Soffits and Fascias

tiggerkid

Hi all,

New to this board, so hoping it is the right place to post. We are selling our house and the buyers want some work done to the exterior of the house and asked us to give them the discount to cover the cost of the work. My question is two-fold and I would be grateful if someone could help me with answers to both:

1) the work our buyers would like to do is purely cosmetic: there are no structural or other major issues with the exterior. They just would like to have soffits and fascias painted. That's despite the fact that we cleaned and painted those just over a year ago. So this question is about whether we have to give them discount for purely cosmetic work?

2) the cost that was quoted for painting is £730. The house is a detached 4-bed. Given the fact that the work is purely cosmetic, i.e. nothing is required apart from 2 coats of paint, this seems excessive. However, I am not an expert on this and am wondering whether someone who either does this for a living or had this done at home could share their experience.

Many thanks for your help, everyone.

lincroft1710

If they don't like the decor, they're perfectly at liberty to change it at their expense. You are under no obligation to give a discount for whatever reason to any prospective purchaser.

Foxy-Stoat_3

If its a deal breaker for them, then they are not serious about buying it. If your spending 6 figures on a property then £730 of cosmetic work is neither here or there.

Fair enough if it looks rotten or off putting but you say it was cleaned AND painted recently.

Tell them your price reflects the condition of the property.

witchy1066

the main cost will be for the scaffolding,
we have been quoted £300 for scaffolding and £250 for the actual replacement in UPVC of facias to front and rear of a 2 bed semi we are hoping to buy,

our survey came back that the facias had wet rot , its a minor problem to us and were fully aware of it when we made our offer, as we would have replaced them with UPVC anyway would not dream of asking the vender to cover the cost

what cheek your buyers have , tell them, no way are you coming down in price for anything other than structural that has been marked on the survey

DilbertJones

Hmmm... This is interesting, my house (sold & nearing exchange) has its survey being done this week and I am aware the fascias will need maintenance/replacing. However, I have not hidden this fact as they can be clearly seen in the pictures and when the house was viewed so I would not expect to reduce my price because it is written down on a survey. I hope my buyer does not have the same thoughts as the OP's buyers!

AndyT678

1. You don't have to do it but they don't have to buy your house either. It seems like a fairly trivial thing to be a deal breaker so it's unlikely that they'd walk away. I'd also consider my response in the context of their original offer. If they're buying at the asking price I'd be more willing than if they'd already got a significant discount.

2. Price seems high. I recently have the whole front and side of my 3 bed end terrance painted for <£500.

Foxy-Stoat_3

AndyT678 wrote: »

1. You don't have to do it but they don't have to buy your house either. It seems like a fairly trivial thing to be a deal breaker so it's unlikely that they'd walk away. I'd also consider my response in the context of their original offer. If they're buying at the asking price I'd be more willing than if they'd already got a significant discount.

2. Price seems high. I recently have the whole front and side of my 3 bed end terrance painted for <£500.

Its a detached house so will have 4 sides, access will be the biggest cost.

tiggerkid

Thank you so much for all your replies!

The discount was requested by the buyers after the survey. And they said if we didn't agree, they would pull out! It does seem unreasonable to me and, as previously mentioned in one of your replies, it feels like they aren't serious about buying the house. Particularly, because our fascias and soffits aren't rotting or falling off. It's just that they want them to be painted again despite the fact that we've told them it's already been painted. I think my biggest concern is where does this stop? Tomorrow they can say they want the colours of the walls changed in the house and we have to pay for that too? The house is sold as seen. We aren't hiding anything and I am sure everyone here understands that soffits and fascias aren't something you can actually hide during the viewings. They came around twice for their viewings, so they saw everything and never brought it up before the survey. The survey didn't mention this as a structural issue. It was raised among some other cosmetic issues.

I do appreciate that the buyers can ask for anything and, as sellers, we don't have to give them what they are asking for. I think I am just frustrated with the fact that we have gone quite far down the line with the solicitors and, frankly, wish they brought it up before we accepted their offer, so that we could decline it prior to engaging solicitors and making an offer on the house we want to buy!

closed

let them (threaten to) pull out, and lose the money they have spent already. Say it's going back on the market.

They shouldn't need painting every year

casperlarue

If their request came after they had their survey done ask to see the section which recommends decorating the fascias. Bet you a penny to a pound the surveyor never went near the roof and is just putting in a blanket statement regarding the condition of the exterior.

How hard was it for you to sell? Where did the quote come from? If they provided it I would look at getting an alternative just to be sure. If you want to carry on with your vemdors I would go for meeting them halfway as a gesture to keep the sale on track.

Foxy-Stoat_3

Similarly are they really going to pull out of the sale after spending money on surveys and solicitors fees etc etc for this type of work.

If you knock £500 off the sale price it will make no difference to you or them....£1.67 per month over 25 years plus interest. So I would guess its down to principals and how quickly you need to sell.

My view would be, they saw the condition of the soffits and facias when they made the offer, end of...but its not my house/money.

What ever you choose to do will be right for you!