House we are buying needs new roof, rewiring and new boiler, should we ask for money off?!

aoleks

if the roof does indeed need replacing (it's leaky, structurally weak or simply way beyond it's life span, then yes, getting money off (loads of money!) is kind of implied, unless a house worth, let's say £400k, is advertised at £380k. the same applies to other bits. if the boiler is broken and you'll have no way to properly heat up your house this coming or it's so old that it's 20 times as inefficient as a modern one, it's safe to assume that it's served its purpose and will need replacing. rewiring, the same.

a boiler is not expensive if the installation is already in place. you can get one on 0% finance for £2-3000 all together.

Bendy_House

CulBul85 said:

donutandbeer said:

You can ask and your vendor can refuse. I have made offers before on houses that I guess would need rewiring and already factored that price into my offer. Other buyers might have as well.

Roof I would think maybe not that easy to spot unless it’s literally falling apart. 

Boiler - I almost always ask how old the boiler is (or at least look at it and sort of guess) when viewing houses. So cost of new boiler would also have been factored in my offer.

That being said - if you won’t be able to afford the house otherwise then you just have to ask. Maybe the vendor will agree to go half way, but maybe they will try to relist the house or go back to other offers. 

Thank you for your response it’s been an extremely stressful year trying to secure a property in our town. We love this house but I do feel it is too much for us If there are thousands of pounds worth of stuff to do. 

We did ask about the boiler and that is 20 years old so we knew that would need doing. I just wanted to know if it was standard practice to ask for reductions because we’ve never done this before thanks again for your response

I think I can say with some certainly that every single homeowner on this forum needs a new roof, boiler and a rewire. At some point.

This forum is peppered with "survey says...new roof...rewiring..." and, when looked at more closely, this often turns out to be "Wiring is not to current regs", and "a few tiles have slipped", or "the roof is approaching the end of its natural life".

Would you like to post a link to the property, and knowledgeable folk on here might be able to make a judgement on the overall roof condition, for a start. And could you quote what - exactly - the survey says about the wiring, boiler and roof?

These surveys tend to give the worst case scenarios, but of course that doesn't mean they should be taken with a pinch. By that I mean these surveys mustn't miss out anything, or down-play any issue, or else they could find themselves liable to some degree.

But if you really want to know if it 'needs a new roof', then you should get a trusted local roofer in to have a look. Very good chance they can take a glance at the outside and say "That'll be good for another 20-odd years..." (unless the survey has pointed to rot or similar in the loft space?)

Noneforit999

Have you had your mortgage offer through? 

What is your LTV?

The fact you are 'maxed out' suggests you don't have money lying around to do the work needed anyway so unless you are planning to reduce the offer AND reduce your deposit amount, reducing the price on its own is likely not going to make enough of a difference money wise to get the work done anyway.

If you buy a £300k property with a 10% deposit and later reduce the offer down to £270k, the lender is going to likely value it at the offer price (i.e. £270k) meaning you would need £27k for a deposit leaving the difference left over only £3k.

If you are a cash buyer or have a large deposit which you can just reduce, lowering your offer doesn't automatically mean you have all that extra money left over

SavingPennies_2

When you're a FTB and you get a survey back it can look scary and expensive, but generally there's a lot of backside covering and rarely things "need" as much attention as a survey suggests. A good indicator is how was the house being lived in when you viewed, if people were living in "normal" conditions then you can be fairly certain those things don't really need doing or at least not for a while. If the house was derelict or people were living in poor conditions then that would be a concern you might have a money pit on your hands. As far as the boiler goes I'd say that's a no go for reduction as you knew it was 20 years old when you offered. With electrics, you can generally get an idea on viewing too, old looking plug sockets and that sort of thing (although new sockets doesn't necessarily mean new wires of course). As for the roof you can ask for a reduction, just be prepared that worst case they say no and withdraw the sale if they think you'll be a troublesome buyer, but then again they might be desperate to sell and happy to get a bit less to keep you as a buyer..who knows?!

lookstraightahead

Put it this way, if you thought that it wouldn't need any of those things for the duration you were there, then I understand that. But if at any point over the next say 15 years it's possible then not really.

personally I never offer over as it doesn't rest easy with me,  as I believe you are regretting it - which is also understandable.

forgive me if it's been said but had it been valued officially yet?

AlexMac

CulBul85 said:

1...I just wanted to know if it was standard practice to ask for reductions because we’ve never done this before thanks again...

2.We are going to have to get quotes for all of the above.,,, we have been looking for over a year and have been outbid every time.

3. Am I right in thinking that we should negotiate the price..? In the last few weeks the market has seriously slowed down so I’m hoping we’re in a good position... 

 I can't improve on the advice from Savingpennies_2 which above is good, and a lot more helpful than some who seem to judge you harshly for inexperience... 

But the simple answer to is yes. 

Always worth a try.  The outcome will depend on whether you're right in your assessment of the local market but also on your (and their) negotiating style and whether they believe you'll walk away.   And as others have said, the vendor may agree, refuse, or meet you in the middle.  As an anecdote, when my wife sold her former family home, 20 years ago in an average market, her buyer tried for a reduction north of £25k on the basis of a survey (by their mate who was actually RICS qualified).  This revealed all your stuff, but some other really picky bits.  She was incensed that they were calling her lovely character-rich Victorian property a slum, and wanted to cancel the sale and tell them to  go forth and multiply. 

I wound her down, and we responded point-by point- e.g, reminding them that
- The roof did have visible leaks but that they had seen this on viewings, announced an intention to replace it as part of a loft conversion and this was already reflected in the price. 
- No old houses' wiring complies with latest standards but wasn't shorting or fusing. 
- The boiler, while old, still provided hot water and c/h, etc...
In the end, we met halfway with a £10-12k reduction, as they did discover other legit stuff we'd not even noticed, or which we'd lived with; bits of damp, some dry rot, deteriorating original timber windows...

So I'd give it a go; hard but courteous, based on quotes.  But, as you seem really keen, reconcile to maybe not getting much off.  As other say, the roof is either leaking or it ain't, there is hot water or there ain't (and 20-year old boilers can be better than modern Combis with their 10-year design life) and the lights and power circuits are either working or not?  I seem to have had to replace the boiler in every one of the last half-dozen properties we've bought, and we did buy a seaside flat once with Bakelite "Dolly" light switches and black rubber surface-mounted cabling along the skirting to the wall-points!  I bet yours is better?

Good luck

Jaybee_16

As others have said, is the roof leaking or functional? Will it need replacing now or in a few years?

I'm mindful of my survey which headlined with the roof needing to be replaced but several pages further on into the details the report said the roof was original and would need replacing within the next 20 years.  Devil is in the detail.

eidand

CulBul85 said:

We had our offer of £15,000 over the asking price accepted on a house. We have just had the surveyor out and he said it needs a new roof a new boiler and rewiring. We are going to have to get quotes for all of the above. We completely maxed out to get this house as we have been looking for over a year and have been outbid every time.

Am I right in thinking that we should negotiate the price seen as the above problems will cost us a fortune? In the last few weeks the market has seriously slowed down so I’m hoping we’re a good position to renegotiate price. 

Any opinions welcome, thank you.

Are you an FTB?

If you are, you might want to continue looking because if the bank comes with an evaluation which agrees with the original price, before you offered over then you won't have any success trying to lower the price. Be very careful because you're more than likely wasting money at this point.

canaldumidi

user1977 said:

Can you clarify what you mean by it "needing" any of these things? i.e. is the roof currently leaking, does the boiler currently work, is the wiring faulty? They may all just be "nice to haves". 

This does need clarifying if advice is to be given.

katejo

CulBul85 said:

We had our offer of £15,000 over the asking price accepted on a house. We have just had the surveyor out and he said it needs a new roof a new boiler and rewiring. We are going to have to get quotes for all of the above. We completely maxed out to get this house as we have been looking for over a year and have been outbid every time.

Am I right in thinking that we should negotiate the price seen as the above problems will cost us a fortune? In the last few weeks the market has seriously slowed down so I’m hoping we’re a good position to renegotiate price. 

Any opinions welcome, thank you.

When I was looking for my first place back in 1993, I offered on a flat which seemed pretty good but the survey revealed quite a few problems including rotten window frames where the owner had paid someone to paint over the rot to conceal it. I tried a lower offer but it was rejected and I pulled out. Slightly later, I found a different flat in a new area but, by chance, the estate agent who showed me round had previously worked in the previous office and was familiar with the property which had fallen through for me. He told me that the owners had severe negative equity on the property and had  probably refused to lower the price because of that. It was actually worth quite a bit less than I had offered. I felt I had made a lucky escape. 
In your position, I would  risk trying for a lower price or pull out, particularly as you have already maxed yourself.