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

ThisIsWeird

Well done.

Sounds as tho' he may be open to reason, then, so perhaps wasn't 'trying it on', but actually read the worst into the survey report.

No-one can tell (well, at least not without extensive investigation, possibly including destructive...) how long a roof will last - there's a thread on here about a whole estate of houses with tiles falling off after only a couple of years :-) - but it is pretty easy to judge what 'condition' a roof is currently in. And yours, seemingly, shows no signs at all of any deterioration. There are no signs, no indications to the contrary, so your roof is currently in visibly very good condition, with no known cause for concern.

Once you've gone through the very obvious errors/poor judgements that the surveyor made - the extractor and ufh, for example - he should be more amenable to reason.

Good luck.

MeteredOut

NornIronRose said:

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. 

Beware of getting into a discussion where you are/are being expected to justify the price. By all means let them inspect things, but you have a valuation from a professional.

NornIronRose

All done. I didn't discuss the price with them, just when he said that it was over their budget, I said that was up to them but it is what it is essentially. If I didn't get the full amount from them I couldn't move so it is non negotiable. 

Turns out he is a lawyer so had read everything through and tbh was right to question it. 
I let them look at whatever they wanted, answered all their questions, and I think they could tell I was being honest as I genuinely have nothing to hide.

Because they are a young couple and are stretched to the limit with this purchase, I am leaving them the wardrobes and large corner sofa. I could probably sell them but they are solid and good and would be a real effort to take apart and wouldn't get a huge amount for them. That sweetened the deal for them as I reminded them that they can just move in, do nothing to the property and even have some furniture to start them off. 
Really nice couple actually which I'm happy about as we have wonderful neighbours here. 

So all is well that ends well. Apart from the fact that they haven't started packing yet!!!! They expressed surprise that I have already packed most of mine. Made me feel better though that I have done so much. 
I told them a few times that we all want to be moving in a couple of weeks and they will be surprised how long that will take.