House sale question

stinnyuk

Hi (waves) I'm new to the forums and am not sure if this is the right one for my question. If not please feel free to point me in the right direction.

We are in the process of selling our house and the buyer has had a detailed survey and building quotes done.

One of the things highlighted is the need for a new roof on the small brick shed in the back garden. The builder has quoted £950+VAT.

I don't think this is something we should have to pay for.

My mum says that she is buying the house, not the shed… what do you think? Where do I stand?

Thanks, Stinny

InsideInsurance

Its up to you, you can either accept a lower offer, pay for the work to be done or tell them the deals off.

Depending on whats happening in your local market and how good the original offer was will really dictate which is best to go for

browneyedbazzi

Your buyer can ask you to do the work or to reduce their offer to take into account the cost of them doing the work. You can say yes or no to the request.

If you say no, they can withdraw their offer then you can hope for another buyer (who will offer the same/more and not be bothered about the roof).

System

stinnyuk wrote: »

Hi (waves) I'm new to the forums and am not sure if this is the right one for my question. If not please feel free to point me in the right direction.

We are in the process of selling our house and the buyer has had a detailed survey and building quotes done.

One of the things highlighted is the need for a new roof on the small brick shed in the back garden. The builder has quoted £950+VAT.

I don't think this is something we should have to pay for.

My mum says that she is buying the house, not the shed… what do you think? Where do I stand?

Thanks, Stinny

The buyer is buying the shed as it forms part of the property.

I don't see why you shouldn't have to pay for it as it's currently your shed. If there is something significant that needs doing to a property it's usually negotiated as part of the final price.

InsideInsurance

goater78 wrote: »

I don't see why you shouldn't have to pay for it as it's currently your shed.

As presumably it is "bought as seen".

You advertise a broken guitar then you wouldnt expect someone to say they'll buy it and later say actually they want the price reduced because its broken.

Of cause it depends on how obvious it was that there were problems with the roof to determine how much this is intentional game plan and how much this is honest concerns. Either way, it is what it is.

A former place I sold had a 1m crack in the garage. Was clear, was even in the estate agents photograph (much to our annoyance). During the viewing the buyer mentioned the crack. On the day of exchange they guzundered stating that the survey had noted the crack but that it was stable and didnt need repair.

LilElvis

stinnyuk wrote: »

Hi (waves) I'm new to the forums and am not sure if this is the right one for my question. If not please feel free to point me in the right direction.

We are in the process of selling our house and the buyer has had a detailed survey and building quotes done.

One of the things highlighted is the need for a new roof on the small brick shed in the back garden. The builder has quoted £950+VAT.

I don't think this is something we should have to pay for.

My mum says that she is buying the house, not the shed… what do you think? Where do I stand?

Thanks, Stinny

As it was the buyer's builder who said it would cost £950 + VAT I would find a builder of your own to quote for the work before agreeing to either have it done or reduce the selling price.

unholyangel

Theres also the matter of whether the items actually increase the value of the property or not.

If they don't increase the value of the property then I wouldn't expect them to decrease the value if the work wasn't done.

Poppie68

Surely the house is up for sale at a price that includes the shed and its roof as it is, so why should the vendor be expected to either reduce the price or pay out for a new roof?




hmmm well i know what i mean....

browneyedbazzi

Poppie68 wrote: »

Surely the house is up for sale at a price that includes the shed and its roof as it is, so why should the vendor be expected to either reduce the price or pay out for a new roof?




hmmm well i know what i mean....

Mostly because house sales are not 'fixed prices' here - they are all about negotiation and coming to an agreement. The vendor will always try to highlight all the great stuff about the property to support their view of what it is worth, and buyers will look for things that are wrong to make sure they are not paying over the odds or to attempt to knock the price down.

Buyers often don't have all relevant information at the time of making an offer (in this case they might not know much about roofing and may not have known that repairs were needed or what they would cost) and issues may come to light in a survey. If there is corrective action required they may want to reduce the offer by the amount it will cost to do or they can ask for the work to be done by the vendor before exchange of contracts.

wealdroam

This thread should be on The House Buying & Selling board.

LilElvis

browneyedbazzi wrote: »

Mostly because house sales are not 'fixed prices' here - they are all about negotiation and coming to an agreement. The vendor will always try to highlight all the great stuff about the property to support their view of what it is worth, and buyers will look for things that are wrong to make sure they are not paying over the odds or to attempt to knock the price down.

Buyers often don't have all relevant information at the time of making an offer (in this case they might not know much about roofing and may not have known that repairs were needed or what they would cost) and issues may come to light in a survey. If there is corrective action required they may want to reduce the offer by the amount it will cost to do or they can ask for the work to be done by the vendor before exchange of contracts.

....And quite often a survey will show up things which neither the buyer or seller were aware of eg subsidence, rising damp, woodworm.

When viewing a house you seldom lift carpets to look for rotten floorboards or ask for a ladder so you can look at the roof!

With my first house the surveyor found a major problem with the roof which was leaking into the loft space because some of the caps had been put on the wrong way round. The seller had had the house re-roofed only a few years previously, so they just had to call the builders back in and have the work remedied under their warranty. There was also substantial water damage to the kitchen floor as the house was unoccupied and a stopcock had not been properly turned off - this was paid for by the seller's home insurance.So not all 'faults' are going to cause either the buyer or seller to have to spend any money or reduce the asking price.