or flat at auction.

Selling to a fast buyer

Alternatively, you could consider selling your vandalised house or flat using a fast home buyer like LDN Properties. This company is based in London and has been buying freehold and leasehold houses and flats in and around the city for 15+ years. It can typically complete every step of the property buying process within a few short weeks, which is significantly quicker than the average timeline you might expect with the other methods of trying to find a buyer.

That’s because quick home buying companies don’t have to wait months to win approval for a mortgage in order to buy properties. Instead, they already have the financial resources in place to make immediate purchases of homes, which helps to dramatically speed up the process.

Another advantage of using a fast property buyer is that the trustworthy companies will never charge you any commission or other fees when selling your home, which means that you can count on receiving the full proceeds from whatever final price offer they make for your property. Compare that to selling via an auctioneer or estate agent, as either will make you pay them fees that will lower your net sale profit because the costs will be deducted from the overall proceeds.

Fast buyers are able to consider making competitive offers for almost any type of property, including vandalised homes. This can make them an ideal choice for selling when you either cannot, or do not want to, invest the time and money required to fix damage from any vandalism before selling the property. You’ll still be able to get a fair offer from a fast buyer, because these companies are focused on helping owners sell their homes at a profit no matter their situation.

Legitimate quick buyers can make offers to buy properties regardless of their age, condition, size, shape or type, and it doesn’t matter whether the property is freehold or leasehold, a plot of land, or even a lock-up garage. For example, the lengthy list of purchases that LDN Properties has made since 2003 includes homes where the owner has lost the title deeds, flats with poor Energy Performance Certificate grades, properties situated close to unsightly power lines or mobile phone masts, homes with rot, and other situations.

Selling your vandalised property to a fast buyer is simple, and it starts when you call a specific company to ask them to make an offer. Within the first hour of talking with, most quick buyers should be able to give you an initial price for buying your property. And there is zero pressure to make an instant decision, because you will usually have at least seven days to think about it.

If you are interested in taking a fast buyer up on their initial offer, they will then have one of their representatives visit your home, so that they can assess the interior and exterior in person before making a final offer. It’s also a great time to ask the representative any last queries you have about selling.

If you accept the final offer, the quick buyer will then move rapidly to work with your solicitor or other legal representative to complete all of the mandatory legal documents involved with purchasing your property. Within just a few weeks after you first contact the fast buyer, you should be able to exchange contracts on your home and receive the full sale proceeds.

For your additional peace of mind, you should ask specific fast buyers whether they are registered The Property Ombudsman (TPO), an independent organisation that publishes regulations which are crafted to shield homeowners from scams in the fast buying sector. All TPO members, such as LDN Properties, are required to closely follow these regulations.

Always ask a fast buyer whether they are registered with TPO, and then visit the organisation’s website to check the validity of that claim. Look for the "Find a Member" button on the left side of the website’s welcome page, click on it, and then you will be prompted to type in the name of a quick property buyer. After doing this, you’ll either see the full membership details of companies that are genuinely registered, or you won’t see any results if the company is not a member.

Be very cautious about selling your vandalised property to a quick buyer that either refuses to join TPO, or that tells you it belongs to the organisation but cannot prove its membership status.

Top queries and answers about selling a vandalised house

Homeowners considering selling their home fast usually have a few things to ask us, ranging from the what level of repair works to do before selling through to selling a home in bad condition. Here are some of the top few queries we’re asked when it comes to selling a vandalised property: