Survey report not very good.

doingwhatican

We have found a house we liked and eventually agreed on a price with the seller. As it is an older house we decided to get a thorough survey done and it has come back not so good. Quite a few things that are marked as a 3 as needing done. Most of the items are marked as a 2 and only a couple marked as 1 ( this is with 3 being red or bad, 2 is yellow- warning and 1 is green or good). Now some of the items we are sort of aware of due to the age of the house, but other items we feel have altered our perception of the house and also what we value the house at.

Apart from getting the red items resolved do you think we are being unreasonable in asking for the price to be altered to reflect the overall survey results as we really do not want to move in to a house that will require x £'s of work to be done to correct exisiting issues.

princeofpounds

It's very common to renegotiate on the basis of a survey. It's one of the reasons you have them done. Just don't expect the owners to necessarily agree with all your assessments.

Horace

When we started this house purchasing malarky, we put in an initial offer subject to survey, when the survey came back we reduced our offer due to what could be considered fairly major structural issues i.e. no lintels above the downstairs windows thus making the wall sag. We revised our offer which was accepted although we had to revise it upwards by £500 again after the vendors started messing about and getting antsy about their carpets.

doingwhatican

That is what we keep telling ourselves, but the survey is really not that good with regard to what it is telling us. The thing is we both like the style and location of the property - but the survey has given us both a shock and we are glad that we have had it done.

We are prepaired to overlook some of the smaller issues, but some of them are fairly major and will, in our opinion, devalue the house.

One of the major things is the survey said that due to the age of the house and the type of bottling ceiling there may be asbestos. Do you think it is unreasonable to expect the seller to have testing done and a report produced to confirm if it is there or not?

robatwork

I think surveyors always cover themselves by saying there MAY be asbestos in the ceiling. I also believe that it's perfectly safe as long as it's not disturbed.... your mileage may vary

go_cat

Sounds time like it has put you off the house quite a lot , bear in mind older houses tend to need more work doing.

It boils down to how much you want the house and prepared to put the work in and also wether the vendor is willing to renegotiate (they may not ) in which case the only option would be to walk away

girl_withno_name

Our survey says the house we're buying may have asbestos in the ceilings, which we'd realised due to the Artex and age of property... But was marked as a 2 at worst, maybe even a 1

Just checked and this is listed under Section J - Risks, Risks to people.

Okydoky25

What's the valuation come back as, is the property worth what you originally offered? We had same prob with a house we wanted, the survey came back with problems which didn't put u off as we loved the house but when it came own to it we could get the mortgage without a Retention as it wasn't worth what we offered and they would not re negotiate so we were forced to pull out.

doingwhatican

The survey does say that the items marked as 3 have to be taken in to consideration and one of these is the potential of asbestos in the ceilings. There were also a few other items marked as a 3 and this does make a change to what we feel the house is worth. Just got to wait to see what the vendor says. I am not sure if the estate agent has spoken to the vendor about the survey in full. I may well make a copy of the survey and let the vendor have a look at it.

G_M

So what exactly has it highlighted?

If these were things you could have been expected to spot yourself, or if it was clear much work was needed (ie a doer upper), then renegotiating price is a bit cheeky.

On the other hand if serious matters that you could clearly not hav been aware of have come uo, then it is reasonable to get costs for the work and discuss a price reduction.

As others have said, surveyors often cover themselves by highlighting possible issues esp in specialit areas.

go_cat

Don't forget whoever buys the house will or should get the same survey results which may work in your favour if the vendor is desperate to sell