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Negotiations after Survey
Comments
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housebuyer143 said:TheJP said:neilied said:TheJP said:£15k for roof lining! To fix the spots where its torn i would say £1500-£2k at most.TheJP said:£15k for roof lining! To fix the spots where it’s torn i would say £1500-£2k at most.
As others have said, does it actually need doing right now? Does it leak?1 -
So the reuse tile issue is labour cost and suitable roofer. They have all mentioned that the style of tile in use is the smallest type of tile used back when it was installed and they won’t replace like for like due to cost and labour. I1
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The seller is under no obligation to sell to you. I usually only offer a price for a property that I'm willing to pay to include any ongoing work.
is it an old house?3 -
neilied said:get what your saying but you can’t fix the roof without the necessity of replacing the tiles as to replace the lining the roof has to come off. Now my solicitor has to inform my lender of the issue and possible reduction and yay maybe a change in the lending offer
And it appears that's where you're at anyway, that the seller has made an offer and doesn't want to budge. The question n is can you accept the compromise? FWIW we had a similar issue part survey, the seller refused to let us have people around to assess the work, and wouldn't even compromise on sale price - I was prepared to meet halfway. They started talking once we pulled out, but not enough and ended up selling months later for £35k under what we'd have given them even with a discount for works.
However that didn't help us as they didn't want to compromise then.
It might be that your choices are accept their offer or pull out, and the old adage about what the house is worth to you seems to apply. Could you live with yourself if somebody saw past the roof and bought it for that price? Your answer to that probably determines how hard you push it.
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neilied said:
More annoying is that they appear to have a copy of my survey. Not that I am hiding anything but only myself and my solicitor have it and it seems that the seller now also has it as they have pasted parts into an email and quoted from it.
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bobster2 said:neilied said:
More annoying is that they appear to have a copy of my survey. Not that I am hiding anything but only myself and my solicitor have it and it seems that the seller now also has it as they have pasted parts into an email and quoted from it.I hope not. Puts you as a buyer in a much weaker position. Never use agent recommended mortgage brokers or conveyancers.
The OP now needs to sharpen their negotiating skills and be prepared to walk.
The important thing to remember about using surveys to chisel the price is to take any "betterment" factor out of the equation, you did after all make your offer based on what you saw (ie old house with bits need doing). How much would a neighbouring property be listed for if it had been recently reroofed with x year warranty on the work?Signature on holiday for two weeks2 -
Things like this are not clear cut and the answer is "It depends".
If the roof is not leaking, it doesn't need immediate repair or replacement so I don't blame the vendor for not wanting to knock £15k off the price but on the flip side, as a buyer you are going to need to do something about it in the future.
On the vendors side, they could reduce the price by £15k to cover the cost of the work and you then don't bother getting it done. 10 years later the same rips still exist and the roof is perfectly fine. Ours is the original 60s roof and the felt/material has a couple of small rips where it overlaps but I have no desire to spend £15k fixing a problem that doesn't exist.
If the actual tiles were not damaged, I would want to see what the rips looked like myself. A couple of small tears where the felt overlaps or big tears across multiple parts. If its just a couple of small tears and the actual tiles were fine, it could last another 20/30 years without needing any work doing.4 -
Thank all for your replies. So it seems we have a deal. Damage wise I have seen 3 photos from the survey showing 1 x 1.5M tear and 2 showing small tears. The survey lists condition of lining as poor. This is why we started to ask questions. Also there was no evidence of leaking only crystallisation of timbers and noted a lack of ventilation in the roof space. That said there has been an offer to reduce by £10k this along with the saving of £800 on the land transaction tax puts us almost £11k better off which is close enough to our lowest roof estimate. We are going to go ahead and then start looking at roofers coming to view in person in the new year and look at replacement.Our next smaller hurdle is legal. Bizarrely the survey listed the garden decking area as 50cm above ground level and stated the permitted height without regs is 30cm? And the chimney stack removal again isn’t listed on council regs or planning.Decking I’m not overly bothered but does anyone know if stack removal requires informing council? House isn’t listed or in a conservation area.
thanks all.3 -
Out of interest, what did the surveyor value the property at against what you offered?
Another interest, will you actually follow up on the work or bank the money cause the roof isn't leaking? Genuine question, i know what my answer would be.2 -
Chimney stack removal its meant to have building regulations as they are often structural but you may find the owner didn't bother. You can check the council website and see if they have a BR search facility, you can also call up and ask generically something like 'Can you see if any BR paperwork exists for the last 20 years for this address' without mentioning any specifics.
Did the survey pick up the chimney removal? Did it mention anything about it?
What part or parts have been removed?
Did you see what looked like a boxed in RSJ to support it?
It depends on how far you want to push it, if BR was never sought you could ask the vendor to get it signed off as it stands now but that may delay things, it will probably cause some damage while they assess what supports it does have etc and the vendor may just say no.
For me it would depend on when it was removed and whether I could visibly see what looked like supports somewhere.
Ask the vendor how long ago it was done. Who did the removal. Are they aware of what supporting method was used.
It would only be a dealbreaker for me if there was no BR, it was removed recently and there was no visible signs of support.
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