Negotiation following..survey.

Doozergirl

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

We got quoted £300 to add extra purlin supports on the 1894 built house we recently bought. It's a cheap and easy job, apparently.

We've just done the same as part of a renovation - the purlin had been completely severed to accommodate a velux window - and yes, that price is pretty fair.

If there is no movement and the purlin isn't actually compromised then I would certainly not pay for a new one or negotiate on price. I also agree completely with the OP on the condition of party wall mortar in an old house. These are all simple maintenance and in my view don't affect value.

DigForVictory

You can be wildly reasonable & sort the purlins, or you can be completely human & require a neutral professional's opinion before you take a ha'penny off.

He's a surveyor - so he knows exactly what needs sorting, how much it'll cost & where to dig at your uncertainties. Give his professional experience, since he's made an offer, he should either stand by it or withdraw.

In this game, (were it my house) I wouldn't let some buyer tell me it needs work - I'd expect them to have included that in their offer. From a surveyor, that goes several times over.

ConfusedofYorkshire

DigForVictory wrote: »

You can be wildly reasonable & sort the purlins, or you can be completely human & require a neutral professional's opinion before you take a ha'penny off.

He's a surveyor - so he knows exactly what needs sorting, how much it'll cost & where to dig at your uncertainties. Give his professional experience, since he's made an offer, he should either stand by it or withdraw.

In this game, (were it my house) I wouldn't let some buyer tell me it needs work - I'd expect them to have included that in their offer. From a surveyor, that goes several times over.

I agree with this. We renegotiated on our house based on stuff we couldn't possibly have known about. As a surveyor he would have known about any problems and so should have offered accordingly. He has no excuse

Gordon_Hose

Doozergirl wrote: »

We've just done the same as part of a renovation - the purlin had been completely severed to accommodate a velux window - and yes, that price is pretty fair.

If there is no movement and the purlin isn't actually compromised then I would certainly not pay for a new one or negotiate on price. I also agree completely with the OP on the condition of party wall mortar in an old house. These are all simple maintenance and in my view don't affect value.

Our surveyor started banging on about the roof caving in if it snowed, he literally scared the Mrs to death with stories of the roof caving in and killing us all in our sleep. I wonder how many heavy snow falls have rested on our roof in the 120 years it has been stood here?!

I could have chokeslammed him, the old duffer.

Doozergirl

DigForVictory wrote: »

I'd expect them to have included that in their offer. From a surveyor, that goes several times over.

Absoblinkinglutely!!

Doozergirl

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

Our surveyor started banging on about the roof caving in if it snowed, he literally scared the Mrs to death with stories of the roof caving in and killing us all in our sleep. I wonder how many heavy snow falls have rested on our roof in the 120 years it has been stood here?!

I could have chokeslammed him, the old duffer.

:eek: That's an awful thing to say - she must have been terrified.

Lol @ chokeslam. I don't know what it is but it sounds a suitably dramatic response!

DRP

I agree with most that as a surveyor, he was in a privileged position to have identified these problems prior to making his offer. Tell him to go whistle.

To be honest , I 'd be tempted to bin this guy anyway - he sounds like he will make this sale problematic - it's like selling your 2nd hand car to a mechanic...he's going to try and blind you with science and you 're gonna get shafted.



The roof of my ex- next door neighbour (c1886 terraced cottages) caved in during one night of snow many years ago the fractured timber came through the bedroom ceiling and missed his bed by a foot or so...

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

Our surveyor started banging on about the roof caving in if it snowed, he literally scared the Mrs to death with stories of the roof caving in and killing us all in our sleep. I wonder how many heavy snow falls have rested on our roof in the 120 years it has been stood here?!

I could have chokeslammed him, the old duffer.

Gordon_Hose

Doozergirl wrote: »

:eek: That's an awful thing to say - she must have been terrified.

Lol @ chokeslam. I don't know what it is but it sounds a suitably dramatic response!

We got a structural engineer round for his opinion, he said the roof had very minimal sagging, and all he could do was shake his head at what the surveyor had put in his report and said to us. To fix it requires two lengths of 2x4 from the purlins to the load bearing walls, a days work at the very most.

We still haven't had the work done, and the roof is still there.Even after the high winds. Some surveyors err massively on the side of caution, sometimes far too much.

Chokeslam, a one handed one, no less

desthemoaner

Thanks all, some fascinating and very helpful replies.

After a couple of nights of reflection I've more or less decided to dig my heels in over this, because for one thing we've done our sums on the basis of the offer that we accepted and can't really afford to make any further allowance anyhow. I've a strong suspicion that he's taking advantage of my position as a layman in order to, as someone else said, try to blind me with science. The surveyor who is doing a report on our purchase certainly disagrees with his conclusion that a slate wedge under one end of the purlin to level it isn't acceptable, and has suggested that I send him some photos of the corbels and purlin ends so that he can give me an opinion.

The damp issue is a no brainer: yes, there are visible damp patches on some of the timbers, but (if not condensation) the damp that caused them is historical, possibly having occured before the last roof replacement. And as far as I can tell, there's not an iota of rot in that loft. After heavy rain the other morning the timbers in the area our buyer described as being damp, in the vicinity of the chimney stack, were bone dry. If he wants the house badly enough he'll accept my refusal to further negotiate, and if he doesn't, then as someone said above, the whole thing may turn out to be more trouble than its worth.

Thanks again.

Gordon_Hose

DRP wrote: »

The roof of my ex- next door neighbour (c1886 terraced cottages) caved in during one night of snow many years ago the fractured timber came through the bedroom ceiling and missed his bed by a foot or so...

Scary stuff! The structural engineer concluded that our purlins were in very good nick