To ask for a reduction in price following survey

housebuyer7

Hi,

We are buying a Victorian mid terrace property in England for £475,000. It needs work doing to modernise it, which we accepted upon making our offer. However some issues have come back like windows needing to be replaced and asbestos which we didn’t fully anticipate but can accept with an older property needing modernising, and therefore do not intend to dwell on this.

On the other hand, we have been told we need to urgently remove the cement render from the back of the house as it’s causing all sorts of damp problems internally and it is has blown with cracks. We have had the wall assessed by a masonry contractor who has done a survey for us and the quote is £13,500 to remove the render, re-render in lime and limewash. Our building surveyor advised this work needed completing as a priority and as soon as possible. This is not something we had anticipated. 

Our building surveyor didn’t value our property but we feel this is something we might want to go back to the vendor about regarding the purchase price. We are wondering whether to ask for £13,000 off, or maybe half an ask for around £6000 off. I feel very uncomfortable doing this and was very unimpressed when our buyer asked us for £2000 off our house due to a leaning chimney and we told him no and that he could pull out if he wanted. It’s just a lot of work we had not budgeted for…

Brie

You can certainly ask for a reduction.  If you want them to consider it rather than going all out and saying no you might want to see a copy of the quote and say you'll consider £10k off rather than the full price.  And then prepare to negotiate down from there.  

Our first house purchase our survey came back with issues that would have cost more than £10k and I asked for that amount off.  Vendor said no, realising that the market at that time was on the up and that the next person would be offering even higher than we had.  Can't blame them for saying no, and we ended up getting a much nicer place so it worked out well.

housebuyer7

I understand. At the end of the day we will proceed with buying this house regardless, it’s just going to have a massive detrimental effect on our finances, and if we could get some off for it that would help enormously but we wouldn’t want them to pull out over us requesting it. We are quite far down the line now.

jonnydeppiwish!

I think the issues you’ve had raised would have be noticeable upon viewing, so as a vendor, I wouldn’t be prepared to lower the price.

That said, the market is changing, so there’s no harm in asking. As previous poster, be prepared to negotiate.

FreeBear

housebuyer7 said:  ... we have been told we need to urgently remove the cement render from the back of the house as it’s causing all sorts of damp problems internally and it is has blown with cracks. We have had the wall assessed by a masonry contractor who has done a survey for us and the quote is £13,500 to remove the render, re-render in lime and limewash.

If the render covers more than 25% of the exterior walls, removing will trigger compliance with Building Regulations (up to you if you involve Building Control) - There is a requirement to improve the thermal performance of a property, and removing the old render means you should be adding insulation where technically possible and with a simple payback time of less than 15 years. For a solid brick wall, you should be looking at cork or woodfibre boards to maintain breathability. These can be attached to either the outside or inside of the wall before rendering over - My preference is internally as it gives you the opportunity to insulate around the window/door reveals and gives you a nice smooth wall to paint/paper.

Yes, insulating will increase the cost, but with the way fuel prices are going at the moment, it would be short sighted not to do the work whilst the opportunity is there. As an added bonus, it should make the property easier to sell when the time comes.

sienew

housebuyer7 said:

Hi,

We are buying a Victorian mid terrace property in England for £475,000. It needs work doing to modernise it, which we accepted upon making our offer. However some issues have come back like windows needing to be replaced and asbestos which we didn’t fully anticipate but can accept with an older property needing modernising, and therefore do not intend to dwell on this.

On the other hand, we have been told we need to urgently remove the cement render from the back of the house as it’s causing all sorts of damp problems internally and it is has blown with cracks. We have had the wall assessed by a masonry contractor who has done a survey for us and the quote is £13,500 to remove the render, re-render in lime and limewash. Our building surveyor advised this work needed completing as a priority and as soon as possible. This is not something we had anticipated. 

Our building surveyor didn’t value our property but we feel this is something we might want to go back to the vendor about regarding the purchase price. We are wondering whether to ask for £13,000 off, or maybe half an ask for around £6000 off. I feel very uncomfortable doing this and was very unimpressed when our buyer asked us for £2000 off our house due to a leaning chimney and we told him no and that he could pull out if he wanted. It’s just a lot of work we had not budgeted for…

I'd 100% ask for the full amount. They can refuse and maybe you might negotiate down to the £6k. Some of the buyers I've dealt with would have requested £20k off for the inconvenienced/risk.

housebuyer7

The issue I have is that I think the house is priced well, and fully modernised and defect-free would go for around £550,000…

jonnydeppiwish!

housebuyer7 said:

The issue I have is that I think the house is priced well, and fully modernised and defect-free would go for around £550,000…

The word is ‘Might’. Depending on the quality of the workmanship, and the market. If you’re looking to property develop, perhaps now is not the best time. 

housebuyer7

jonnydeppiwish! said:

housebuyer7 said:

The issue I have is that I think the house is priced well, and fully modernised and defect-free would go for around £550,000…

The word is ‘Might’. Depending on the quality of the workmanship, and the market. If you’re looking to property develop, perhaps now is not the best time. 

I am looking to buy a house for a fair price based on the situation at hand.

youth_leader

If the house is priced at £75K less than a comparable fully renovated house because of it's condition, I doubt the vendor will agree to a reduction.