Survey on our house is 'not good at all'

poppysarah

A little bit of cracking due to a cracked drain - did it get sorted properly so it's structurally safe?
Do you have paperwork to show them?

pinkshoes

G_M wrote: »

And remember - they've already commited money to the deal: survey fee, solicitor instructed (?), mortgage application (sorry, no. Cash buyer you say).

Still, if you stand firm on price they will lose money by walking away.

Depends what the problem is! If it's structural, buyer might not be able to get a mortgage, and if they do walk away, vendor will now have to tell any future buyers about the problem if asked, which would potentially put a lot of people off!

qball101

I personally wouldn't enter into discussions with the buyers themselves, this is what you are paying the agent for. Really, they should send someone round to take a look at the problem, if it's damp then there are nationwide companies that come round and check it all out for a small fee. The agent should be managing their expectations about what they should expect this to show, how normal this is and what they should be expecting you (the seller) to do about it.

However, the agent should also be explaining to them that unless the valuation has come in under the asking price then they should not automatically expect money off to cover the work. Old houses to have problems.

I sold my house to a FTB recently and the survey showed some damp. He had a reputable company to come round and price up the job which came to £1500. I knocked £750 off the price in the end as I felt this was reasonable. However there's nothing to stop you bargaining with the white goods or anything else they might want that's not included in the original sale. I personally wouldn't get the damp problem resolved myself.

dubsey

Exactly as qball said, that is exactly what I would say too. The agent should be doing this, it's part of what you are paying them for. This is also a negotiation, not a dictation.

Normally I ask the buyer to show ME a copy of the report so I can weed out what is normal that a surveyor will cover their own bum on. Then I arrange (unless the buyer has someone in mind) a specialist in whichever field to go out to obtain quotes. Then we start on negotiations and usually end up somewhere in the middle.

not_loaded

azkaban420 wrote: »

…If they come in aggressive and suggest a significant knock off their initial price, be firm and say you need to look into it and think it over…

If you’re confident that your price is right, or maybe even low, then just say it was priced correctly for its condition.

I’m sure when they viewed nobody said: ‘here’s a perfect house in tip-top condition, if it isn’t found to be so, the vendor will put absolutely everything right before they leave.’

Good luck with it!

sundin13

Thanks everyone for the wise advice. It really helped me to keep a clear head. We've agreed to fix the specific bit of work that was causing the buyer the most worry prior to the sale going through. As for anything else, then he will have to deal with it himself.