Estate Agent contacting Surveyor?

hairymaclary

Back in early March, we had an offer accepted on a house. The survey uncovered a couple of major things, so we've asked to negotiate the asking price. This was a week ago, and we still haven't had any feedback, but have discovered that the estate agent has contacted the surveyor and asked to discuss the survey. Is this normal behaviour?

Comms69

Well it's not illegal, but estate agents are stupid.

In anycase you can negotiate based upon anything. For example you could say i've just knocked a grand off the offer for you contacting my surveyor. 

hairymaclary

But what do you think the estate agent is hoping to achieve? 

kingstreet

That you are telling the truth about what you claim as a reason for reducing your offer?

davidmcn

I expect they're trying to find out more about the surveyor's opinion, from the horse's mouth, before they discuss with their client. Obviously your surveyor is under no obligation to chat with the EA (not without your consent anyway).

hairymaclary

We shared a few relevant extracts from the survey to support our request for renegotiation, so we are telling the truth. Just seems a bit odd.

kingstreet

Did you provide written evidence of the reasons - pages from the survey/valuation? If I was the EA that's the first thing I would have requested.

hairymaclary

Yes, we did that. So as I say, it seems odd that the EA would still want to discuss with the surveyor.

Caz3121

you want to reduce the price based on some survey findings, what valuation did the survey have in its current condition?
If the survey came up equal to your offer then the asking price may well have accounted for the works needing done so they may not reduce, if your survey came out lower than your offer then you would be in a position to negotiate

hairymaclary

Caz3121 said:

you want to reduce the price based on some survey findings, what valuation did the survey have in its current condition?
If the survey came up equal to your offer then the asking price may well have accounted for the works needing done so they may not reduce, if your survey came out lower than your offer then you would be in a position to negotiate

The surveyor didn't give a valuation (some of them seem not to these days), but uncovered something pretty major that the seller didn't know about. This thing will cost a lot to fix.

AdrianC

hairymaclary said:

Back in early March, we had an offer accepted on a house. The survey uncovered a couple of major things, so we've asked to negotiate the asking price. This was a week ago, and we still haven't had any feedback, but have discovered that the estate agent has contacted the surveyor and asked to discuss the survey. Is this normal behaviour?

You've said you want money off because of the survey results. Why would it be unreasonable for the vendor, via the EA, to ask to see the survey that you're waving about...? If I was the vendor, I'd be wanting it before entering any discussion, too.