Negotiating for reduction after building survey done

nanao

Need some advice please. We put it an offer of 492K on a 3 bed house with an asking price of £500K which was accepted. The asking price is £15K less than similar house in the street as it needs some modernisation i.e new bathroom, new kitchen, flooring change, painting/decorating etc which was quite obvious during viewings. We have just got the survey report and It has come back with few things as urgent repair or needs immediate attention such as most likelihood of Asbestos presence in the textured ceilings artex, blown gasket seals and aged windows in poor condition recommending them to be replaced, damaged roof over the front bay window, poor firewall within the roof void etc, which weren't obvious to us. Our main concern is the cost of replacing all double glazing windows and removal of asbestos as it seems to be an expensive job (north of 10K). Is it reasonable to negotiate with the seller for reduction in the price to put right as we were not expecting this and did not consider it when putting the offer? There are also some "repair or replacement requiring attention but not considered to be urgent" which would cost about 2K. 
Regarding ceilings containing asbestos, is it best to get tested as we would definitely want to put new lights in the ceilings and it would disturb?

Thanks in advance!

Davesnave

Forget trying to get something off for potential asbestos in the artex finishes. The amount is small, the type is the least dangerous and there are ways to mitigate any risk if installing lights.

You also don't 'need' to replace all the double glazing just because of some blown gasket seals. If the windows are in really poor condition, that would have been obvious. Like other things in your 'not so urgent' category windows can be replaced on a rolling programme of maintenance, which is what you get with any older property.

It sounds as if the vendor/agent has maybe priced-in defects, but there's no harm in trying to negotiate. It depends on location, but most people are nervous now envisaging selling in the coming winter which seems likely to bring mostly bad economic news.

pcwep8

nanao said:

Need some advice please. We put it an offer of 492K on a 3 bed house with an asking price of £500K which was accepted. The asking price is £15K less than similar house in the street as it needs some modernisation i.e new bathroom, new kitchen, flooring change, painting/decorating etc which was quite obvious during viewings. We have just got the survey report and It has come back with few things as urgent repair or needs immediate attention such as most likelihood of Asbestos presence in the textured ceilings artex, blown gasket seals and aged windows in poor condition recommending them to be replaced, damaged roof over the front bay window, poor firewall within the roof void etc, which weren't obvious to us. Our main concern is the cost of replacing all double glazing windows and removal of asbestos as it seems to be an expensive job (north of 10K). Is it reasonable to negotiate with the seller for reduction in the price to put right as we were not expecting this and did not consider it when putting the offer? There are also some "repair or replacement requiring attention but not considered to be urgent" which would cost about 2K. 
Regarding ceilings containing asbestos, is it best to get tested as we would definitely want to put new lights in the ceilings and it would disturb?

Thanks in advance!

I had a similar problem a couple of weeks ago. If the valuation comes in at the purchase price or above then I doubt there will be much room to negotiate. Always worth a try though. 

SameOldRoundabout

Sounds like it’s already priced to take the work into account, if you’ve got it £23k under comparable properties. If your mortgage didn’t downvalue then as a seller I would not negotiate unless it was for things that couldn’t possibly have been known about. Blown glazing is pretty obvious. 

HCIMbtw

In a house that 'needs modernisation', with artex all over the ceilings, all all of this stuff should be pretty evident and expected.. unless you know nothing about houses. Artex has a high likelihood of containing asbestos, older insulation and fireproofing is poor, old windows should probably be replaced... The only one that would stand out as maybe you couldn't be expected to pick it up is the damaged roof to the bay, but it depends what the surveyor has picked up here.  

You can try renegotiate, that's your perogative, but as a seller I would say there is nothing their you shouldn't expect of factor in. 

FinallyStoppedLurking

The windows are the big expense. I'd have thought that would be obvious when you viewed the property so, if I was the vendor I'd be of the opinion you knew that when the original price was agreed and would not negotiate.

UnderOffer

Did the surveyor agree with the purchase price you offered or down value it? 

davidmcn

Bear in mind that even if the Artex contains asbestos, it was in tiny concentrations, so not really a big risk (unlike say working with things which were 100% asbestos). Certainly not worthy of adjusting the price, any property over 30ish years old might have asbestos hidden in it somewher.

nanao

Thanks all for the advice! We are in London and first time buyer. We know nothing about houses - what artex, blown windows are and other issues I mentioned. We only came to know about the issues from the report. When we initially put the offer we didn't consider this and thought it was only cosmetic update that the house needs plus the bathroom and kitchen.
Any idea how much replacing windows/units would cost (standard uVPC)? About 20 units in total.

Davesnave

nanao said:

We are in London and first time buyer. We know nothing about houses -

I've never had a lot of spare money, so I know comparatively  little about investment, but if I did have £490k kicking about, I'd be avidly reading up on it, here and elsewhere!

It's good though that you have listened to folks here and it isn't possible to know about everything, which is why there are many separate forums on this site.

nanao

pcwep8 said:

nanao said:

Need some advice please. We put it an offer of 492K on a 3 bed house with an asking price of £500K which was accepted. The asking price is £15K less than similar house in the street as it needs some modernisation i.e new bathroom, new kitchen, flooring change, painting/decorating etc which was quite obvious during viewings. We have just got the survey report and It has come back with few things as urgent repair or needs immediate attention such as most likelihood of Asbestos presence in the textured ceilings artex, blown gasket seals and aged windows in poor condition recommending them to be replaced, damaged roof over the front bay window, poor firewall within the roof void etc, which weren't obvious to us. Our main concern is the cost of replacing all double glazing windows and removal of asbestos as it seems to be an expensive job (north of 10K). Is it reasonable to negotiate with the seller for reduction in the price to put right as we were not expecting this and did not consider it when putting the offer? There are also some "repair or replacement requiring attention but not considered to be urgent" which would cost about 2K. 
Regarding ceilings containing asbestos, is it best to get tested as we would definitely want to put new lights in the ceilings and it would disturb?

Thanks in advance!

I had a similar problem a couple of weeks ago. If the valuation comes in at the purchase price or above then I doubt there will be much room to negotiate. Always worth a try though. 

The valuation was okay but it was a desk valuation as the mortgage provider just changed the product and property from an already existing mortgage offer.