Buying a new house - needs a new roof!

uhhuhyeah

Thanks for the replies everyone... all very helpful.

I guess we need to wait for the full report and take it from there.

I spoke to our conveyancer to give her the heads up on the developing situation. She didn;t seem to want to get involved with re-negotiating a new price at all. Is this normal???

Her advice was to wait until we get the report and liase with the estate agents.

I'm not massively keen on doing this as the estate agents that we've had to deal with can only be described as confused and unhelpful (and very pushy). My feeling is that we need to approach this carfeully to ensure the best chance of getting a reduction and I was hoping that my conveyancer would be able to facilitate this....

who'd have thought that buying a house would be so stressful eh!

Hoploz

The likelihood is that the roof will be fine. Some repairs may be needed. A bit like an old car. Ideally you'd buy a new car, but for the time being you'll just drive the old one and not mind the odd dent on the paintwork or that the sunroof doesn't open or whatever. The report may give examples of what needs work, if there are leaks they'll need repairing - if you can see daylight in the loft it'll need work. But not necessarily the whole roof replaced.

If negotiating there tends to be a bit more give and take via the EA. They speak to people on the phone and have a conversation, get everyone's point of view, a compromise is reached.

If you negotiate via solicitor, they simply send a letter stating your new offer ... And wait for a response. It is the least friendly way of doing it, and the way they word things always comes across very rude as they use businesslike language.

So if you do decide to renegotiate, the EA is your best vehicle. They want the deal to stay together so they still get their commission. The solicitors don't give a toss as they normally get paid anyway!

AnotherJoe

Look at it another way, if it wasn't reasonable to ask for a reduction for large items like a roof that needed doing, why would you even bother having a survey ?

Going4TheDream

Our survey said the same thing about torching, we had a roofer check it out and he said it was ok. I understand that surveys can show up some really genuine bad things but sometimes I thinks surveyors over exaggerate some things more to cover their backside. We nearly pulled out of our purchase after reading our report, so we had specialists check each area to find out that a lot of the things were really not as the survey had intimated. For example it said that there was a hole in the wall in the loft between the two houses....it turned out to be one brick missing!

ElsieMonkey

It's not the solicitors job to negotiate price, this is the EA's job. I'd get roofer to to report, then depending on outcome go back to EA to negotiate. Worst case scenario seller refuses and you're no worse off than you are now. However, selling is way more stressful than buying (in my exp) so if they're reasonable and your negotiations are backed by professional opinion you may come to an agreement as the seller is not likely to want to loose a buyer