Help me get a good price - Survey

mysty60

Dear All,

I recently put an offer in for a property that was on for £139,500. We agreed on a offer of £136k. Now after having my survey, the surveyor has valued it at £136k. The problem being I did not have a full structural survey, am a First time buyer and the house looked in decent condition and couldnt afford the full survey, but as the vendor was not living there permanently, the house requirte repairs and has not been fully maintained. That is obviosly going to cost me money to get it all repaired. The surveyor has found the "general standard of construction" as "average", the "structural repair " - POOR, and "decorative order" as AVERAGE. Some his general observations are as folllows:

" The render to the front of the house is loose, and needs attention, together with some repointing works. The wood lintels to teh rear window need attention as they are showing signs of wear. The property has been damp proofed in the past, but as a prudent measure we would advise damp &timber checks, CORGI gas and electrical tests. The lean to shed over the back door need maintenance works. Roof coverings, flashings, and external timbers, wall surfaces, guttering and pointing should be overhauled and repaired on a maintence basis. A routine maintenance programme should be introduced to look after the fabric of the building. The floors reequire inspecting and any loose floor boards securing. Some of the carpets are worn and require replacement to prevent accidents. The front door step requires repair and a step should be provided to the rear French window."

He also noted some loose wiring at the front of the house, and found two boilers in the house, not sure if any of them are combi or not and why does someone have two boilers - he told me that thats an over kill.

Is there any way that I can get the vendor to renegotiate on a lower price. What does anyone suggest and how does one approach this situation. I have my mortgage and solicitor in place. As a FTB I dont have alot of money to get these repairs done and I did want a property I could move into and not have to spend money on it, as the bank is not willing to give me much money, so am having to borrow and use up savings anyway.

Please get back to me ASAP

Many thanks

Mrs_Arkwright

It's been valued at 136 in its present state - you got it for 136 - what's to renegotiate? You've obviously got a fine eye for valuation - you've offered what it's been valued at.

lynzpower

Agree with Mrs A

theres very little here to negotiate on.

eg
" The render to the front of the house is loose, and needs attention, together with some repointing works. ( fairly standard in an older house)

The wood lintels to teh rear window need attention as they are showing signs of wear. ( again standard on an older property)


The property has been damp proofed in the past, but as a prudent measure we would advise damp &timber checks, CORGI gas and electrical tests. ( they always recommend these, tihs is backcovering, as its not something they specialise in)


The lean to shed over the back door need maintenance works. ( again, small job)

Roof coverings, flashings, and external timbers, wall surfaces, guttering and pointing should be overhauled and repaired on a maintence basis. ( maintainence basis means as the work needs doing it should be done)

A routine maintenance programme should be introduced to look after the fabric of the building. ( this jusrt recommends work should be done as it arises)

The floors reequire inspecting and any loose floor boards securing. ( you can do this yourself with hammer & nail. Tiny job)

Some of the carpets are worn and require replacement to prevent accidents. (rolleyes: I think most peoples carpets would show some signs or wear at some point!)

The front door step requires repair and a step should be provided to the rear French window." ( easliy and cheaply done!)


cant see anything here to cause concern.

cattie

A surveyor will usually value a house at the agreed sold price, irrispective of the price it was marketed at. The reason being that the lender just needs to know that the house is worth the amount it has sold for should you default on the mortgage & they need to repossess.

Many of the things to check suggested by your survyor are standard, though having 2 boilers is strange but it's a possibility the original boiler didn't have an output to cope with an extension of the central heating or something similar.

All houses have some faults & yours as Lynz points out are pretty minor. You can try to negotiate with the vendor to see if he'll help towards any of the things you want to get sorted out but as none are essential & conditional of the mortgage being offered you may stand little chance. Asking costs nothing however & the worse that can happen is that the answer is no.

Tiger_greeneyes

cattie wrote: »

A surveyor will usually value a house at the agreed sold price, irrispective of the price it was marketed at. The reason being that the lender just needs to know that the house is worth the amount it has sold for should you default on the mortgage & they need to repossess.

Spot on, I couldn't have put it better myself

The valuation report you've got is absolutely typical of that of an average older property. I don't see there's anything to worry about, it's just general maintenance. There's no structural problems - or it would have been mentioned.

It seems like you've got the property for a good price considering there's no major problems. All older properties need money spent on them for maintenance, this one's no different.

mchu6am4

If u really want to knock off a little bit of money try saying u cannot get enough mortgage and you're stretching yourself - see they knock off a £1k or £2k

No harm in asking.

lynzpower

mchu6am4 wrote: »

If u really want to knock off a little bit of money try saying u cannot get enough mortgage and you're stretching yourself - see they knock off a £1k or £2k

No harm in asking.

or they might just say well ill put it back on the market then - I know I would. Id also be pretty pi55ed off with the agent who should have checked that the OP had an AIP before putting the offer to the vendor

Debt_Free_Chick

In general I agree with the other comments, that the surveyor has valued the house in its present condition - allowing for the general state of repair/decoration. But, I would check that his report actually states this (it usually would)

benood

The only thing of concern is the two boilers - if this can be explained I wouldn't worry too much - if you try to renegotiate you risk losing the place - the valuation is never going to be more than your offer.

Tiger_greeneyes

I wouldn't even be too concerned about that benood They're easily decommissioned or removed, it's not a huge expense. It could be that the boiler was replaced but the old one not removed. Hopefully it's that simple!

silvercar

I've got 2 boilers! The older one heats the original house, the newer one serves the extension. It actually works very well and we don't usually have them both switched on at the same time. Our surveyor said it was odd but the 3 plumbers that have been in the house since we moved in all understand the logic of doing it.