Trying to reach agreement on house needing roof work

mrdogcat

Hi,

We recently put an offer for £295k on a house on the market at £310k, the vendor then came back to us saying the roof needed work (tiles I think) and the guttering and fascia needed replacing and that they'd fix all the problems without going through a survey if we paid them £305k.

Sounded a bit weird so we politely said no.

Agent then got back to us and said they'd accept the original price of £295k but we would have to fix the roof etc ourselves. More or less putting us in the same boat, albeit we will definitely have a roof to fix (that could be less than 10k) where initially it was just hearsay.

Not really sure what to do. I don't think the property is worth any more than £300k and don't want to have an offer accepted which, when a home survey has been done, reveals more work they aren't prepared to pay to get fixed or allow for a lower price.

Is this normal in the house selling world where sellers aren't prepared to fix problems with the house?

Thanks for any advise and help you can give me everyone.

m0bov

You either have a survey done and risk it, or run for the hills. This could come up in any purchase, and the next buyer will only fidn the same thing. Sounds like they know there is a problem. You could get a roofing contractor in for a quote first perhaps? Maybe two quotes. Otherwise I would have a full survey done and ask for the roof to be looked at in detail.

Cissi

I'd have the full survey done in any case (if you decide to proceed) - who knows what other issues that will uncover :eek:

MobileSaver

mrdogcat wrote: »

Is this normal in the house selling world where sellers aren't prepared to fix problems with the house?

Yes, perfectly normal. If you want to buy a house where everything is brand new with no problems you need to buy a new build with a builder's guarantee.

From the seller's point of view, while the tiles and guttering etc. may need some repair, these problems do not make the house uninhabitable so why should they spend money for someone else to get all the benefit for the next 20 years?

Similarly they may simply not have the funds available to pay for roof repairs right now?

As others have said now that you know there is something not right with the roof you need to ask your surveyor to investigate further and advise you accordingly.

cattie

mrdogcat wrote: »

Is this normal in the house selling world where sellers aren't prepared to fix problems with the house?

Thanks for any advise and help you can give me everyone.

It is absolutely normal.

Usually if a survey throws up any essential or urgent works needing doing in the very near future on the property then the normal course would be to get an estimate of costs of works required. Then a buyer would get on back to the vendor to try to negotiate the price down to reflect the cost of these works. Very often a 50/50 split of costs between vendor & buyer is the most amicable solution.

mrdogcat

cattie wrote: »

Very often a 50/50 split of costs between vendor & buyer is the most amicable solution.

This is what I thought and I think I'd be fine doing this. I'm just worried about anything else that might crop up they flat out won't pay for.

mrdogcat

So I asked for the quotes from the vendor. Looks like the work will cost 10k to fix and it's removing and placing the guttering, downspouts, felt, laths, and tiles with new.

I'm tempted to go 50/50 on the costs and up my offer to 5k... or do you think I should I hold firm and say 'no, I'm sticking to my original 295k offer and you need to fix the roof'.

The house has been on the market since October last year, we love the house but just don't want to pay too much... obviously.

mrginge

Given that you offered 295k before you knew about the problem, shouldn't you now be reducing your offer to 285k ?

mrdogcat

That's what I thought should happen... They originally said 305k and they'd fix the roof themselves.

We already offered 285k before we knew anything about the roof and they refused.

xoAmyox

Sorry, why on earth would you pay 5k MORE for a house now you know it needs 10k of works??

I'd definitely be reducing my offer by 10k and getting a full survey to be sure there aren't any more nasty surprises!

catshark88

You need your own, independent survey & quotations.