Advice on reducing offer post Survey

octavius_2

Hi,

We are First Time Buyers and have found a property that we want and have had our offer accepted. The property has recently been done up to sell. Following the survey we were advised to check various things and have this done. As a result we have:

Woodworm - Treatable but about 2k
Electrics need work
Chimney Stack needs re-pointing and the flashing needs replacing
The drains keep blocking.

All in all it is about 4k's worth of work. Now I need to approach the EA about reducing the offer or having the work done...but feel a little unsure about the whole thing. We have produced a report of out own for the vendor, but would appreciate any advice that anybody may have.

Thanks

Octavius

Scaredy_Cat_3

Hi

Does the survey list these as retentions, i.e. things that must be sorted out before they are prepared to lend you the funds, or simply as things to be brought to your attention?

If the former then that's a great bargaining tool. Indeed, even if they're just items to be brought to your attention, the vendor won't know whether or not your mortgage lender is insisting these items be fixed, so you could imply that it is a requirement of your lender.

I would be inclined to speak to the estate agent and let them know how disappointed/worried you are by these issues and ask them to speak to the vendor on your behalf about either a price reduction, or about the vendor getting the work done prior to completion. You don't have to commit yourself to pulling out, you're just asking them to discuss it with their clients and see what the response is.

Good Luck!

vansboy

Don't like where you said it's recently been 'done up', then to discover what are serious issues, potentially.

Perhaps if you can dig a bit more deeper, to find out if it's just a tart it up to sell, or if there will be other, less serios, but just as annoying things, to appear & cause added £$£$ later on.

VB

octavius_2

Thanks for the replies.

On the whole the work on the house is acceptable but we are paying a bit of a premium on the property because it did not appear to need much doing.

The things we have discovered are annoying and potentialy expensive if they are not sorted out. We have carried out a number of reports and investgations to cover as many angles as we can.

We have prepared a 5 page summary of these to present to the vendor. It is pretty comprehensive. Is it a good idea to give them something like this?

The one thing is we are not taking the rip, we just need this covered as the finances are tight as they are.

Cheers

Octavius

fimonkey

One thing to consider though, did you already offer below the asking price? We're selling my late mother's home and have just accepted an offer 1.5K below the asking price because we know it needs work doing which will show up on the survey. When the potential buyer points this out to us and asks for a reduction in price (which she's bound to do) our strategy is to point out that we've already accepted the lesser offer anyway, and if she wants to offer full asking price we'll get the appropriate work done ourselves as my OH is a builder and would be cheaper for us that way.

Also, prices in the area we're selling are still rising so it's in the buyers interest to try and not negotiate with us too much re: further reductions, as it could mean she pulls out of sale when we say 'no' and looses money she's already spent on survey, and we re-market with the hindsight of knowing what came up in last survey AND at a higher price to take into account rising prices.

Not wanting to hi-jack your thread btw, just giving you a vendors perspective. And we have NO intention of gazumping or any other immoral acts, but we are selling a house with 'room for improvement' and expect the buyer to be aware of this from the outset.

ashli_2

Hi fimonkey

Your reply has worried me somewhat! We are waiting for a survey on a 30's semi we are buying. The vendor accepted an offer of 5k under the asking as the house had been on the market for five months, which is not common in this area. In my eyes though this does not mean that I wouldn't expect her to negotiate further if the survey highlighted expensive problems, as the house needs 5k spent on it to modernise without even touching on any extra structural problems, electrics etc.

In fact if our survey does bring up any problems of this nature and the vendor isn't prepared to negotiate we will have to pull out, as the budget as it stands simply doesn't extend to any major works of this kind.

Which would be £1000 in survey/ fees down the drain

Doozergirl

Well, ashli, I sit on the other side of the fence, if there were something that the buyer genuinely wouldn't have known about then I would rectify the problems without expecting them to pay more, in whatever kind of market really.

Most people need to be flexible unless it is a rapidly rising market in which case vendors do start to get blasé if they think their purchaser is getting a good deal. I think in fimonkey's position, they could only be 'right' if they'd already explained to the buyer that their was no further negotiation on the survey results (still unfair in my view, how do mosts buyer appreciate what they are getting for their money until the surveyor's report arrives?)

Doozergirl

Octavius, presenting the report to the vendors will be most helpful for them to identify what needs doing. The fact they have renovated the property for sale, I should think they would want to carry out the repairs themselves.

I hope they do anyway, it's better for you not to have to do anything when you move in, especialy as I'm sure you thought that's what you were getting. Stand your ground, you're paying for a supposedly premium product.

I'm afraid it does sound to me though like they've given it a bit of a makeover and not really addressed all the problems. All that is pretty basic stuff for a seasoned developer to look at and address without needing to be told by a survey report.

fimonkey

By no way are we blase as vendors, but I do think it's essential to know the area you intend to buy (or sell) in. We have no intention of making things difficult for our buyer (hope she feels the same about us), but she's getting a good deal (we've already had many more requests for viewings despite the SOLD STC sign). With just 5K spent, it could go back on the market for an extra 10-15K (we want a quick sale otherwise we'd do this work ourselves).

The house obviously needs modernising and it just so happens that those kind of houses are selling quickly to ppl who want to do them up themselves and either remain there or sell on (Well done BBC for creating a nation of mini property developers). However we've accepted the lowest offer we were prepared to accept as it was priced very competitively to begin with, and for this reason would prefer to fix any problems ourselves/re-market it should the buyer not feel able to pay what she's already offered.

If we fix the problems highlighted in the survey, I don;t see what difference it makes to her as a buyer, unless of course she offered her price with the intention of trying to drop it further post survey. In which case she may well have missed out.

I supopse all this is support for the new Homeowners pack they're rolling out this year, would make things easier for vendors too!

paula.paula13

Hello, I'm selling my house and remember the "to-do" we had when selling our first property to first time buyers! I'm a sales rep and my husband is an architect. The young buyers kept coming back and saying they couldn't afford it unless we had XXX repairs done. With hindsight I wish I had dumped them. Here's what I would do if approached by you...
woodworm - vendor to obtain quote and reduce house price by that amount so that you can have work done after moving in. Electrics - would not reduce for this unless very specific & costed evidence of a problem requiring immediate attention. Same for chimney stack. Drain problem - I'd investigate this myself as a vendor and see if it's a genuine problem. If something needs repair in the next 3 months then vendor should pay, if it's a long term issue of wear acceptable in a house that age (eg old fuse box needs replacing one day) then I would expect the buyer to cover that work later on. You may find this difficult to believe but sometimes the surveys are wrong! I would never rely on one when purchasing a house. For the one I'm buying now my husband (architect) & friend (chartered surveyor) spent 1 1/2 hours examining the property. The buyers of my own house spent £450 on a survey and the chap was only here 15 minutes! His report was sent to us and there were two errors in it which my husband complained about.
Good luck!

paula.paula13

Hello, I'm selling my house and remember the "to-do" we had when selling our first property to first time buyers! I'm a sales rep and my husband is an architect. The young buyers kept coming back and saying they couldn't afford it unless we had XXX repairs done. With hindsight I wish I had dumped them. Here's what I would do if approached by you...
woodworm - vendor to obtain quote and reduce house price by that amount so that you can have work done after moving in. Electrics - would not reduce for this unless very specific & costed evidence of a problem requiring immediate attention. Same for chimney stack. Drain problem - I'd investigate this myself as a vendor and see if it's a genuine problem. If something needs repair in the next 3 months then vendor should pay, if it's a long term issue of wear acceptable in a house that age (eg old fuse box needs replacing one day) then I would expect the buyer to cover that work later on. You may find this difficult to believe but sometimes the surveys are wrong! I would never rely on one when purchasing a house. For the one I'm buying now my husband (architect) & friend (chartered surveyor) spent 1 1/2 hours examining the property. The buyers of my own house spent £450 on a survey and the chap was only here 15 minutes! His report was sent to us and there were two errors in it which my husband complained about.
Good luck!