Renegotiating house price after survey

SameOldRoundabout

hazyjo said:

firsttimebuyerABC said:

The lendor for mortgage did a valuation and it came out at the same as our offer price, but, they didn't attend the property and seemed to do the valuation virtually. Because of this I'm not taking it as gospel. 
We specifically didn't pay for a valuation from our surveyor and just got the structural survey. 

With nothing in writing from a valuation saying it's worth less, I would not drop a significant amount and would remarket.

Ditto. I might drop a few grand as a gesture toward repairs but without a down valuation I would negotiate very little and you could take it or leave. 

As a buyer I’d want to know more about the potential subsidence rather urgently. What exactly did that part say?

tom9980

I had a cash buyer pull out because a property I was selling was "falling down". The surveyor noted that there was some uneven flooring and this may be a sign of subsidence. If the surveyor had asked the carpet and vinyl would have been lifted and he could have been shown that the floorboards were original and had been lifted to retrofit plumbing, electrics and heating systems. This was a cheap DIY fix in reality and nothing like the £15k+ that had been quoted by a builder who was not even shown the property just a survey which is always written with large caveats to help prevent the surveyor being sued when he misses something.

Now my point here is to investigate the issues thrown up by the surveyor so you can get the full picture but realise he is not a specialist and you will need to carefully choose tradesmen to quote and investigate because I am willing to bet "potential" is merely the surveyor covering themselves.

FreeBear

SameOldRoundabout said: As a buyer I’d want to know more about the potential subsidence rather urgently. What exactly did that part say?

Quite a lot of London housing stock is built on clay. The cheaper Victorian terrace houses often didn't have any foundations to speak of. The attached image illustrates the point -

If you want to know more about the evolution of buildings and the regulations involved, see - https://fet.uwe.ac.uk/conweb/house_ages/elements/print.htm

Missy79

I think you need to know more about the extent of the problems, if it turns out that the surveyor is correct and none of these issues are obvious at viewing I don't think it's unreasonable to negotiate for at least some of the costs. It is also normal for a full survey not to include a valuation unless you pay extra for it. 
I would seek further advice from a structural engineer regarding the issues and then pass all of this information to your Solicitor and bank, these are material issues that may well affect their valuation. An altered bank valuation would in any event be more useful for any potential negotiations than one you've commissioned yourself that the seller would no doubt choose to ignore.

hazyjo

Missy79 said:

An altered bank valuation would in any event be more useful for any potential negotiations than one you've commissioned yourself that the seller would no doubt choose to ignore.

Not if they don't have spare cash if the vendor won't drop as the lender would more than likely reduce what they'll lend. The vendor would still be under no obligation to accept a lower offer.