Negotiating lower offer after survey

matmad

ess0two wrote: »

You must live in cloud cuckoo land,you've paid 240k for a house valued at 250k and want 40k off.

I'm sure the vendor will oblige

Would you be so accomodating,if selling.

No, we would buy it for £230k, £240k being our original offer before the survey picked up these issues.

ess0two

matmad wrote: »

No, we would buy it for £230k, £240k being our original offer before the survey picked up these issues.

Best of luck,seller must be desperate to take a 20k hit for no reason.

matmad

I'm finding it confusing that the surveyor valued the property at £250k (which was the asking price) and then went on to list all this work that needs doing.

Is that what usually happens with a survey?

This is the point the EA keeps on about.

It will obviously cost us £1000s to put it right.

Quenastoise

Don't ignore your gut feeling and your uneasiness about the size and the cost of the potential problems. At some point, supposedly, you will want to sell the house and the buyer would then raise the same issues that are coming up now. Some of them like, damp, cannot be avoided or underestimated. Better to list all the problems and get various estimates in. Don't forget to factor time, effort and inconvenience in putting everything right and try to get a timeline for all the work to be done.

After all of that, are you still interested in the house ?

If yes, I would not hesitate to go back to the vendor and ask them to reduce the house by £40K because by then you'll have something measureable to take to the vendor to back up your lower offer.

I hope you find clarity.

Ulfar

£40k is a lot of work, then there is the cost of putting the property back into decorative order.

Compare your property to ones in the same area that cost £280k, does your one look such a bargain now.

I would go with my gut and walk away.

hazyjo

How many sockets in rooms like the kitchen? Are there at least two sockets in each bedroom? I'd tell you to whistle if you brought something like that up after viewing the house, tbh with you. You don't need an expert to tell you things like that. If it's a concern for you and something that would make you consider renegotiating, you really should have asked about it on a viewing. A few asked me about sockets. The kitchen ones are very obvious to see so I don't see how that could really be an issue. If you choose to put in more sockets, I believe that should be your expense - unless of course some rooms don't have any sockets at all and they put a lamp by a bedside to make you believe there was a socket there. Am sure it's not that bad though.

It's unusual for a sale price to be increased in this market. How long was it on at the lower figure, and when? Can you be sure there wasn't an administrative error of sorts and some numpty put in a 3 instead of a 4 and it was changed soon after? Ours was on RM (with first agent) saying '3 beds' at the top, when in fact it has 2. EAs aren't the most accurate bods in my opinion! The first lot we were with made some awful mistakes (including knocking several feet off the length of the kitchen). Not everyone's as eagle eyed as me when it comes to proofreading details/ads, even if it is for their own property. And I certainly wouldn't be trusting what an EA had once written about a property as gospel.

Jx

matmad

An update for anyone that might be interested..........

Damp survey came back with approx £4.5k worth of work needed, and electrics of about £700.

We revised our original offer of £240k down to £233k and it was accepted.

Got the keys now, so this is where the fun starts.

Many thanks to those that provided advice and suggestions.

Thunderbird_2

Well done.

Now, don't get the damp proof cowboys into your house (I assume it is a Victorian house going by the issues you mentioned). Instead, get yourself an independant damp and timber surveyor. I am talking about the ones who recommend the work needs doing, but not interested in doing it themselves. It might cost you £300 for this survey, but it can potentially save you thousands of pounds. It worked for me.

Let me know if you need more information.

michaels

My thoughts are that anything on the survey that is obvious (such as not enough sockets or windows need painting) would have been obvious on your viewings and the price you offered should already have reflected this.

Whereas things like damp that you could not see you would be justified in expecting a reduction, although I suspect a 50-50 split might be the fairest. Don't forget you may also kill the chain if you make the sellers move impossible by reducing their equity too far.

Ulfar

Time to nose around your house from top to bottom. On moving in I checked under the floors into the loft.