Renegotiate help please

dottydizzle

Hello,

FTB here going a little bit crazy with all of this, so would appreciate your objective opinions please! Sorry for the essay.

I am buying a house for £210k, we offered the asking price straight away because we needed to move quickly (that's gone out the window...) and we are buying somewhere that is a 4-hour journey away from where we lived before so we were keen to get it sorted and stop the journeys. And also because we like the house and want to live there.

But, I feel like we probably shouldn't have been so hasty and the mortgage valuation and surveyor have both been kind of 'we'll say it's worth 210k but that really is a top estimate'.

So we had our homebuyers report, which recommended we do a lot of things, but the only urgent thing was to replace the porch, which is rotten (the house was built in the 1900s so as you can imagine there is a lot that could be done if you wanted to). We were initially going to try and do most of the things he recommended, including getting the concrete taken off the outside walls and replaced with limewash so the walls can breathe. However...

We then had a surveyor friend look at the report and he said most of the stuff would be fine but we should allow 2.5k for the porch, 2.5k to carry out a damp proof treatment on chimney and bay windows, 600 to install vents to sub floor (some brick paving will need to be lifted and reset), and however much it costs to cap and flue the chimneys and make the chimney breast into a sterile void.

We have been trying to get a builder to do a quote for us but no one seems to want to! One place asked us to pay £200 just for the quote. I understand they must get a lot of people who get the quote and don't get the work done, but how are we supposed to get a quote?!

So I'm wondering whether we should be renegotiating the purchase price. We already have our mortgage offer and I'm worried about messing with it as I don't want to lose the rate. Also I don't want the vendors to pull out as we've already spent £1k on surveys and wasted months waiting for anything to happen. I am now living with family (not ideal) and my partner is in temporary accommodation while he continues working in our old town. We had to move out of our rental in September and initially the vendors said they would work towards this date but they had a baby during this time and everything's been really slow. Then they pulled out of their purchase a few weeks ago as they decided it wasn't big enough. They have since found somewhere else but it's still very slow moving.

The EA has been rubbish and I really want to avoid talking to her as she is hostile to me every time I speak to her and acts like I should be grateful that they are selling me their house, and I should be ashamed of myself for daring to ask anything or expect the vendors to do anything because THEY HAVE HAD A BABY AND THEY ARE BUSY!!!

The solicitor is not hostile but she is slow (obviously), is hardly ever there and also treats me like an inconvenience.

Both me and my husband are not confrontational people AT ALL so we are both dreading having to ask for a discount. Our mortgage is 80%LTV and if we knocked off 5k it would need to come off the mortgage amount rather than the deposit amount otherwise it would be over 80%...or is there another way?

No similar houses in our price range have come on the market since we had the offer accepted so I am wary of annoying the vendors, them pulling out and us losing a nice house.

So, sorry for the rant, as I said it's driving me crazy, lots of sleepless nights, any advice would be gratefully received. I have been doing a lot of reading on this and some people seem to think asking for a reduction at this point is morally wrong whereas others think it is extremely normal. That's why I decided to lay out the specifics.

So my questions are:

1. Should we ask for a reduction?
2. Do we need to get a builder's quote to do so?

Thank you in advance!!

bris

The 210k valuation takes this work into consideration so if it was already done the house would be worth more.


You can of course renegotiate all you want but don't be surprised if they say no.


You shouldn't think they don't know about the houses problems, of course they do and it would be priced accordingly.

hazyjo

They're likely to say no rather than make the rash decision to pull out so just try. You can always say okay then and still buy it.


Some will drop, others won't. No right or wrong - although as your valuation is at the price you're buying, you've not really got much of a leg to stand on.

chappers

Problem may be that it doesn't seem like they are in any particular rush to move. Probably always intended to hang it out until after the baby was born and now deciding that the house they were buying isn't for them.
If they feared that you pulling out might jeopardise them moving then the situation might be different.
As hazyjo says won't hurt to ask, very unlikely they will tell you that they won't sell to you.

parkrunner

dottydizzle wrote: »

The EA has been rubbish and I really want to avoid talking to her as she is hostile to me every time I speak to her and acts like I should be grateful that they are selling me their house, and I should be ashamed of myself for daring to ask anything or expect the vendors to do anything because THEY HAVE HAD A BABY AND THEY ARE BUSY!!!

Tell the vendor you will be pulling out of the sale unless they speak to the EA over this. Personally the EA would have got a mouthfull from me and it would have been inside their office on a busy Saturday.

dottydizzle

Thanks guys.

Have just heard from the builder that they won't let him go round because... they've got a baby. So we're not going to be able to get an actual estimate for the work. Not sure what to do.

I don't think the price does take the work into account as similar properties which have already been extended or renovated go for only 10k more than this one. Unfortunately we're at the top of our budget.

I think you are right Chappers they are not in any hurry to move. I think they probably didn't expect to get asking price so quickly and be dealing with it with baby.

I haven't spoken to the vendors directly, only through EA. How would I do that?

Thank you!!

hazyjo

Might give you more leverage then to say you'll have to presume worst case scenario. tbh I would tell you no, but I have knocked money off several properties. I'm not on the one I'm currently buying as I think I've got it at a good price, I like the vendor, and it was valued at the price I'm buying - oh, and she had to pay over £4k EA costs as she'd thought she could sell privately to me - she asked me to pay it all, I said no, and she said okay then. Didn't ask for half or anything.


Your surveyor has given you an idea of some costings. Put forward an amount, expect them to pay all, half/some or none.

Scotbot

If the vendor has found somewhere they are unlikely to pull out if you ask for a lower price after all they need somewhere bigger as they have a baby... Most likely they will say no but worth a try.

I would email the EA with your revised offer that avoids your dislike of confrontation, if she comes back and asks for a builders quote you can remind her why you don't already have one.

parkrunner

If they are refusing to let a builder in so you can get a quote, either drop your price by £10,000 or walk away. You need to be firm with them, as for getting in touch just knock their door, if they genuinely want to sell and within a reasonable time frame they will speak to you, if they refuse to discuss anything with you then again walk away.