Reducing Offer after Survey

sparkle_berry

We have just had the results back of a structural survey on the house we are looking to buy. It came back with a few concerning issues:

1. Missing joist in the roof which has caused the 1st floor ceiling to sag and crack, the joist and celings will need to be replaced.

2. The roof timbers are infested with wood boring beetles (woodworm I guess).

3. Asbestos water tank in the loft and asbestos guttering.

4. Unsupported Lintel above the patio doors which is not sufficient to hold the bricks above, this will need to be replaced.

On top of that it needs rewiring and a new boiler which we were aware of before the survey.

We orginally offered full asking price but I am now having doubts about the property, how much do you think would be acceptable to decrease our offer given the above.

Thanks

dannyboycey

You could get a rough quote on the above work and deduct this from your offer by at least this much. There's no point putting yourself out of pocket.

cuffie

sparkle_berry wrote: »

We have just had the results back of a structural survey on the house we are looking to buy. It came back with a few concerning issues:

1. Missing joist in the roof which has caused the 1st floor ceiling to sag and crack, the joist and celings will need to be replaced.

2. The roof timbers are infested with wood boring beetles (woodworm I guess).

3. Asbestos water tank in the loft and asbestos guttering.

4. Unsupported Lintel above the patio doors which is not sufficient to hold the bricks above, this will need to be replaced.

On top of that it needs rewiring and a new boiler which we were aware of before the survey.

We orginally offered full asking price but I am now having doubts about the property, how much do you think would be acceptable to decrease our offer given the above.

Thanks

I would say find out how much all of above would cost (minus the things you knew about), list it all out with estimates, and literally take that off the price. I think it does depend on how much you want the house. Would you have paid full asking knowing all of the stuff that needs doing? I only ask this because if they come back and say no to the lower offer, then you need to be prepared to walk away, or think hard about buying the place at that price. I think it looks like you are being fair by getting estimates (or indeed, getting them to get estimates), and showing that you are deducting exactly what it would cost to get the work done. After all, these problems will probably come up again should they re-market, and they will now be aware of that... Good luck! x