Advice Required - New Roof

[Deleted User]

We have just got our full structural survey back for a house we are buying, which has indicated that the roof has a limited life span. We asked our roofer out to have a look and he agrees, and has quoted £6k to get the roof replaced. We went back to our vendors with this and asked for £6k off the asking price.

They then stated that they didn't trust our roofer and wanted a second opinion, which we were fine with. Their roofer has turned round and has said that the roof needs £500 of remidial work doing to it, but it will need replacing in about 2 years time regardless of this. He has also said that the main problem with the roof is that is does not have any felt (it's over 100 years old), and any slipped tiles will result in rainwater penetration. So really the work needs to be done sooner rather than later.

Our vendors are now saying that they will only pay for the remidial works and will not reduce the asking price,which we are not happy with as ideally we would want the work done to replace the roof fairly quicky because of the felt problem. We're not quite sure what to do now, and are tempted to pull out (I know this seems petty, but we don't have £6k lying around for a new roof).

Any advice? What would you do in a similar situation?

silvercar

is the house worth what you are offering less 6k for the roof costs? Are there other houses you could by instead?

we were faced with a similar choice and decided we liked the house enough to still buy it. if the sellers won't reduce the price, its your choice, pull out now or buy in the knowledge that the roof will need replacing.

Doozergirl

What are you supposed to do in two years time? The remedial works would be a complete waste of money! And they don't trust your roofer? :rolleyes:

You do your best to negotiate them to a price that suits you both, maybe halfway? Otherwise, like silvercar says, you have to decide exactly how much the house is worth to you. Personally I'd play hard for a reduction, keeping in mind exactly how much I would be prepared to pay.

[Deleted User]

We would meet halfway, but the vendors are saying that they are not prepared to do that now. I think they have just been told that a patch up will last for 2 years so that is what they are focusing on. They refuse to see the bigger picture.

We do like the house, and unfortunately houses do not come up on this road very often, which leaves us in a quandry. We did pay slightly over the odd's due to us being in a tight situation (1 sale already fallen through and our purchaser has been kept waiting for around 4 months now).

I think we'll have to sleep on it and see how we feel later.

Thanks for all your suggestions so far though.

benood

Sounds to me like their roofer is agreeing with yours! 2 years is no time in roof terms. All depends how much other people like the house - if they're not buzzing round like bees to honey I'd be inclined to take a risk and say you're pulling out unless they agree to either get the whole roof done now or deduct the £6k and leave it to you. I'd probably be looking to settle for a 4k deduction.

[Deleted User]

Well our vendors are thinking about what to do tonight and we should hear back from them tomorrow.

I think their problem is that they need our deposit money to pay for the deposit on their new house, so they might be wondering if they could afford to knock money off.

We've said to the EA that we're not really prepared to budge from our position, and have pointed out that there were several other items that came up on the survey (sub floor ventilation, chimney capping, re-pointing and bridged DPC), that we could have wanted a discount for as well. However the immediate item was the roof and 2 years really isn't long at all in terms of a roof life.

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Doozergirl

The other stuff you mention is cheap as chips to fix. Wouldn't panic about that at all!

[Deleted User]

Yeah we know the other stuff would not take a huge amount to fix (although there would be the 'London effect' to a certain extent), and were not worried about it in the slightest. It's more about the principle that we could have asked for loads of people to go in to quote for this stuff before exchange and we've not.

They've come back with £1.2k and are saying they can't afford anymore as they have a retention on their mortgage. We're currently thinking about it, but intitial reaction is that's it's pathetic and not our fault about their retention.

Innys

I think you should give up and look for another property. Yes, you've lost the cost of the survey, but you could lose another £6k if you go ahead.

Even in times of rising prices, there's always another suitable property coming onto the market - you just may have to wait a bit. If they don't understand that, they are deluding themselves.

Debt_Free_Chick

Chibi wrote:

Our vendors are now saying that they will only pay for the remidial works and will not reduce the asking price,which we are not happy with as ideally we would want the work done to replace the roof fairly quicky because of the felt problem. We're not quite sure what to do now, and are tempted to pull out (I know this seems petty, but we don't have £6k lying around for a new roof).

Any advice? What would you do in a similar situation?

The problem with these kind of issues - and they are frequently asked on the Board - is that we tend to view them as if we were buying faulty goods, for which there should be a discount on the RRP.

As we know, of course, house-buying is different. Firstly, there is no RRP and secondly - in the case of every property except a new build - all the goods are "faulty" in some way, as there is always something that needs doing.

All you can do is to base your offer on what you think the property is worth, taking account of any work that needs to be done "soon". It is then down to the vendor whether that offer is acceptable to them. It really doesn't matter how you arrive at your offer - and the vendor shouldn't/won't care. You can argue a "discount" of £6k for the roof until you are blue in the face, but the vendor will only be interested in your final offer.

In addition, there are usually issues that some people will want to fix immediately - whilst others will be happy to leave until some point in the future. We've had a leaking roof on our extension for four years (since the day we moved in!) and it will probably get done next year. Others will have wanted it fixed before they completed or wanted the vendor to cough up for it. In the overall scheme of things, it wasn't a big enough issue for us - for others, it could have been a deal breaker.

You can only decide whether you are prepared to pay £x now, in the knowledge that you need to spend a further £6k on the roof and a further amount of £y on other things that will eventually come to light. Properties sales only complete when both the vendor & the buyer arrive at a point of mutual compromise.

Funnily enough, we wouldn't adopt this approach with anything other than a property - and that's the most expensive thing we ever buy!

zipwen1

why would the roof only last another two years? ours is an old house with no felt on the roof our builder said it would last as long as we looked after it and had tiles replaced when needed.