Renegotiating after survey - Help Please!!!

chickmug

steadysaver wrote: »

What I am annoyed about is that the non-negotiating condition came up after the survey had been complete.
Sometimes the agent isn't told, by the vendor, until this point

I.e no verbal or written warning of this condition before hand. I have no problem if she doesn't want to negotiate, I guess she just has to weigh up if the next buyer will have more luck with the survey and it will go through no problem.
I have seen places where the next survey, for the new buyer, is totally diffrent and some sellers will take the chance

I am curious though, just for my own edification if a survey finds major problems i.e 20-30k of work needed and property is un-mortgageable, and it had been stated they would not negotiate after survey, would you convince the vendor to budge as the house could potentially never be sold?
My stance was always to act as if I were the sellers best mate and advised them accordingly. Too true they would be lectured in no uncertain terms what I thought which included getting real.

Here you go and good luck

chickmug

tek-monkey wrote: »

chickmug, do you point out potential issues to the buyers as well? In my case, how was I to know the drains ran under the kitchen and apparently have no buildover agreement? I can't know this without a survey, I was not told of this before the offer. Therefore of course I'd be expecting to renogiate, if the vendor wouldn't I walk.

Buyers are not surveyors, they can't know all the problems expected so unless you tell them you can't expect them to factor them into their offer surely?

The EA is acting for the seller BUT bear in mind the EA is not a surveyor and will not know many of the issues, including the example you raise, that may arise after a structural or homebuyer survey. The only way to improve this, for buyers, is a manadatory survey in the HIPs but HIPs Packs ugh!!!!

tek-monkey

Isn't that a bit like trusting the used car salesman without getting the car checked out?

keith969

You could gently suggest they split the difference as a gesture of goodwill, its not a huge amount after all.

Don't forget that when you eventually come to sell the same could happen to you!

chickmug

tek-monkey wrote: »

Isn't that a bit like trusting the used car salesman without getting the car checked out?

With house buying the onus is on the buyer to check out whatever they see fit. Too many scrimp on this and don't have surveys even on places that look seriously as though they are about to fall down. Yes I saw one which did fall down.

LandyAndy

I last sold about 3 1/2 years ago.

My buyer came to the house and showed me the survey that valued the house at £5k less than his offer because of possible drain damage.

I agreed to split the cost with him and accepted a £2.5k reduction in his offer.

We were keen to sell as we had moved to the other end of the country and were renting.

tek-monkey

chickmug wrote: »

With house buying the onus is on the buyer to check out whatever they see fit. Too many scrimp on this and don't have surveys even on places that look seriously as though they are about to fall down. Yes I saw one which did fall down.

Does that mean you expect the buyer to get a survey before making an offer? Because otherwise how can they check out whatever they see fit, before making an offer that to you is non-negotiable and includes things they don't know about until getting the survey done?

Am I misreading something here? All your posts elsewhere make sense, yet this would make me run a mile if I was dealing with you. If I really wanted the house I'd immediately think there was something wrong you weren't telling me about, and drop my initial offer accordingly. I must be missing something?

chickmug

tek-monkey wrote: »

Does that mean you expect the buyer to get a survey before making an offer? Because otherwise how can they check out whatever they see fit, before making an offer that to you is non-negotiable and includes things they don't know about until getting the survey done?

Am I misreading something here? All your posts elsewhere make sense, yet this would make me run a mile if I was dealing with you. If I really wanted the house I'd immediately think there was something wrong you weren't telling me about, and drop my initial offer accordingly. I must be missing something?

The EA prepares sales details and gives information that has to comply to the legislation. The EA does not have to check issues out and if they did the price to prepare for sale would be very expensive.

The EA may well (if they were personally buying a place) feel the need for further investigations beyond the information they are bound to give. Hence offers are usually made and sales agreed knowing the buyer will seek other investigation/s on value and structure.

Sometimes a potnetial buyer will want to carry out these investigations before offering and formally agreeing to buy.

So as marked in red in your post am I being thick as I really do not understand this bit?

tek-monkey

Telling me to make an offer on a property before I had a survey that was then non-negotiable, regardless of what the survey returned, would make me suspect the worst. Maybe I'm wrong but I always thought you were making an offer an the assumption that there were no issues? Otherwise how can you know what to offer?

I'm not a surveyor, I can't know from the 10 mins I spend in a house what issues there may be. Thats why I spend nearly £500 getting someone qualified to do it for me. But I won't send them to every property I view, only one I want to buy that agrees a price I'm happy with. Otherwise I'm down £500 on every property I like the look of before even knowing if they'll sell it at a price I would buy at. Therefore to me we agree a price, and as long as the survey does not turn up anything unexpected we exchange at that price. The price should always be further negotiable should a problem arise (in my case the drains), saying it is not seems a very strange idea to me?

I am however a FTB, maybe this is not how its done, but telling me that my offer is final before I've even had someone check the place isn't in danger of falling down would put me off a lot. I would also offer lower than with someone who allows renogotiation, to try to pre-empt any problems.

Is that making sense? Maybe I'm just a tad coloured by the problems my survey has found, if you were the EA I'd have walked before now. Instead I'm paying half for a further survey to establish exact problems/costs, but I will expect a reduction if the problems found warrant it.

steadysaver

tek-monkey wrote: »

Telling me to make an offer on a property before I had a survey that was then non-negotiable, regardless of what the survey returned, would make me suspect the worst. Maybe I'm wrong but I always thought you were making an offer an the assumption that there were no issues? Otherwise how can you know what to offer?

I'm not a surveyor, I can't know from the 10 mins I spend in a house what issues there may be. Thats why I spend nearly £500 getting someone qualified to do it for me. But I won't send them to every property I view, only one I want to buy that agrees a price I'm happy with. Otherwise I'm down £500 on every property I like the look of before even knowing if they'll sell it at a price I would buy at. Therefore to me we agree a price, and as long as the survey does not turn up anything unexpected we exchange at that price. The price should always be further negotiable should a problem arise (in my case the drains), saying it is not seems a very strange idea to me?

I am however a FTB, maybe this is not how its done, but telling me that my offer is final before I've even had someone check the place isn't in danger of falling down would put me off a lot. I would also offer lower than with someone who allows renogotiation, to try to pre-empt any problems.

Is that making sense? Maybe I'm just a tad coloured by the problems my survey has found, if you were the EA I'd have walked before now. Instead I'm paying half for a further survey to establish exact problems/costs, but I will expect a reduction if the problems found warrant it.

I to would probably assume the worst if I was informed that the sale price would be non-negotiable after survey. It also defeats the point of the survey and offer if the survey highlights some big problems.

However in my case I wasn't informed of this fact until after I had told the E.A what the surveyor had concluded. I find this highly unprofessional that this had not been disclosed to me during the offer stage.