renegotiating house price last minute ...

Sobi80

I'm a FTB and am still getting me head around the ins and outs of property buying and must say this site has been invaluable so thanks!

Anyway, I'm in the proces of buying a semi in an area that I really like. Most houses are on sale for around £135000 - £145,000 (house next door is 145k).

I went to see a property on the market for £130,000 and liked it. It needs a fair bit doing to it, no gas connection, shower instead of bath, in desperate need of redocorating (cieling plaster board has fallen off aftere bathroom leak!). It's quite clear the vendors haven't done ANY work to it for atleast a decade.

Anyway, i offered 120k, they suggested 125k and I agreed.

Fast forward a couple of months and the mortgage valuation came back as 125k, but highlighted that there may be subsidence damage (ex coal mining area). I got a structural surveyor to have a look at it and he informed me that although the structure is sound, the kitchen extention has been poorly built and the roof needs to be braces and cladded. Over the phone he gave me an estimate for repairs as £5000.

I contacted the EA and they agreed to speak to the vendor about lowering the price to £120,000. After further negotioation we all agreed on £122,000.

I received a letter from the surveyor y'day stating that the cost of this work is actually £6000 - £8000. How he's managed to jump 3k from phone call to getting it in writing I'll never understand.

Now I dont know what to do. The EA is a little bit scary and pushy and I HATE the thought of calling her on Monday and asking her if the vendors will drop another £1000 in light of the new estimate from the surveyor, especially as she brashly told me she was glad 'it's finally sorted and will be sending new letters to the solicitors' on Thursday.

What do you guys think, should I leave it as it is or do i have the right to go back to them and request an additional thousand be knocked off the asking price. I don't want to be getting the vendors annoyed by my constant haggling but at the same time I don't like the thought of not having tried!

missile

Speak to your solicitor, why keep a dog and bark, get him/her to negotiate.

Sobi80

So is it the solicitors role to do the negotiating and not the estate agents?! I feel quite the fool now!

I guess I'm just worried about rubbing the vendors up the wrong way incase they pull out, although I hope the chances of doing that's quite slim, given that everything else is now in place ...

Alias_Omega

If you complete on this house, soon we will be going into Autumn & Christmas.

The building trade starts to slow down near this time of the year as the bad weather comes into play. I expect prices to fall a little to keep the lads in work.

Just make sure its not a cowboy builder..

DVardysShadow

missile wrote: »

Speak to your solicitor, why keep a dog and bark, get him/her to negotiate.

Sorry, I do not agree with this advice. Solicitors cost an arm and a leg and negotiating would almost certainly be extra. Negotiating is not their job and on the whole they are not good at it - the negotiations would be done solicitor to solicitor and a lot gets lost in the process.

Just go back to the Agent and take it from there. You now what your bottom line is. If you don't get the house for that, then walk away.

SusieT

I would be asking a couple of builders for quotes to do the work, that will give you better bargaining power than going back and telling them the surveyor said it will now be more.
I would phone the estate agent and say that the surveyor has now said that it will cost more so you would like to get independant quotes before you and the sellers incur solicitors fees.

Alias_Omega

SusieT wrote: »

I would be asking a couple of builders for quotes to do the work, that will give you better bargaining power than going back and telling them the surveyor said it will now be more.
I would phone the estate agent and say that the surveyor has now said that it will cost more so you would like to get independant quotes before you and the sellers incur solicitors fees.

Good advice, the house is pretty much yours.

You have an idea of what is should cost to repair, now its the time to actually find the actual cost of repairing it.

Small Firms, Big Firms, all different prices...

Surveyor might of thought about worst case estimate.

Sobi80

Thanks for the great advice everyone. I think I'll phone around local builders tomorow and see what they say. If it looks like the additional repair work will be around the £5000 mark I won't go back to the estate agent but if it's going to be £8000 + I'll need to renegotiate on the price.

poppysarah

Speak to the EA.
Make it clear the surveyors report shows work costing a large amount.

And if they don't want to reduce it further then walk away.

G_M

missile wrote: »

Speak to your solicitor, why keep a dog and bark, get him/her to negotiate.

solicitors are cats, not dogs! Don't expect the solicitor to bark effectively, or cheaply! negotiate yourself either direct with the vendor or via the agent. The solicitor is an expert in legal stuff, not financial.

You need a much better idea of what work is needed as well as cost.

"the kitchen extention has been poorly built " - what on earth does this mean? It needs knocking down and re-building? It needs re-pointing? It needs a new coat of paint?

tyllwyd

To be honest, if I was the vendor I'd be pretty upset if you came back to me a second time and wanted more money off for the same work. You've agreed a price, they might well have gone ahead and agreed a purchase price on another property based on that price, which they've dropped to cover work you said needs doing - depending on their circumstances, they might struggle to cope with another drop. You have to do what you think best, but equally you have to be aware they might say no.