Renegotiations after survey

advice_please_2

Have you sold or purchased somewhere where the buying party tried to renegotiate offer based on survey findings?

If so what was the survey outcome for reduction in offer price?

A friend tried this and the sellers turned round and said fine we won't sell to you, so I guess could backfire, especially if vendors aren't in a rush etc.

kingstreet

I advise my clients to request/provide a copy of the mortgage report and valuation which sets out the current value, essential repairs needed and valuation after such repairs are carried out.

This way, both parties know what the surveyor has said and what is needed. We can then get independent reports and estimates for the repairs and have an accurate idea of the costs involved.

The outcome tends to depend on the relationship between the valuations and the costs. For example, if the costs will result in a higher value after the repairs are done, the purchaser should accept the cost as they will see the benefit.

Alternatively, if the value after essentials is only the same as the agreed price, the vendor should reduce the price, or get the work done to get the value up to what's been agreed.

vulcanpilot

Selling my Mum's house as a probate sale. It's in fairly poor decorative state, and is over 100 years old so will hardly be perfect.

There was a frantic 'bidding war' between 4 prospective buyers, with one bidder raising their offer by £15k, up to the asking price. They had a standard Homebuyers survey carried out with all the usual flags raised, except one which was relating to the fact a chimney breast had been removed (actually over 50 years ago by my dad & his builder brother) - no retainers recommended on the survey and the valuation was spot on, and chimney remedy costing no more than £2k or so. After leaving it for just over a week, the buyers then attempted to renegotiate the price back down to their original level, due to the chimney and a small amount of damp (house has been unoccupied and unheated for 4 months).

Because of the previous offer amounts, we rejected this and told them we would offer to one of the under 'bidders', and have now a cash buyer, no chain .... and just a couple of thousand less than we'd been offered by these clowns. EA reckons they always had the intention to gazunder us, but thought that once we had them as buyers, we'd just roll over at the lower offer :rotfl:

As executor to the estate, I have a legal duty to maximise the value of the estate, so they were on a hiding to nothing, and we have no immediacy for selling .... not relying on it for us to move.

Evidently they are not happy bunnies..... :dance:

Sponge

Why are you so happy about upsetting people? Did they really do something so wrong that it warrants such an attitude? You say you have a duty to get the best price; they have a 'duty' to do the same.

I'm in the process of buying a property that is vacant. I think the previous occupant has died and it's being sold by their sons & daughters. They're in no rush to sell and have refused to lower the price after our surveys have revealed over £4000 worth of remedial work being needed.

They know we want the house and despite there being a retention on our mortgage (result of valuation survey), they refuse to budge on the pre-survey offer price.

We could walk and who knows, it might result in them being more reasonable; but we want the house and also need it as we have a buyer for ours. I often cut my nose off to spite my face, but in this instance I'm having to think of the bigger picture and am not prepared to gamble.

So much for a buyer's market.

phoebe1989seb

We recently had to sell my parents' home of 40+ years as they both have Dementia and have had to go into a nursing home

We too had a bidding war after our EA arranged block viewings which encouraged several offers, two at asking price. The (first time) buyers whose offer we accepted had a Homebuyer's Report that showed the house (a 1920s semi) despite being generally well maintained, needed remedial work to roof (was last re-roofed with reclaimed slates in the '80s), re-wiring (last done in '60s), new boiler and new kitchen ('80s again).

After some negotiating we agreed a new price £12k below their original offer price. Although I have POA and was duty bound to get the maximum I could for my parents (in order to pay their ridiculously high fees :mad:), I felt this was fair in the light of the fact we'd have everything tied up before Christmas and within 14 weeks of putting the house up for sale. To have to start over again just felt like flogging a dead horse IMHO......

Trapdoor

Sponge wrote: »

Why are you so happy about upsetting people? Did they really do something so wrong that it warrants such an attitude?

Yes. They deliberately misled us and the agents to try to secure the property, thereby denying the other genuine buyers who made their offers honestly. They deserve to have lost the chance to buy it. It is my legal duty as executor to maximise the estate for the beneficiaries, it is not their legal duty or right to make a false offer in an attempt to keep their costs down, especially as the survey was clear of retentions and valued at the asking price. They knew their original offer would never have been accepted as there were three buyers who were offering more, before the EA requested BAFO.

Just because you are in the position of a buyer who has had a retention doesn't mean that the seller HAS to reduce the price to you, particularly if they know they can get another buyer. My EA is instructed to sell at the best price, and knows that if it doesn't reach the minimum amount that the red book valuation shows for probate, then we won't accept the offer.

What makes you think it's a 'buyers market'? Judging by the lack of properties in the area I'm selling, the sheer quantity of viewings and number of offers received (even post accepting both offers - and if as you say I enjoy making people miserable, I could have had some interesting gazumping if I'd been that way inclined) it is definitely not a buyers market now.

Good luck with your purchase and I hope it works out for you.

t0rt0ise

My daughter renegotiated after the survey said that some damp proof work needed doing. She got a quote for the work and got the cost of it taken off the price. It was all very amicable and sensible and nobody was hurt.

advice_please_2

Sponge wrote: »

Why are you so happy about upsetting people? Did they really do something so wrong that it warrants such an attitude? You say you have a duty to get the best price; they have a 'duty' to do the same.

I'm in the process of buying a property that is vacant. I think the previous occupant has died and it's being sold by their sons & daughters. They're in no rush to sell and have refused to lower the price after our surveys have revealed over £4000 worth of remedial work being needed.

They know we want the house and despite there being a retention on our mortgage (result of valuation survey), they refuse to budge on the pre-survey offer price.

We could walk and who knows, it might result in them being more reasonable; but we want the house and also need it as we have a buyer for ours. I often cut my nose off to spite my face, but in this instance I'm having to think of the bigger picture and am not prepared to gamble.

So much for a buyer's market.

What type of survey did you go for, I'm about to go for building survey and any defect estimate cost of repairs not included but to be followed up by getting builders quotes

Tancred

advice_please wrote: »

Have you sold or purchased somewhere where the buying party tried to renegotiate offer based on survey findings?

If so what was the survey outcome for reduction in offer price?

A friend tried this and the sellers turned round and said fine we won't sell to you, so I guess could backfire, especially if vendors aren't in a rush etc.

Absolutely. This is why you need to perform a lot of checks yourself and if you see worrying signs (e.g. deep cracks in walls, uneven floors) then steer well clear.