Vendor refuses to renegotiate

TheJP

OP i note from your other thread that you need to be out of your rental by 14th January, is that still the case? If i were you i would ask for a minimal contribution of say £2k (that would at least cover new panes if the frames aren't that bad) and if that was turned down and if you really want the house i suggest you 'suck it up' and proceed. Otherwise you may find yourself having to find another rental which the demand is high right now plus the associated costs that go with renting.

MobileSaver

Crashy_Time said:

even if it sells tomorrow they are still probably not happy?

I do sometimes feel sorry for you and your "glass half empty" philosophy on life.

House prices are at record highs, if the sellers sell their terraced house tomorrow for £530,000 I suspect they will be very, very happy indeed!

To the OP, unless the windows are actually leaking I would not expect the seller to offer any more than a token few hundred quid to make you feel better. Look at it from the seller's point of view; why should they essentially give you thousands of pounds so that you can get brand new windows? Your only real hope is that the seller is keener to sell than you are to buy but that's a toss-a-coin situation...

Crashy_Time

MobileSaver said:

Crashy_Time said:

even if it sells tomorrow they are still probably not happy?

I do sometimes feel sorry for you and your "glass half empty" philosophy on life.

House prices are at record highs, if the sellers sell their terraced house tomorrow for £530,000 I suspect they will be very, very happy indeed!

To the OP, unless the windows are actually leaking I would not expect the seller to offer any more than a token few hundred quid to make you feel better. Look at it from the seller's point of view; why should they essentially give you thousands of pounds so that you can get brand new windows? Your only real hope is that the seller is keener to sell than you are to buy but that's a toss-a-coin situation...

The seller has already dropped their price by 70k, they are desperate to sell!

OliviaWw

Hi all, thanks so much for your advice and insight. It has helped us to think from the seller perspective. Update is the seller and us have agreed on a reduction of £2000 against the previously agreed sale price. So we are going ahead. 

The property is probate property, so no onward purchase is involved. I noticed several have asked. 

We are first time buyers (first time homeowner to be), very inexperienced in understanding how much work is actually needed for what kind of conditions, so could only really rely on the surveyor as well as the quote we received from the window fitter. But based on advice/reaction from some of you, I think we can probably get a local window fitter to do the work at a lower cost than £17k. 

Thanks again 

TheJP

OliviaWw said:

Hi all, thanks so much for your advice and insight. It has helped us to think from the seller perspective. Update is the seller and us have agreed on a reduction of £2000 against the previously agreed sale price. So we are going ahead. 

The property is probate property, so no onward purchase is involved. I noticed several have asked. 

We are first time buyers (first time homeowner to be), very inexperienced in understanding how much work is actually needed for what kind of conditions, so could only really rely on the surveyor as well as the quote we received from the window fitter. But based on advice/reaction from some of you, I think we can probably get a local window fitter to do the work at a lower cost than £17k. 

Thanks again 

Glad to hear you got to a positive outcome.

My advise is to live with the windows first and then see if you feel they need to be replaced or may just need some TLC.

maisie_cat

TheJP said:

My advise is to live with the windows first and then see if you feel they need to be replaced or may just need some TLC.

I'd second this, UPVC windows are relatively simple beasts and replacement glass, handles and locking bars are easy to replace. 

badger09

OliviaWw said:

Hi all, thanks so much for your advice and insight. It has helped us to think from the seller perspective. Update is the seller and us have agreed on a reduction of £2000 against the previously agreed sale price. So we are going ahead. 

The property is probate property, so no onward purchase is involved. I noticed several have asked. 

We are first time buyers (first time homeowner to be), very inexperienced in understanding how much work is actually needed for what kind of conditions, so could only really rely on the surveyor as well as the quote we received from the window fitter. But based on advice/reaction from some of you, I think we can probably get a local window fitter to do the work at a lower cost than £17k. 

Thanks again 

Sounds like a good compromise.

Not sure if you've mentioned before that this is a Probate property. Has Probate been granted yet? If not, you're very unlikely to be in by 14th Jan

MrsBrush

maisie_cat said:

TheJP said:

My advise is to live with the windows first and then see if you feel they need to be replaced or may just need some TLC.

I'd second this, UPVC windows are relatively simple beasts and replacement glass, handles and locking bars are easy to replace. 

Totally agree.
The survey on my new house advised replacement windows, which we were expecting (and to be fair none of them could have been any worse than our old house!). Because of the size of the house, we were estimating somewhere in the region of £5-6k.

When we moved in, it was clear that the windows were buried under years of dust and dirt inside and out, they were really stiff and the locks not turning properly. WD40 is magic stuff, all of the mechanical issues solved by my husband in 1/2 hour and we bought a bottle of strong chemical UPVC cleaner, bullet proof gloves and used a load of old rags and elbow grease - they all look brand new now! 

We decided not to negotiate with the vendor as we knew we were getting a great house a long way under its true value because it was all in such a mess!

ACG

Crashy_Time said:

ACG said:

Crashy_Time said:

do they accept the need for more price cuts or just sit on the market for months/years?

Typical Crashy. 

You have made some assumptions there havnt you. 
They "NEED" to take a price cut, the alternative being they wait for months or years. 

Who says it wont go on tomorrow and get snapped up for more than has been offered or at least the same amount? 

Has it been 10 years now you have been banging on about house prices being over valued? Brexit and a worldwide pandemic has not see house prices drop - I genuinely thought I was going to get to see the day you said you were right this year or last, but even with those 2 things happening at around the same time it has not effected things. Maybe this company in China defaulting may have see you right, but you could have cleared around a decades worth of mortgage payments in that time. 

Really? So no inflation and no threat of rate rises due to these things? Evergrande will have repercussions it seems, nobody seems to know how bad yet though. The seller has already taken a 70k price cut so even if it sells tomorrow they are still probably not happy?

Rate rises, you might be surprised what actually happens. A conference 2 weeks ago with a high street lender said they expect the base rate to go up by 1% over the next 5 years.

Inflation, inflation is high. But property prices are still holding. There may be slight drops in values when you take into account inflation by the end of next year. But it is not expected to be anything major. 

Evergrande is the big unknown but as British and European banks (I have no idea about other banks around the world) have quite a lot of liquidity (around 3x the amount percentage wise as they had in 2006/7) most banks should be able to ride out any hit from that. But time will tell. 

Fact remains though, if I had listened to you - I would be hugely worse off. I am actually looking forward to the day you are right. 

Crashy_Time

So the seller finally settled on a 72k price drop?