After the survey - haggling?

Penny_Rage

Yes, another FTB "How do I play this now?" thread.

My better half and I are in the middle of buying our first property. A one bed place, which to our amateur eyes looked okay.

We just had our Homebuyer Report in (surprisingly in-depth considering it's the more basic option) and what we thought were simply loose, creaky floorboards in the bedroom could well be the result of a missing support column from the lower floor. Eek. The surveyor's advice? Get a full structural survey.

We'd accepted a few things would need work (no double glazing, a really questionable shade of bathroom fixtures) but this is an expense we didn't see coming. Is this our own fault or do we start negotiating with the vendor to knock a few hundred off? And if we do haggle, how do we do it delicately? Or do we just pass that little job on to the conveyancers?

joedenise

Personally I'd walk away - sounds an extremely expensive job to put right. If the surveyor is recommending a full structural survey it sounds as though there could be other things wrong as well.

Denise

inmypocketnottheirs

Hi Penny Rage. It's not a job for the conveyancers but for the estate agents to deal with, should you decide to proceed. My suspicion is you will be talking thousands rather than hundreds to put right.

It is highly unlikely that a lender will advance funds on the basis of what you have described.

It's either go the whole hog and do the full survey or walk away.

Soapn

the first house we offered on and had Valuation survey on came back with damp and problems with movement above windows...the mortgage co said a £3 thousand retention.

We walked away because of the damp.
2nd one we've offered on has come back with same £3thousand retention, as told to us by broker, except we haven't had the copy of it yet and I'm looking out of window every 2 mins for postman!

mungobella

It seems like this is the sort of thing you really need to know for sure--as people say, it's not likely to be an inexpensive job. The way it sounds, it could be a structural problem, or it could be a loose floorboard. It sounds like the surveyor doesn't really want to make a commitment. If you really like the place, by all means pay for the structural survey. But if you don't, it seems like pulling out entirely would be the better solution.

mufi

Before doing anything, I suggest you ring the surveyor. S/he may well be prepared to give you an off the record opinion that they are not prepared to put in writing.

Worked for us.

yanda

If the surveyor is in any doubt of structural, damp, subsidence issues they will always suggest getting a specialist to inspect further so I wouldn't fear the worse. I've never seen a survey that hasn't mentioned getting someone else in for further investigation. You can suggest splitting the costs with the vendor although prepare for them to refuse.

poppysarah

How long are you planning to stay in a 1 bedroom place for?

botchjob

What is needed here is some common sense. The first question to ask is “when was the conversion done”. If it was 20 years ago then it’s stood that long without a support column. If it was done last year then you’d have more reason to worry and further investigation would be advisable.

The second thing to do is to phone the surveyor. Most people don’t seem to realise that they can pick up the phone to the surveyor and ask them follow-up questions. The report will contain a fair amount of back covering which a quick phone conversation can easily put into proper perspective….

Cambridge32

Yeah, talk to the surveyor, but prepare a list of questions first.

If you are still keen then get the structural survey done (££s), and then get ideally 3 builders' quotes for the cost of remedial work (£££s). This cost should then be deducted from your accepted offer and a new offer made.

Alternatively, you could just walk away if you are not confident. Bear in mind that even a full building survey will not pick up everything (for example, they only check out the roof and eaves through binoculars!!) - ours missed that the kitchen had no DPC (this has cost £650 to rectify) and that our section of flat roof had a leak (this cost £2000 to replace). In total, the shortcomings of our "full" building survey (£740, thanks Natwest!) has cost us around £3000 in unexpected works.

Also consider that whatever works you have budgeted for will likely overrun cost-wise by at least 10%.

Re-negotiating - do not be delicate, but be polite. Relate the evidence for your lower offer as they will most likely want to see paperwork.

Penny_Rage

Thanks for all the input, folks. Have been on phone to vendor's agents, my conveyancers and the surveyor in last 24 hours. Developments are thus:

- Vendor confirms he had a pillar removed seven years ago. No paperwork to confirm but assures us it was not a supporting column. We're welcome to have an engineer in, but he ain't covering it.
- Conveyancers can look into whether the removal got building regulation approval and final completion certificate. Will take time.
- Surveyor remains of the opinion an engineer is the best option. Although the ceiling hasn't caved in in seven years, you could also argue it hasn't caved in YET.

poppysarah wrote: »

How long are you planning to stay in a 1 bedroom place for?

Looking at five years tops. We were rather hoping to get a decent First Buy we could grow into (I have a friend who has managed to get four bathrooms. BATH rooms!), but I had made the mistake of hoarding as much of my student loan as I could, and now we have too much money for that, so we're strictly open market. Oh, this country. So backwards.

Anyways, I'm ringing around the local structural engineers and hoping they won't be too mean to my wallet.