Survey Contains details of work needed on House

Speak to the EAs and let them know that the report is back. You need to contact some firms dealing in the various matters and get them to have a look at the property and to see if there are any works that need doing and how much they are likely to cost.

If the surveyor has valued the house at the price you have agreed to pay, then I cannot see why you expect the vendor to help with any costs. I certainly wouldn't drop the price.

The insurance figure reflects how much a house costs to rebuild; this is not the figure that you should be interested in.

If you want to buy a house that requires no work and therefore no extra outlay, then buy a new build.

Sorry that this might sound a little harsh but I am amazed by how people think the house should be 'perfect' before they purchase.

We had this happen to us as sellers. We bought the property 3 years ago and had a home buyers done, nothing major just the usual guttering, repainting etc. Our buyer had a homebuyers done and the most crazy pile of cack got listed by an over zealous surveyor who was just justifiying the hundreds of pounds they charge for these reports! He said the chimney needed rebuiling, we got a roofer round - no just some bricks have blown and fronts need reconcreting, to do the chimney, realign, clean and replace seals on guttering and also reconcrete 4 bricks along the bottom of the house £280! Our buyer saw the list and wanted us to drop £5500 (plus this would have saved him another £1300 pounds stamp duty!)

I would definatley look at getting prices for the jobs required and take it from there. Ours is a 1930's property and yes it has its lumps and bumps what property doesnt. I work weekends at an estate agents, i did a viewing of a house 3 years old the amounts of cracks in walls, doorframes etc was unreal!

Our situation resulted in us loosing our buyer, we were prepared to drop but not by such a crazy amount. But because of his greed we have now accepted an offer of £1500 more than he was going to pay! He is still looking for his bargain!

I wouldn't buy a new build in order to have a home requiring no extra work, they are often worse than a house that's 50 years old!

thesaint wrote: »

I wouldn't buy a new build in order to have a home requiring no extra work, they are often worse than a house that's 50 years old!

But they don't have damp. need the electrics updating, need decorating. Unless of course you are talking about badly built homes and that's a different matter.

Houses need money spending on them for maintenance. If the OP has no extra money then a new build would be a viable choice.

SuperOxford wrote: »

I have just received my HomeBuyers Survey and it states that what seems to be a fair amount of work is needed.

Specialist contractor to inspect all timbers in house and also to inspect whole property for damp as there as signs of damp in 2 downstairs rooms
Roof to be checked (there are some light gaps in roof)
Floor of utility room to be renewed
Water ingress from chimney stack in utility room to be investigated
Flue & linings of open fire to be checked

To be honest these are all standard things one would expect a Homebuyer's report to find and pick up. They will always suggest a specialist contractor to check damp and timber merely to cover their own !!!!!! and shift liability in the event of a claim if it was missed.

I am guessing the house is between Victorian - maybe 70's?

It states that house is worth £136,000 (which is the price i have agreed) but the current estimated cost of reinstating the property in its present form is estimated at £115,000 for insurance purposes.

Re-instatement value will usually always be much less than the actual market value. It represents the cost of a ground-up rebuild should the whole house need to be completely replaced. It is not a reflection on the market value of the property at all.

I spoke to my solicitors who said that I need to send the report to the estate agents and matters will progress from there. The solicitors said they would not become involved in this. Is that correct as I thought that they would do this for me.

No, solicitors will not, as a rule, become involved in negotiation following survey. It is down to you to attempt to do this if you feel you have valid reason.

Is all of the recifitcation work the responsibility of the present owner?

It is nobody's 'responsibility' as such. You buy a house in an 'as seen' state pretty much in the same way as a used car with all known faults. You can try to renegotiate however the seller has no legal or moral obligation to reduce the price at all. After all, the survey has assessed that you are paying what the property is worth so the condition will have been taken into account when the selling price was agreed initially with the Estate Agent and Seller.

I propose to ask that the owner either corrects all the faults or the house price is reduced by however much the quotes are for. Is that the correct procedure?

Will it cost £21,000 to rectify the problems (£136,000 less £115,000)

Right, but remember that if you were buying a house without the aforementioned works you would, most likely, be paying more for it. They surveyor does not obviously feel that the repairs are immediately essential or else he would have either downvalued the property or suggested a retention of monies by the lender until the work is carried out.

Regarding asking the seller to reduce by £21,000 as a result of the relatively minor issues (with the exception of the roof) raised, taking into account that there is a certain amount of justifying their existance and the money you have paid them in a homebuyer's report, I think you do not have a chance. That represents a reduction of 15.5% of the agreed price, probably the equity needed by the seller to make the move possible.

If the owner will not reduce the price or do the work then my initial instinct is to call off the purchase of the house as after buying the house there is no way i will have the money to sort the problems out.

With most 'used' houses there will always be work to do. Both initially and on-going maintenance.

Obviously I do not know the whole picture but, based on what you have posted, I don't think you have much chance of getting the seller to reduce by £21,000 as the price the property has sold for will most likely reflect the work that is needed.