offer accepted but condition for no reduction post survey

JimmyTheWig

Scenario 1. House for sale for £550k. Looks in good condition. You offer £500k. Survey says the roof needs repairing and will cost £10k. You reduce your offer by £10k. Perfectly reasonable.

Scenario 2. House for sale for £550k. Looks like the roof needs replacing which would cost £10k. You, knowing this, offer £500k. Survey says the roof needs repairing and will cost £10k. You reduce your offer by £10k. Unreasonable - you already knew about this and factored it into your offer.
I suspect that this is why the vendor is saying no renegotiation.

Scenario 3 - House for sale for £550k. Looks like the roof needs replacing which would cost £10k. You, knowing this, offer £500k. Survey says the roof needs repairing and will cost £10k and there's a problem with a wall that will cost £10k. You knew about the roof but didn't know about the wall. You reduce your offer by £10k. Perfectly reasonable. If the vendor insists on "no renegotiation" that would be unreasonable as the survey had brought up something that you didn't know about.


You may want to list the things that you are aware of and tell the vendor that anything else that comes up on the survey is fair game to negotiate on.
Or you could ask them if there is anything that they think will come up on the survey that they don't want to negotiate on - and anything else not on his list is negotiable.

TrixA

It sounds like they're just saying that the house is obviously in need of full refurbishment and they're looking for an offer on that basis. They don't want to waste anybody's time renegotiating on the basis of specific details raised by the survey.

It's an unusual condition but it doesn't really do you any harm to agree to it, you can still withdraw your offer if the survey throws up anything that's really a deal breaker.

hi123

Thanks for all the opinions
the house is not marketed as needing renovation and is neither priced that much lower
its just we would like to change the layout and modernise inc garden landscaping etc
the brochure or details dont say in need of any work rather say beautifully presented house
thats why could not understand the logic of the condition which cannot be enforced on either side
i have actually told estate agent today that we will not proceed with any preconditions

hi123

AdrianC wrote: »

The house is on the market as in need of major renovation.
You are placing your offer on it as in need of major renovation.
Seems only fair to say that's the basis on which the offer is being accepted, so there's no point in trying to then reduce further based on work being needed...

thanks Adrian
its not marketed as needing renovation
its marked as a beautifully presented house

ognum

hi123 wrote: »

i have actually told estate agent today that we will not proceed with any preconditions

in my opinion that is rather foolish, if I was the vendor I would not change my stance so your choices are:

You walk away now, without a survey and you never know if there was work to do or not

You proceed, surveys fine

You proceed, surveys not good

What have you gained by stamping your foot and saying no preconditions.

Either get on with the survey or walk away!

kinger101

ognum wrote: »

in my opinion that is rather foolish, if I was the vendor I would not change my stance so your choices are:

You walk away now, without a survey and you never know if there was work to do or not

You proceed, surveys fine

You proceed, surveys not good

What have you gained by stamping your foot and saying no preconditions.

Either get on with the survey or walk away!

I don't think it's foolish. It gives the vendor a chance to reconsider before he walks away. It's okay people saying they'd do the same in the vendor's shoes, but you have to acknowledge that this will be a big turn off to many vendors.

Perhaps the vendor can't afford to sell for less, but that's not reason for someone to buy into negative equity should something nasty and unexpected turn up. A full building survey on a £500K house isn't going to be cheap. I wouldn't want to spend on one knowing it's all or nothing. There's plenty more on the market in Leeds.

hi123

i started having cold feet ,thinking is there something we have missed about the house
never made the offer with renegotiation in mind but vendors stance has put me off
its not as if they have had multitude of offers
after long discussions today,we have decided to walk away if precondition stays though being new to this still cant understand logic of insisting on condition which is not enforcable

Thrugelmir

AdrianC wrote: »

The house is on the market as in need of major renovation.
You are placing your offer on it as in need of major renovation.
Seems only fair to say that's the basis on which the offer is being accepted, so there's no point in trying to then reduce further based on work being needed...

Unless the property isn't worth the offer price.

AdrianC

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Unless the property isn't worth the offer price.

In which case, you just walk away.

farmerboy

hi123 wrote: »

still cant understand logic of insisting on condition which is not enforcable

How is it not enforcable? I know its not in law, but they own the house and are making their position clear they won't go any lower. So in a way it is enforcable as you would either have to continue or walk away.