Buyer wants me to reduce price after questionable survey. What would you do?

NornIronRose

Spoke to the EA boss. The house has not been down valued. They were looking at the reinstatement value. Value has remained what we accepted for it. 

Now that the EA has seen the report it has red 3s for things like 'double glazed windows are in good condition but would be possible water ingress if the seals failed'. Lots of things in good condition but may fail eventually. 
No recommendation for a surveyor's report or anything like that. So I am a bit more reassured after speaking to her. 
She is going to speak to the buyer and tell them that they already got £35k off and that there will be no further reduction. She has also copied the info from my email where I have addressed all of the points raised and countered them. She is sending that to the buyer. 
I am happy with this (of course) and have a plan B should I need one. 

Again, thank you for the support. I love MSE!!!

nicmyles

NornIronRose said:

Spoke to the EA boss. The house has not been down valued. They were looking at the reinstatement value. 

Ha! Oh dear me!

Well then I revise my previous comments - you should say no to the request to lower the price!

theartfullodger

Tell them you didn't realise price was flexible, that being the case it's gone up £5k.

NameUnavailable

If the surveyor is saying there's bad damp and you say there's no damp, can you get something to prove to the buyer it's not damp?

Otherwise just say you can't reduce any further than you have and then it's up to them - give a deadline for a decision or you will be putting it back on the market.

RHemmings

NornIronRose said:

Now that the EA has seen the report it has red 3s for things like 'double glazed windows are in good condition but would be possible water ingress if the seals failed'. 

Wouldn't the second part of that statement be true of every single double glazed window in the entire country? 

NornIronRose

Precisely RH. According to the EA, it looks bad as there are lots of 3s. But when you actually read it,  it is good for a house of that age, at the price they are getting it for. 
Going to let the EA do their thing in the background. I have plan A, B and C so will go with the flow. 
My buyer has been very slow and has been annoying the EA so she will be pretty straight with them. 

ThisIsWeird

Good luck with it.
I had read the thread as it being the buyers asking for a reduction based on the worse-than-typical report (and most tend towards the neg), and not the surveyor actually revaluing the place. 
In which case, a tryiton.

NornIronRose

Surveyor didn't revalue. They read the reinstatement value by mistake. 

EA has spoken to my buyer. He is adamant that the roof needs replaced and is leaking (and if it isn't now, it soon will be). Doesn't want to risk bringing his wife and baby into a home like that.  He has been trying to reduce the price from day one. So definitely a tryiton as you say. 

EA has told the buyer to sleep on it then we will remarket by 9 tomorrow if he doesn't agree to go at the agreed price. 

Postik

Sounds like he's trying it on.  The report saying "double glazed windows are in good condition but would be possible water ingress if the seals failed" is like saying "plenty of food in the fridge but will possibly be hungry when it runs out"... I mean talk about stating the obvious?

I recall my report said the double glazed windows tend to have a lifespan of 15 years before the units fail, but no failed units were observed at the time.  It mentioned many things that could "fail" such as bathroom and kitchen sealant, tiles on the roof, etc and just said "normal maintenance will be required".

In my case the surveyor didn't go out his way to point out anything that was in great or immaculate condition, perhaps for obvious reasons.  Many of the things that were spotted, such as water stained pipes and brickwork, he said could be a result of leaks now or could have been historic leaks that had already been fixed.  So it did flag them up for me to check, but I didn't know if the issues were still current until I moved in.  As it happens they were, but getting them fixed was a few hundred pounds, which pales into insignificance given everything else.

NornIronRose

Update: EA rang. The buyer knows he is set to lose quite a bit on his property if he pulls out and he has to find another buyer (2 beds where he lives have dropped quite a bit). 
He is coming around this afternoon while I am there so I can explain some of the bits that the surveyor flagged. Like turning on the extractor fans, showing then there is no damp, I will also put the heating on as then the undefloor heating will be toasty when they come. 
Got a few hours now to get the place looking as good as possible. Thank goodness I am off today! Should have had a full day of training and wouldn't have been able to come and clean and tidy much. Cancelled the training so it has worked out well.