Building Survey has come back - can we negotiate?

mhj_2

Hi Everyone,

I am a first time buyer, so please excuse any naive or confusing questions.

My new husband and I put an offer in on a house on 23 September. Searches have been done, mortgage approved etc. Getting close to exchange. In fact the sellers agent messages us today to encourage us to follow up with our solicitor about paying the deposit to them as soon as possible so that it's already with the solicitor when exchange happens so that completion can happen quickly thereafter. The is no chain so things are moving quickly.

As well as the mortgage lenders valuation report, we paid for a full independent building survey and we got the 24 page report back today.

I picked out the following concerns:

The report states:

Summary of Repairs

• Upgrade Insulation to roof frames
• Clear gully to front area
• Investigate and eradicate dampness to front left corner of living room
• Overhaul and repair rainwater goods and waste pipes
• Overhaul and repair decked areas

Then, throughout the report amongst all the descriptions, and what have you, are a myriad of things...

• Rear gutter is misaligned and more prone to overflowing. The PVC rainwater pipe to the dormer appears to discharge on to the rear roof slope.
• Taped joint to the top entrance lobby rainwater pipe. Must be taken apart and reformed with proper joint.
• Some of the seals to some of the windows are deteriorating
• External doors generally fair although seals are deteriorating
• Some internal doors requiring easing and adjusting
• Evidence of past water damage to the ceiling in the rear right corner of the kitchen, indicating there may have been leaks to the bathroom fitting at some point.
• Main water external stop valve hatch cover is broken.
• One bracket on upper section of bathroom waste pipe should be re-fixed.
• Number of piping joints have been taped indicating leaking in the past. Pipes should be replaced in due course.
• Risk of decay to timber decking which could not be inspected fully.
• Front lobby: cracked tile and loose grouting, damage to door seal
• Hall: Underside of stair possibly lined in asbestos board
• Kitchen: Damage to seal of external door, carcass of unit showing age
• Downstairs WC: flushing mechanism to cistern not operating correctly
• Bedroom 1: Air vent to rear painted shut
• Bedroom 3: One double glazed panel failed. Casements require easing, water staining to base of sill.

Are these required repairs and issues things that we could negotiate on price about?
If so, how much would be realistic to ask the seller to deduct?

If we do negotiate a reduction is purchase price, do we have to apply for a new/different/lower mortgage?

Thanks,
Michelle

Time2go

I would say very little to worry about and no chance of reduction. They are just small things that may need doing in time.

Lokolo

The mortgage has been approved and therefore that surveyor has stated that the price you are currently paying reflects the value in the condition it is.

Your additional survey should also have a valuation. If this matches your offer then again, in the current state, it is valued at that.

If this is the case, then why would the seller renegotiate when its been valued at the price you are paying?

amfan

Did the valuation come back different to the amount you've offered? I'd say these look like minor repairs that are part and parcel of home ownership, take them as a list of things you need to work on over time.

ed67812

I'm not an expert but the comment regarding the asbestos board would have grabbed my attention.


If it's asbestos insulation board (and it may well not be) then it needs to be in good condition / encapsulated / removed. If it were me, I'd probably get an asbestos survey done depending on the age of the house. (not by an asbestos removal company though).

Fiesto88

Don’t think there’s anything there you could really negotiate on. They all seem like pretty standard survey findings.

SG27

You won't get much better of a survey than that. All looks fine, no chance of renegotiating price.

G_M

That's money well spent on a survey.

1) it reassures you there is no major problem with the property, and you can proceed without anxiety

2) it gives you a useful 'to do' list of jobs you can do over the next 6+ months. Focus on the damp & gutters initially to prepare for winter. Most are DIY jobs, or find yourself a local odd-jobber with a ladder (rather than a pricey building firm!)

kinger101

I have to say, that's a damn good list the surveyor has given you. It indicates quite a detailed inspection. Personally, I don't think there's anything on there than warrants renegotiation. It's really just ongoing maintenance on a house that's slightly below par.....which should have been evident from your own viewing.

If you live in the south-east, please PM me the details of your surveyor! Infinitely better than the last one I had.

bowlhead99

Of course, you can negotiate on anything.

Our buyers' full survey came back listing a nice long list of all the things that could be considered defects or where the surveyor had disclaimed responsibility and recommended someone else look at it (in the usual cover-their-arz way). So, the buyers said they wanted money off because they were already planning to spend money for improvements and had now realised they would want to spend even more cash.

The survey valuation was the same as the price they had offered at which we had accepted. Their offer was not full asking price and the asking price was not as high as it would have been if the house had been a brand new one on the same plot with brand new roof and windows etc etc. So of course we said they were taking the mickey and we were not going to knock the price down to give them headroom to turn it into their perfect dream house for the amount they had offered.

But in the end, everything in a sale or purchase transaction is a negotiation. We were keen to get the deal done, rather than have to cancel everything and put the house back on the market and start the sales process from scratch having already been going through the process with these buyers for several months and setting up our ongoing purchase etc. The market is not exactly booming right now and we may have ended up accepting a lower offer from someone else in the end after losing another several months of our lives. Plus, whatever alternate buyer we found (and whose offer we might accept in good faith) might similarly have no ethics or morals in terms of keeping to their offer.

So, we agreed to come down in price by £x (less than the £y they wanted, but well over the £nil we wanted) rather than lose the sale, on the agreement they were not going to mess around with the price any further and would proceed to exchange by x date - the legals and mortgage offers were already pretty much wrapped up by that point, it was simply a last minute price drop.

So, if you have no ethics or morals and are happy to annoy the agents and your sellers and everyone further up the chain by risking the sale falling through, and be seen as scum for reneging on your deal agreed in good faith and saying you now only want to pay £x instead of £y... then there is nothing to legally stop you from doing that, and the seller's choice will be to agree a lower price or call your bluff and walk away from your money entirely and remarket the place.

The bottom line is that those survey results you quoted don't indicate you have any real grounds to pay a lower price, what gives you grounds to pay a lower price is that if sales contracts and deposits have not actually been exchanged, any proposed deal can be changed at any time by the buyer or seller. They could decide they need more money for some reason and tell you the price is going up or your not having it, and you could decide you want to pay less money for some reason and tell them the price is going down or you're not buying it.

If you are happy to give up the money you spent on surveys and legals (probably only a couple of thousand) and buy a different place instead, you could try it on, even if the survey had come back with cleaner results than the minor issues it found. But you do run the risk of being called a timewaster and having them say the deal is off.

Tom99

If the valualtion = your offer then I would not bother since the list, as said, is minor items.