On what grounds could I reasonably request a reduction in price?

Sarah1Mitty2

Noneforit999 said:

BigBoss said:

I've just had a survey done and in anticipation of its receipt, I just wanted to know what things would enable a buyer to, reasonably, ask for a reduction in price? I'm thinking things like servicing of electric/gas if there is no evidence of recent checks etc...

Looking for simple one word answers here e.g.  "damaged roof"

Honestly, if a buyer had a survey done on our house and the only things of note were missing electrical/gas certificates and they came back wanting money off, my answer would be no.

At the end of the day, as a seller you know the buyer has already spent money on a survey and possibly conveyancing costs so the ball is in your court if these are the only issues.

An EICR is about £250 and a gas/boiler service about £100 ish. 

I would just say no, simple as that. No reduction at all for those thing. You want them done, you can pay for them to be done after you have bought it. 

A buyer is not going to pull out having spent probably a grand or so on Conveyancing and a Survey over gas and electrical certificates unless its clear the installs are very old and possibly dangerous etc. 

If they think they might lose many thousand`s more on the house due to market changes and a seller unwilling to drop the price, yes they are, many people would see this as a good trade off to get away from a deluded seller who is going to cost them possible negative equity in future.

PadreM

I wouldn't regard absence of checks as relevant whatsoever.   

PadreM

sidneyvic said:

Why offer a price then try knocking the seller with any little excuse....

I had a buyer do this once and house went straight back on the market, no discussion.
They ended up writing directly to me with an apology asking me to re-accept their original offer.

Why offer a price you are not willing to pay ????

He doesn't say he's unwilling to pay.  An offer is made with certain (reasonable) assumptions.  The reason a professional (surveyor) is employed is to inform you of what you cannot reasonably be expected to know yourself (not being that professional).  What's the point of paying perhaps £1k for a (full) survey only to disregard the surveyor's valuation?  An offer is subject to valuation for a reason...  Some sellers either don't understand, or resent, this.

That said, looking for and using pernickety reasons to reduce offer is mala fides, though buyers shouldn't be shot for polite asking, providing they don't become persistent.

lookstraightahead

PadreM said:

sidneyvic said:

Why offer a price then try knocking the seller with any little excuse....

I had a buyer do this once and house went straight back on the market, no discussion.
They ended up writing directly to me with an apology asking me to re-accept their original offer.

Why offer a price you are not willing to pay ????

He doesn't say he's unwilling to pay.  An offer is made with certain (reasonable) assumptions.  The reason a professional (surveyor) is employed is to inform you of what you cannot reasonably be expected to know yourself (not being that professional).  What's the point of paying perhaps £1k for a (full) survey only to disregard the surveyor's valuation?  An offer is subject to valuation for a reason...  Some sellers either don't understand, or resent, this.

That said, looking for and using pernickety reasons to reduce offer is mala fides, though buyers shouldn't be shot for polite asking, providing they don't become persistent.

I agree with this. The problem is sellers have already psychologically spent the money they've been offered. The whole buying and selling process unfortunately pulls on emotional strings (usually on purpose by estate agents and sellers who feel attached to certain things).

TheJP

PadreM said:

sidneyvic said:

Why offer a price then try knocking the seller with any little excuse....

I had a buyer do this once and house went straight back on the market, no discussion.
They ended up writing directly to me with an apology asking me to re-accept their original offer.

Why offer a price you are not willing to pay ????

He doesn't say he's unwilling to pay.  An offer is made with certain (reasonable) assumptions.  The reason a professional (surveyor) is employed is to inform you of what you cannot reasonably be expected to know yourself (not being that professional).  What's the point of paying perhaps £1k for a (full) survey only to disregard the surveyor's valuation?  An offer is subject to valuation for a reason...  Some sellers either don't understand, or resent, this.

That said, looking for and using pernickety reasons to reduce offer is mala fides, though buyers shouldn't be shot for polite asking, providing they don't become persistent.

The same goes of buyers whose survey values the house at what they offered but still want £xK off the price.

lookstraightahead

TheJP said:

PadreM said:

sidneyvic said:

Why offer a price then try knocking the seller with any little excuse....

I had a buyer do this once and house went straight back on the market, no discussion.
They ended up writing directly to me with an apology asking me to re-accept their original offer.

Why offer a price you are not willing to pay ????

He doesn't say he's unwilling to pay.  An offer is made with certain (reasonable) assumptions.  The reason a professional (surveyor) is employed is to inform you of what you cannot reasonably be expected to know yourself (not being that professional).  What's the point of paying perhaps £1k for a (full) survey only to disregard the surveyor's valuation?  An offer is subject to valuation for a reason...  Some sellers either don't understand, or resent, this.

That said, looking for and using pernickety reasons to reduce offer is mala fides, though buyers shouldn't be shot for polite asking, providing they don't become persistent.

The same goes of buyers whose survey values the house at what they offered but still want £xK off the price.

I agree with this as well. The problem is buyers are also whipped up into a bidding war to secure a property and then realise they've overpaid. And this is especially true right at this moment in time. There's a balance between overpaying but having a low fixed interest rate, and house prices coming down but having a higher interest rate.

Best to have both and not overpay, but still have a good fixed deal (and there's only a tiny window left for that to happen. 

Sarah1Mitty2

lookstraightahead said:

TheJP said:

PadreM said:

sidneyvic said:

Why offer a price then try knocking the seller with any little excuse....

I had a buyer do this once and house went straight back on the market, no discussion.
They ended up writing directly to me with an apology asking me to re-accept their original offer.

Why offer a price you are not willing to pay ????

He doesn't say he's unwilling to pay.  An offer is made with certain (reasonable) assumptions.  The reason a professional (surveyor) is employed is to inform you of what you cannot reasonably be expected to know yourself (not being that professional).  What's the point of paying perhaps £1k for a (full) survey only to disregard the surveyor's valuation?  An offer is subject to valuation for a reason...  Some sellers either don't understand, or resent, this.

That said, looking for and using pernickety reasons to reduce offer is mala fides, though buyers shouldn't be shot for polite asking, providing they don't become persistent.

The same goes of buyers whose survey values the house at what they offered but still want £xK off the price.

I agree with this as well. The problem is buyers are also whipped up into a bidding war to secure a property and then realise they've overpaid. And this is especially true right at this moment in time. There's a balance between overpaying but having a low fixed interest rate, and house prices coming down but having a higher interest rate.

Best to have both and not overpay, but still have a good fixed deal (and there's only a tiny window left for that to happen. 

I would say this is happening a lot less now.

Sarah1Mitty2

TheJP said:

PadreM said:

sidneyvic said:

Why offer a price then try knocking the seller with any little excuse....

I had a buyer do this once and house went straight back on the market, no discussion.
They ended up writing directly to me with an apology asking me to re-accept their original offer.

Why offer a price you are not willing to pay ????

He doesn't say he's unwilling to pay.  An offer is made with certain (reasonable) assumptions.  The reason a professional (surveyor) is employed is to inform you of what you cannot reasonably be expected to know yourself (not being that professional).  What's the point of paying perhaps £1k for a (full) survey only to disregard the surveyor's valuation?  An offer is subject to valuation for a reason...  Some sellers either don't understand, or resent, this.

That said, looking for and using pernickety reasons to reduce offer is mala fides, though buyers shouldn't be shot for polite asking, providing they don't become persistent.

The same goes of buyers whose survey values the house at what they offered but still want £xK off the price.

They can ask for anything off the price they want, they may have multiple reasons for doing so, they don`t really need a reason or "grounds" for doing so, it is totally up to the seller how they react to lower offers.

BigBoss

So it turns out the property needs a new roof, and I absolutely will be asking for a price reduction. By how much, not sure yet as I'm awaiting a full spectrum of quotes. 

TheJP

BigBoss said:

So it turns out the property needs a new roof, and I absolutely will be asking for a price reduction. By how much, not sure yet as I'm awaiting a full spectrum of quotes. 

Make sure you get a roofer to inspect the roof first, surveys are often dramatic about what is actually needed due to the surveyor not being a roofing expert. Also their quotes are often pie in the sky estimates, a good roofer will be able to tell you the true condition of the roof and what costs are associated. What valuation did the surveyor give taking into consideration his findings?