Over-the-top surveyor destroyed our house sale

brasso

theartfullodger said:

ClockworkTV said:

...

I repeat : I blame the surveyor when he is innaccurate and alarmist. For instance he said 'the windows need refurbishing' - not true - we did this when we moved in - one window only has some putty coming away but that's it. ....

So you agree some refurbishment is required (to the failing putty).

Ignoring my comment, just because you think no refurbishment is required for windows doesn;t mean everyone else has to agree with you.  Strangely, people have different views of the same reality.

Best regards, hope things get better.

"The windows need refurbishing" is quitedifferent from pointing out that the putty on one window needs attention.

GDB2222

brasso said:

theartfullodger said:

ClockworkTV said:

...

I repeat : I blame the surveyor when he is innaccurate and alarmist. For instance he said 'the windows need refurbishing' - not true - we did this when we moved in - one window only has some putty coming away but that's it. ....

So you agree some refurbishment is required (to the failing putty).

Ignoring my comment, just because you think no refurbishment is required for windows doesn;t mean everyone else has to agree with you.  Strangely, people have different views of the same reality.

Best regards, hope things get better.

"The windows need refurbishing" is quitedifferent from pointing out that the putty on one window needs attention.

Perhaps, the surveyor thinks that a lot more refurbishment is needed? We can have no idea, without even seeing the place, whether that is reasonable.

The OP doesn't really want or need advice, and just came online to sound off, AFICS. This report must be very disappointing for the OP, after all the work they have done, so that's very understandable.  There's absolutely no comeback, so just get on and remarket.

Mahsroh

The one benefit you have that many vendors don't is that the prospective buyers shared this report with you, which they don't have to do. So when remarketing your house you now know what issues may come up in future surveys. 

[Deleted User]

You won't give the details that made the buyer back out so I suspect there is something significant. 

Section62

brasso said:

theartfullodger said:

ClockworkTV said:

...

I repeat : I blame the surveyor when he is innaccurate and alarmist. For instance he said 'the windows need refurbishing' - not true - we did this when we moved in - one window only has some putty coming away but that's it. ....

So you agree some refurbishment is required (to the failing putty).

Ignoring my comment, just because you think no refurbishment is required for windows doesn;t mean everyone else has to agree with you.  Strangely, people have different views of the same reality.

Best regards, hope things get better.

"The windows need refurbishing" is quitedifferent from pointing out that the putty on one window needs attention.

Are you a surveyor by any chance?

The putty on one window needing attention might suggest that other windows refurbished at the same time may be equally affected by putty-gate, and the putty on them may also need attention in the near future (even if the paint is perhaps currently disguising the problem).

The whole thing is subjective - one person's "perfectly fine" can be another's "needs refurbishing".  In theory employing a surveyor should result in consistency and objectiveness, but given the litigious world we live in (e.g. houses suing for libel) the result is always going to be surveyors taking a more critical approach to any defects they do happen to notice.

lookstraightahead

I think unless you've lived in an old house, there's a lot to learn.

we bought an old house this year with indeed about the same number of pages. The vendors had a structural engineer carry out a survey prior to putting the house on the market, in preparation for any full survey a buyer may do.

Whilst I agree with it probably being over the top, as a vendor you should be prepared for:

lots of back covering 
lots of descriptions with things that 'could' go wrong as they're old 
Buyers in shock (as we were, until we researched)
loads of innaccurate descriptions about damp 🤣
if you've been offered over asking price, people expecting discounts

the one thing that helped us as buyers was the engineers report as it helped the surveyor to not say 'potential' as much. We also bought with a low LTV knowing full well that old houses need work.

it's all a bit bizarre as new houses tend to be as sturdy as cardboard but hey ho.

one piece of advice - do your own engineers survey and be prepared with answers to questions.

Sandtree

ClockworkTV said:

Our buyers freaked out and pulled out of the sale without even any discussion. 

You cannot do anything about the survey, and no one here can really opine on the examples of things that you have called out. To play devil's advocate our vendor made a big deal about the kitchen they had put in but it was very poorly installed and totally impractical... the first thing we wanted to do was to rip it out and replace it.

If you want to try and save the sale then you need to try and open dialog but if they are an inexperienced buyer the cost of retaining them may be too much to pay -v- someone more savvy with older properties that would be expecting a lot of points raised on a thorough survey.

Chris_English

propertyhunter said:

I mean it's a 300 year old house, so what do buyers expect? It'll last longer than a new build I bet. 

It may, or it may not.

Buyers possibly expected it to be in better condition than it is. Some old houses need nothing doing at all, some need to be gutted and nearly rebuilt.

theartfullodger

What many forget about 300-yr old property or other old stuff, when they state "Ah, but they knew how to build in those days" is that all the cr*p stuff fell down years ago.  The only 300-yr old stuff left is, by self-selection, the well built & maintained stuff.

ReadingTim

tl/dr:

Vendor: "the glass is half full"
Surveyor: "the glass is half empty"
Vendor: "that's factually incorrect, I'm gonna sue for libel..."