Renegotiating after survey / mortgage offer with tight deadline

harrys_dad

I am so glad you are not my buyer. The survey values the house at the price you have offered, why should the vendor reduce it? What do you expect from a 100 year old house?

danslenoir

harrys_dad wrote: »

I am so glad you are not my buyer. The survey values the house at the price you have offered, why should the vendor reduce it? What do you expect from a 100 year old house?

Survey valuations are often a finger in the air sort of affair, particularly in instances where there is not a lot of appropriate comparative sold price data to benchmark against.

I think it's completely reasonable to ask for a price reduction to remedy a proportion of previously undisclosed issues picked up in a survey, especially if OP was sensible and made the caveat when making their initial offer that the offer was subject to no major costly issues being identified in the survey.

fed_up_and_stressed

danslenoir wrote: »

Survey valuations are often a finger in the air sort of affair, particularly in instances where there is not a lot of appropriate comparative sold price data to benchmark against.

I think it's completely reasonable to ask for a price reduction to remedy a proportion of previously undisclosed issues picked up in a survey, especially if OP was sensible and made the caveat when making their initial offer that the offer was subject to no major costly issues being identified in the survey.

But the surveyor valued it at the market price without the works being done.

Faced with gazundering of this type i wouldn't be surprised if the vendor told the OP to do one.

marksoton

I'd say there is an element of gazundering. However the vendor also has their own agenda in avoiding the extra 3% SDLT.

There may be middle ground but it should be done officially.

Surely only a few hours negotiation directly with the vendor...

fed_up_and_stressed

marksoton wrote: »

I'd say there is an element of gazundering. However the vendor also has their own agenda in avoiding the extra 3% SDLT.

There may be middle ground but it should be done officially.

Surely only a few hours negotiation directly with the vendor...

Then however long for the new mortgage to be issued ... Then how long for solicitor to get new contracts signed etc etc

danslenoir

fed_up_and_stressed wrote: »

But the surveyor valued it at the market price without the works being done.

Yes, but valuations are subjective and often need to be taken with a pinch of salt. What if there are no similar properties to OPs that have sold in the vicinity in the last year? The surveyor has nothing reasonable to benchmark against, so his/her assessment will be that in the absence of any data to the contrary, the offer price is what the house can reasonably achieve on the open market (unless the offer is a completely ridiculous one) and that is what it is therefore worth.

fed_up_and_stressed wrote: »

Faced with gazundering of this type i wouldn't be surprised if the vendor told the OP to do one.

I think that calling this gazundering is harsh. OP made their offer 'subject to survey', and that survey has identified a range of previously undisclosed defects, some of which pose a 'safety hazard'. OP is not asking for a reduction on a whim in order to screw their vendor over, nor is OP asking for everything picked up on the survey to be paid for by the vendor via a price reduction. If I was in OP's shoes, I would be doing exactly the same thing.

marksoton

fed_up_and_stressed wrote: »

Then however long for the new mortgage to be issued ... Then how long for solicitor to get new contracts signed etc etc

Indeed. Which is why both parties need to work to an agreed timeline.Which the OP has stated they are already.

This scenario is all about negotiation

G_M

If you want sensible advice here, give us a list of the issues you want resolved, compensation for etc.

So far, you have mentioned a missing Building Control certificate only.

1) the lack of this paper gives you the risk of the property collapsing (or something less serious) due to poor quality work. How long ago was it done? Has your surveyor highlighted a problem? If the work is very recent, then yes, problems with the work may become apparant in the future. If it was done many years ago, with no problems apparant, there is almost certainly no problem

2) the lack of this paper also gives you the risk of the council enforcing Building Control via a section 36 enforcement notice . They can only do so within 12 months of completion of the work. So again - how long ago was it done?

3) an indemnity insurance policy, costing £100-£150, could protect you against 2) above

4) Geting retrospective certification would
a) cause huge internal disruption. Seller is unlikely to agree (I wouldn't!)
b) take weeks at best (ie no issues found) but could take months if rectification work was needed.

As for expecting the seller to do repair work for the other unspecified 'issues', this is mad. Never ask a seller to do this - they'll rush through a cheap shoddy job because they have no interest in quality. They'll be long gone!

Reduce your offer if you feel justified. Seller will either agree or not, and then you sort out new contracts, new mortgage etc.if they do.

edit: is this property the seller's own home, or was it a 2nd home/let property?

AdrianC

danslenoir wrote: »

Yes, but valuations are subjective and often need to be taken with a pinch of salt. What if there are no similar properties to OPs that have sold in the vicinity in the last year? The surveyor has nothing reasonable to benchmark against, so his/her assessment will be that in the absence of any data to the contrary, the offer price is what the house can reasonably achieve on the open market (unless the offer is a completely ridiculous one) and that is what it is therefore worth.

You're right, they're subjective.

The OP decided the house was worth £x, in his subjective opinion.
The OP has paid a surveyor to poked around the place in detail, and he's said it has some things that need to be addressed - but he's agreed it's worth £x, in his subjective opinion.

The OP now wants to hold the surveyor's subjective opinion up to support his view that the vendor should pay for those things that need to be addressed.

Sorry. No. The surveyor said that his subjective opinion was that the house is indeed worth £x, even WITH those faults.

The BR point raised will be boilerplate - the wall's been knocked through, so you'll want to check it's got BR sign-off. But it's still worth £x.

Whether BR sign-off is needed, for the sake of the paperwork, is one issue.
Whether a lack of BR sign-off can be enforced is a second issue.
Whether the wall was properly supported and capable of having had BR sign-off is a third issue.

The OP needs to decide which of those three he is bothered about, which he isn't bothered about, and whether it's worth risking the sale collapsing over any of them.

Are any of them reasons for reducing the price by a few hundred quid or a couple of grand? Not really.
The first is make or break. The second is the price of an indemnity policy. The third is make or break, without a very substantial discount to reflect the cost of structural work.

poorcopies

Thanks for all your feedback, I can assure you we aren't trying to screw over the vendor at the last minute, they are the ones pushing for completion by the end of the month (offer was only accepted 5 weeks ago and they only told us 2 weeks ago we need to complete by the end of the month or potentially they will pull out due to stamp duty regs). We only got our survey back two days ago, but have been hurrying the process along in order for them to complete (luckily, the sale of our house was 3 weeks ahead!)

As well as the building regs issue, there is significant damp on an extension wall, as the patio has been raised to meet house and is covering the airflow, all of the bay window units have failed and the windows upstairs do not open sufficiently to allow access in case of a fire (we have a small child, so something like this I consider of importance), chimney also needs repointing, some roof tiles fixed and also the electrics have not been checked or serviced since 2006. (boiler hasn't been serviced either). There are lots of other small issues, but as I said previously, we appreciate they are issues that come with a house of that ages (we are currently in a period property, so know the score, however we know we have carried out the regular maintenance needed to our property and I question that our vendors have!)

We do really love the house though, so as many of you have pointed out we need to weigh up if it's worth losing it over. I think we may just ask they carry out the gas / electric servicing (as I think this can be carried out fairly quickly) and just hope the damp is just isolated to the extension wall.