Misled by EA and Vendor re Cavity Walls - renegotiate offer?

Peggster1979

We have an an offer accepted on a property and are awaiting our Surveyors report.  Prior to the second viewing i emailed a list of questions one of which was whether or not the property had cavity walls or solid walls.  The EPC indicates that it is a solid wall construction.  The EA emailed stating that they are Cavity Walls but have not had cavity wall insulation.  He also verbally confirmed this at the viewing,  we then made our offer (£10k below asking price) which was accepted.  Our surveyor states that from a quick look at the outside of the property he also thinks its a solid wall construction but obviously we need to await the report.  I emailed the EA again seeking confirmation that they are cavity walls and he replied (with a disclaimer that they haven't conducted a survey themselves) insisting that the vendor states its a cavity wall construction and they believe it to be the case also.

My question is if the survey confirms it is a solid wall construction how strong are our grounds to renegotiate price?  When we made our offer we factored in the £1k it would cost to do the cavity wall insulation but if they are solid walls then obviously the cost to insulate will be significantly higher.  Can we argue that we were misled prior to making our offer or is this a very minor point and we will look silly if we try to negotiate a further say £10k of the price?  The property was listed at £435k and the vendor accepted £425k.  Apparently they have had "significant" interest in the property and only accepted our offer because we are very proceedable (sold - cash buyer).  The offer was only accepted 2 weeks ago so wouldn't be too much hassle for them to go back on the market if we threatened to pull out as a result of refusal to renegotiate. 

davidmcn

I doubt it's commonplace to start tweaking the price one way or another based on whether the walls are cavity or solid. Does your research suggest it's a factor? 

Peggster1979

davidmcn said:

I doubt it's commonplace to start tweaking the price one way or another based on whether the walls are cavity or solid. Does your research suggest it's a factor? 

Only in that insulation will be a lot more expensive with solid walls and it won't be as economical in energy efficiency.  

Chumy

Are you prepared to walk away if the seller rejects your lower offer?

Thrugelmir

If you wish to your revise offer then do it.  Tinkering with an odd £1k is subjective though when you are paying £425k for a property. 

davidmcn

Peggster1979 said:

davidmcn said:

I doubt it's commonplace to start tweaking the price one way or another based on whether the walls are cavity or solid. Does your research suggest it's a factor? 

Only in that insulation will be a lot more expensive with solid walls and it won't be as economical in energy efficiency.  

Sure, but the market price for a particular type of property in a particular neighbourhood already factors in whatever the typical method of construction is. 

SameOldRoundabout

I think if I were the seller and the large amount of interest was real I’d be telling you jog on with your offer to reduce by 10k. In fact, If I wasn’t desperate to sell and was confident of another buyer soon I’d pull out of the sale. EPCs are generally on the particulars so I don’t think you were misled, merely misinformed and who knows whether that was deliberate or not. 

Peggster1979

Thrugelmir said:

If you wish to your revise offer then do it.  Tinkering with an odd £1k is subjective though when you are paying £425k for a property. 

We were thinking to revise the offer to £10k lower with an expectation that they might go to £5k.  Even so, is this an unrealistic expectation based purely on it being solid walls rather than cavity walls? we feel that there should be some sort of recourse to being misled by the EA and vendor.

notrouble

Which would you prefer? Solid walls? Insulated cavity walls (with all the inherant potential structural problems)? Or uninsulated cavity walls (potentially colder)?

The agent does not know. He is not a surveyor and simply repeats what he's been told by the seller. Quite possibly the seller does not know. Many people are unaware of the construction of their own homes! The EPC should be accurate, but EPC assessors have about 12 hours training so an EPC is pretty unreliable!

Your surveyor should be able to answer the question - that's why you pay him.

Whether the seller would be willing to reduce the price if the construction is not what you want/expect, depends on a) how good you are at bargainig and b) how desperate they are to sell to you.

AdrianC

Peggster1979 said:

My question is if the survey confirms it is a solid wall construction how strong are our grounds to renegotiate price?

You can ask.
They can agree, or they can refuse.
If they refuse, you can decide to walk.

There are no "rules" over what is or is not somehow acceptable, and what %age anything means. You've made an offer, believing one thing. You now think you want to change that offer, since you're now aware of something else. You ask. They agree or don't. End of.

Peggster1979

SameOldRoundabout said:

I think if I were the seller and the large amount of interest was real I’d be telling you jog on with your offer to reduce by 10k. In fact, If I wasn’t desperate to sell and was confident of another buyer soon I’d pull out of the sale. EPCs are generally on the particulars so I don’t think you were misled, merely misinformed and who knows whether that was deliberate or not. 

Hence why I'm asking here first so as not to antagonise the vendor.  I just wanted to gauge people's opinions on how much of a bargaining tool it is being told something by the vendor about a property which may turn out to be incorrect and ultimately cost us more money in the long run.