Re-negotiating after survey?

columbo360

Hello,
We recently had a survey carried out on the house we are looking to buy. The surveyor noted the following faults:

-Some of the glazed units seals have failed
-Needs some re-pointing
-Fuse box looks old

The valuation came back exactly the same as our offer - £175k.

My question is would it be worth trying to negotiate based on the faults listed above? The in-laws are adament we should, and that we could knock them down by hundreds. I'm a bit less optimistic. The way I see it the valuation has come back the same, plus the sellers know we have paid hundreds for the valuation to be carried out, and that we're not willing to miss out on the house just because of those faults.

So is it worth contacting the seller?

Cheers.

AlwaysWorking

You could give it a try but in all honesty I wouldn't....purely because the survey hasn't turned up anything major. If it had said the house needed rewiring and you hadn't expected that, then I would try to renegotiate. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

ess0two

columbo360 wrote: »

Hello,
We recently had a survey carried out on the house we are looking to buy. The surveyor noted the following faults:

-Some of the glazed units seals have failed
-Needs some re-pointing
-Fuse box looks old

The valuation came back exactly the same as our offer - £175k.

My question is would it be worth trying to negotiate based on the faults listed above? The in-laws are adament we should, and that we could knock them down by hundreds. I'm a bit less optimistic. The way I see it the valuation has come back the same, plus the sellers know we have paid hundreds for the valuation to be carried out, and that we're not willing to miss out on the house just because of those faults.

So is it worth contacting the seller?

Cheers.

You could probably go some for the failed units and pointing,but the fuse box looks old?does it still work adequately?

cattie

Did the surveyor actually use the expression 'the fuse box looks old' ? The usual terminology would be that the consumer unit is in need of updating & a recommendation to get the electrics checked out by a qualified electrician.

You can certainly try to negotiate on the double glazed windows needing repair & mention the consumer unit to strengthen your case. Repointing is a common & minor issue & on it's own wouldn't usually carry much weight in the renegotiating stakes.

When costly problems are highlighted with a survey, it's always best to try to renegotiate the price. A vendor won't always want to meet all of the cost, but offering 50% towards the necessary work is common.

Incidentally, houses are normally valued by surveyors at the price that you are buying the house for. If a house is overpriced then a valuer may undervalue it & with the current recession & house price drops this is happening more & more.

If you're buying via an estate agent then do the negotiating through him & not with the seller directly.

columbo360

My thinking though is that we're in a poor position to negotiate?

thifty

As a seller anticpating our survey tomorrow perhaps I can offer another viewpoint? I agree with the point made about the fuse box/consumer unit. We had our house re-wired 10 years ago and it has a modern one with individual circuit breakers for each zone. If it isnt like that then I would check if it needs a rewire as then you are looking at about £2,000 upwards depending on the size of the house. If it just looks a bit old then i wouldn't worry. i would also think about what you offered and if you knocked a lot off the asking price. the sale may break down if you ask for more if the sellers simply cant afford to go any lower. good luck and let us know what happens!

columbo360

I've checked on Zoopla and they bought the house for £190k about 5 years ago.

thifty

Did you knock much off the asking price?

columbo360

They were asking for £189k, we had an offer of £175k accepted.

bobmoo79

I'm in a similar position.
House on the market for 174,950 but only managed to get the vendor down to 172k - they just wouldn't go any lower.

The surveys we have had done have highlighted 2 areas of damp to be sorted and some roof work, with a total cost of just over £2k for all work (inc labour, materials etc)
The homebuyers report mentioned some other areas that are not major concerns so we're not worried about them.

We have approached the seller with a revised offer of £170k (to cover the cost of work), but they have indicated to the estate agent they are NOT going to accept a lower price.

Should we stick to our guns with our £170k revised offer, offer £171k instead (i.e attempt to meet in the middle), or just pay the original agreed sale price?

(The survery had valued the property at the agreed sale price of £172)

abt101

cattie wrote: »

Incidentally, houses are normally valued by surveyors at the price that you are buying the house for. If a house is overpriced then a valuer may undervalue it & with the current recession & house price drops this is happening more & more.

This is interesting, how do you know this? We're worried at the moment that as sellers the valuation will be a little below what we want. And conversely as a buyer we would like the valuation to be near to our offer rather than the asking price.