Should I Allow Seller's Solicitor Part of My Survey?

Mercurial

I just had a survey which showed an extension was very badly built.  I am wanting to renegotiate the price it's only ten years old and already has serious problems.  I have forwarded part of the survey highlighting these issues to the estate agent to forward to the seller.  He now wants to copy the information to the seller's solicitor.  Should I allow this?  He says it can help us.  Would it really help me?  TIA

unforeseen

Read the conditions that your surveyor may have stipulated on who can see all or part of the report. 

Doozergirl

unforeseen said:

Read the conditions that your surveyor may have stipulated on who can see all or part of the report. 

There are stipulations on who can *read* a report?! 

OP, what do you have to lose by showing it to them?   People need to understand why you want to renegotiate and the best way of doing that is to show them the scary survey - because most surveys read like a scene from a disaster movie!  They're going to be as worried by it as you are.  

I don't really understand why people might want to be super protective over the things.  They're the key resource to negotiating for a buyer and sensible discussion of the document can help
keep the sale on track.    The worst that happens is that the sale collapses because it was going to anyway.   

The money for the survey has gone, regardless.  The best case scenario is that you save yourself more than the cost of it in negotiation.  

If the vendor knows what the issue is, it's not news to them and puts them in no better position.    If they don't know, then it backs up your concerns and allows the vendor the chance to consider it and create properly informed dialogue with you.  

Our buyers were scared by their survey.  Thankfully, they sent it to us and we had a meeting at the house where we went over all the highlighted points and looked over all the issues mentioned together in detail.  That might seem a bit extreme but I know that they were glad they did.  

Some of them simply weren't issues at all - the main one being roof that was 'nearing the end of its life' is five years old but uses reclaimed tiles, and the other niggles we showed, got sorted and invited them back again to see it all.    Otherwise we'd have knocked a little bit off for them.   It was win/win.   Otherwise what?  If they'd not have shown us, we'd have a had a strange stand off because the buyer said (rather then the survey said) it needed a new roof.  

Same if the shoe was on the other foot, btw.  If there was an issue with a building, I'd want the vendor properly informed as to why, so that they could understand and respond to the detailed observations, not hearsay.  People do try it on! 

There's nothing wrong with a bit of transparency and a surveyor's wording makes it a lot less personal.  

Mercurial

Doozergirl thanks.  I had no problem showing part of the survey to the seller.  I have never been asked if it was ok for the solicitor to look at.  I will definitely want to renegotiate the price.  Thanks.  I will ask EA to forward to seller's solicitor.

princeofpounds

Normally, the intellectual property in the report remains the property of the surveyor, and there is a general prohibition about distributing the entire report to third parties without permission. Not that I've ever heard anyone get in trouble for doing so in a residential situation.

However, under fair use copyright laws you are perfectly entitled to use and distribute reasonable extracts from the report, much as you would if quoting a passage from a book in an essay, for example. There is zero issue from the side of the surveyor in terms of doing this, it's one of the purposes of the report.

As for the EA asking permission to show it to the vendor's solicitor... well firstly it's nice that he is asking. It's slightly confusing why he wants to do this however. Whilst it's perfectly normal for a vendor to require some evidence of claimed survey problems before considering a price cut, it's simply not a legal matter. However, perhaps the solicitor is handling the sale (they sometimes do, though usually as executors for an estate or representatives of a bank), or perhaps is going beyond their standard role in terms of advice to their client. It doesn't matter very much.

So yes, you should do it.

AdrianC

If you don't want anybody seeing the survey, don't point to it as a renegotiating tool.
If you want to negotiate on it, show your cards or be assumed to be bluffing.

Remember, too - the EA is not your EA, they're the vendor's EA. So if you're happy to show to one of the vendor's professional assistants, why not the other?

eddddy

There's probably no harm in sharing the survey...

...but assuming the survey is describing problems with the building, I'm not really sure why a solicitor wants to see it. Solicitors don't generally get involved in assessing (or arguing about)  the condition of buildings etc.  And they don't generally give advice to sellers on price negotiations either.

(Unless perhaps, the seller is contemplating litigation against the builder who built the extension with the serious problems.)

So it might be worth trying to establish exactly why the solicitor wants to see the survey - or perhaps, why the EA wants the solicitor to see the survey. (It might just be a 'hare-brained' idea by the EA, which won't really help anything.)


Edit to add...
Thinking about it, if it had been requested by the seller's solicitor, it's more likely to have been made via your solicitor - and not via the EA.

Mercurial

Thanks for the comments.  If the sale goes through this would be my fourth house purchase and I've never been asked if it was OK for the solicitor to receive the issues regarding the survey.  I was interested why the EA said it would help "us".  I took that to mean her client as they are working for the seller not me.  I have agreed to forward the areas of concern to the solicitor.

davidmcn

Mercurial said:

I was interested why the EA said it would help "us".  I took that to mean her client as they are working for the seller not me.

Probably more "it will help everyone proceed with the transaction" (and the EA get their fee...).

SpiderLegs

Mercurial said:

I just had a survey which showed an extension was very badly built.  I am wanting to renegotiate the price it's only ten years old and already has serious problems.  I have forwarded part of the survey highlighting these issues to the estate agent to forward to the seller.  He now wants to copy the information to the seller's solicitor.  Should I allow this?  He says it can help us.  Would it really help me?  TIA

The solicitor is going to send a threatening letter. Either to the surveyor or whoever built the extension.

pinkteapot

I don't see the issue. The solicitor works for the seller. If I were the seller I'd just forward it on to my solicitor anyway, if relevant (and wouldn't think to ask you first if you'd sent it to me).