How to negotiate down house price - structural fault found

Christyt

Hi all,

Just had homebuyer survey back which spotted the chimney stack is unsupported in loft and needs a structural steel inserting.

One builder told me would cost £3k (incl) to do (including all the building regs fees and him doing structural calculations for job and all related paperwork).

But the Estate Agent says this is overpriced.

I'm not sure how to go forward as I trust this builder and and suspect any builder the sellers call in will be mates who will under price the job.

What is the protocol in a situation like this? Can anyone advise?

CloudCuckooLand

Ignore the EA.

Present your builder's estimate and let the vendor's decide.

The EA will be trying to put you off from denting the price too much, to maintain their relationship with the vendor.

If the vendor sees it in black and white, they may choose not to argue, it depends how hard you have pushed them on price to start with.

I made a £1.5k adjustment after a minor structural issue arose, without even sending the estimate...depends largely on your vendor.

Jackinbox99

As others have said, ignore the EA, they only work for the seller and are bound to say anything.

How much is the asking price compared to other houses similar to it? It may be that the price is already lower to reflect any work which needs doing.

You have nothing to loose by going back to the seller and saying you want to re offer based upon the 3k work it needs.

On the other hand, homebuyers reports can be taken with a pinch of salt sometimes. The surveyer identifies all sorts of things which are okay but maybe not upto modern new build regs and may need looking at. On the report i just had done the guy flagged that the consumer unit was the original 1970`s one and therefore not upto modern regulations. Derr... obvious! Nothing wrong with it, its worked fine for the last 40 years, but he recommended that I fork out for an electrican to check it out.

Maybe the same case with this chimney. Its lasted X number of years so far, so it may be okay!

benb76

I had the exact same structural issue when selling my last house. The work was quoted at around 3k so I gave the buyer an appropriate discount. If the EA tries to tell you what the work should cost then ask him what his structural engineering or building qualifications are.

Christyt

There is a lot of internal decorating. It's not been looked after.
Apparently the seller's a roofer and couldn't be bothered to even insulate and repair his own back yard which says a lot to me about how poorly the house has been maintained. I expect to find hidden bogies around the place.

I'm not planning to ask for money to check the electrics which aren't prehistoric, but havent' had any recent TLC. There's wet rot in the garage. £250k is the going rate for most dated £250k semis but some have been looked after better than others.

I get the impression they dont' have spare cash so it is likely to depend on the whole chain (there's 4 of us) dropping down a few grand.

This sale has been dragging on whole summer so I'm hoping they might figure it's worth it to seal the deal.

Christyt

Hi benb76 - hadn't see your post. What was an appropriate discount in your case?

tyllwyd

3K does sound quite a lot to me, but I don't think an unsupported chimney is something to ignore.

Have you had a quote for taking down the chimney? I'm assuming the chimney breast has been taken out in the rooms below - I wonder if it might be easier to take it down and repair the roof instead?

poppysarah

Does that include decorating?

Negotiate down.
Bear in mind the inconvenience too.

Christyt

I can't take down the chimney I dont' think as it's shared with the neighbours, otherwise that woudl probably be a cost effective solution...quote includes making good but as it's in the loft it's not really an issue.. it's all quite rough anyway.

nearlynew

I would find a more expensive builder and get the estimate up a bit.

Then negotiate.

timmyt

classic, but you can get such work done for several hundred, depending on the severity. really shop around, and you may need building control consent