Seller refuses to renegotiate after bad survey, help!

andy.m_2

tricky and I'm sure that you feel hard done by in this, but here are a couple of observations.

The seller doesn't have to do anything in this scenario, a lot do chip in to keep a sale but not all. It is all too easy in this day and age and particularly on this forum to expect that the seller will reduce and hey ho all is rosey. Certainly that is far from the case and depends entirely on the seller's motivation.

The house is valued as is at the asking, therefore, on paper, the seller believes that you are getting value. They most likely do not agree that the money spent will not increases the value of the house proportionally to the outlay. I also disagree to some extent, a newly rendered house in fresh colours with a new roof will have much more kerb appeal and wow factor and hence command a premium and be much more saleable.

If you buy at 164, and maintain the property straight away with the works required then you will ahve a house that doesnt theoretically need anything doing for many many years, you say that the interior is a beauty so you are bringing the outside up to spec and therefore you wont need to spend on the upkeep of the house for quite a while to come, not many can say that on a 30's place!
Too often people buying houses don't factor in the maintenance and upkeep costs, a house is a tangible asset, but it definitely needs looking after and minor tweaking over the years of ownership.
You are just doing that all at one time.

You need to get a quote away from family, get on check-a-trade and get 2 or 3 quotes and the advice that goes with them.
A well meaning relative can actually be a hinderence without you knowing it!

Good luck, personally, if I were you I would look at it this way.
You have reduced by £5k already, if you can get the repairs quoted for £10k then you got what you wanted, half the cost off the house.

Yorkie1

You're already paying only 3% under the asking price, when houses in the area in what are presumably better overall condition are going for the same price.

The repairs do sound as though they will need to be prioritised in the first year, which is always an expensive time after moving into a new property.

Have you budgeted for £10K-£16K worth of work in the first year or two?

I'd be seriously considering walking away, selling your current house and going into rented for 6 months while you find a house without these difficulties.

yllim

Yorkie1 wrote: »

You're already paying only 3% under the asking price, when houses in the area in what are presumably better overall condition are going for the same price.

The repairs do sound as though they will need to be prioritised in the first year, which is always an expensive time after moving into a new property.

Have you budgeted for £10K-£16K worth of work in the first year or two?

I'd be seriously considering walking away, selling your current house and going into rented for 6 months while you find a house without these difficulties.

No we haven't budgeted that much for repairs in the first couple of years. TBH I had budgeted about £3 - £4 K for repairing the chimney which we were already aware of and some internal redecoration.

I think we are going to stand our ground. As I said the vendor has taken the 'Sold' sign down so that it now reads as 'For Sale' again and it is also showing as 'For Sale' on the EAs website.

I do feel slightly gutted as in my head I had moved in weeks ago but maybe it's just not meant to be!

Thanks for your reply!

phoebe1989seb

somethingcorporate wrote: »

Have prices risen in your area in the last 4 years? they certainly haven't either here or where I purchased 4 years ago.

The price they paid is irrelevant. The house we are in now the purchasers bought it 18 months earlier for £270k. We paid £247.5k even after they had marketed it for £285k. They made a £22k loss in just over 18 months. Did I care? No. What something was worth years ago in a market like the housing one should have some impact on the price but not be the only factor to consider.

Completely agree - on the house we sold last year we made a £60k (approx) loss on what we'd spent on purchase price plus restoration work 3.5 years previously, but so be it, we were prepared to take the hit. At the time of selling our EA said that the work we had done had merely made the house more saleable (it sold within two weeks whilst other houses in the area are still for sale over a year later) although normally such work as rewiring, installing two new bathrooms and a solid wood kitchen etc would be expected to add some value......

However, if the surveyor valued the property at £164k as it stands with work needing to be done, I guess that's what it's worth.......

Thrugelmir

yllim wrote: »

In the surveyors words the roof needs repairs urgently and re-covering in the very near future.

I bought my 87 year old property 5 years ago. At the time the roof was noted as as an issue as was the original one. Other than having the ridge tiles cemented in. Had no problems with it.

As your surveyor said its maintenance cost.

Buy a new property if you don't want to incur cost. An older property one will require spend if nothing else purely due to its age.

andrew-hilton

Well usually everything is getting worse