Buyer Asking us reduce house sale by 9K but not allowing us to see survey.

Lolarose13

Hi there,

I’m after some advice please.  Our buyer has asked for us to reduce our sale price by 9K due to her recent homebuyers survey. We have asked for her to share the relevant parts of the survey. She has refused siting data protection! she has said the survey found evidence of woodworm in the garage, vegetation on the house roof. She sent a builder round who has quoted nearly 9k for woodworm treatment, guttering cleaning, new garage roofing, garden wall repair etc. The builder was here about 5 minutes and was only in the garage and garden.🙄

Our argument is she is expecting us to reduce the agreed price by 9K but is not willing to give us documentary evidence of this. I get she has paid for the survey and is under no obligation to share it. But are we supposed to just take her word for it. TBH it was a complete shock and we feel concerned that this is a tactic to reduce the price otherwise why else would she withhold the relevant information. She is a first time buyer and is apparently putting a sizeable deposit down of 100k so we’re presuming her mortgage has been approved. Our house is a late sixties 3 bed semi with downstairs shower room and study. 

We’re not asking to see the whole survey just the relevant parts that apparently require immediate attention. We are in the process of getting independent quotes from a roofer and builder as the quote seems extortionate. Incidentally the surveyor arrived with an auditor in tow and was here for over an hour so probably unlucky that everything was checked with a fine tooth comb. 

Would welcome any thoughts and thanks for reading. 

Lola

aoleks

Nothing in the survey that prevents them for sharing it with you, these are the typical idiots who heard about GDPR and now won’t share anything because of “data protection”…

as for the reduction itself, I’m not too sure, sounds like a lot. Vegetation on the roof = moss, no need to do anything about it unless it’s exteemely bad and the roof is leaking. Guttering cleaning? £200 for all windows, gutterings, soffits etc.

garden wall repair? Give me a break.

sounds like bulls**t to me. Do you have other offers on the house?

MobileSaver

Lolarose13 said:

Our buyer has asked for us to reduce our sale price by 9K due to her recent homebuyers survey. We have asked for her to share the relevant parts of the survey. She has refused siting data protection!

If it were me I'd simply decline her revised offer and get the estate agent to have the house back on the market by the end of the day.

newsgroupmonkey_

Do you think you could get the same money elsewhere?
Ditch the FTB and buy from someone sensible.

The_Unready

As already said, what's in the survey is a side issue (for you).

The only decision you need to make is whether or not to accept the price reduction (or attempt to negotiate). You don't need to see the survey for that.

Only you can make that call.

Lolarose13

We did have another slightly higher offer and foolishly in hindsight we went with her as she put the offer in first. Big regret now. But that was two months ago so they’ve probably got somewhere else now. We’re in a very short chain. Our purchase is a vacant bungalow with no chain. Trouble is we’re desperate to more to be nearer to our son whose in supported living and we can see the bungalow slipping away. 

So we’re panicking now. 

jonnydeppiwish!

As others, politely decline their revised offer and instruct the EA to re-market it if they refuse to keep to the original offer.

Section62

Lolarose13 said:

We have asked for her to share the relevant parts of the survey. She has refused siting data protection!

Data protection has no relevance here.

Out of that list, the need for "woodworm treatment" and "new garage roofing" are possibly things that wouldn't have been apparent on viewing the property, so there may be some justification for asking for a price reduction for those items.  The question is whether they are bad enough that action is required, and how much allowance it would be reasonable to make for them.  An extract from the surveyor's report would help you make that assessment, but the buyer is not obliged to share it with you.

The bottom line is wherever your balance between losing the sale and accepting less money lies.  If you aren't in a hurry to sell and you think another buyer will offer the same (net) price then negotiate with the buyer, or tell them you won't accept a reduction.

One thing is sure though.  There's not enough information to come to the conclusion that the buyer's claims "sounds like bulls**t".  In fact the reported defects are entirely consistent with a late 60's property in need of some maintenance.

Noneforit999

Agree with above, tell your EA you won't be reducing the price of the house and she either pays what she offered or it goes back on the market.

The hard ball approach often works and if it doesn't, at the very least it might force her to provide the survey details.

Bear in mind she has spent money already, conveyancing fees, survey costs etc so its unlikely she will pull out fully so as the vendor, you have the upper hand here somewhat so play hard ball. Worst case she backs out and you have to re list it. 

powerful_Rogue

I agree with the others. I would decline the revised off as there is no evidence to support it and remarket.

babyblade41

refuse & Re-list ASAP...