Negotiating price after survey

Boerkrone

_Sam_ said:

Have you enquired, in that area of the city what is the price difference between a house with a driveway and a similar house without a driveway? One way to find out is to have a look at the sold house prices on rightmove/zoopla, as well as those houses that are currently being marketed. If there is a price difference you can point this to the seller - though they can of course still refuse to budge. But you can then decide whether you are happy to potentially overpay for the house, or perhaps the current price is already a good one even without a driveway, etc.

It's quite a unique house with not much to compare it too. But i've asked estate agents, my mortgage broker, chartered surveyour and looked online, and it seems 5% is at the lower end of what a reduction should look like. It only seems to be this estate agents in house valuer who think it's worth 5k.

BarelySentientAI

Boerkrone said:

_Sam_ said:

Have you enquired, in that area of the city what is the price difference between a house with a driveway and a similar house without a driveway? One way to find out is to have a look at the sold house prices on rightmove/zoopla, as well as those houses that are currently being marketed. If there is a price difference you can point this to the seller - though they can of course still refuse to budge. But you can then decide whether you are happy to potentially overpay for the house, or perhaps the current price is already a good one even without a driveway, etc.

It's quite a unique house with not much to compare it too. But i've asked estate agents, my mortgage broker, chartered surveyour and looked online, and it seems 5% is at the lower end of what a reduction should look like. It only seems to be this estate agents in house valuer who think it's worth 5k.

Again, you're thinking about it backwards.  Discount is irrelevant.

The vendor (with advice from the EA who only works for them, not you) is saying that the house with shared driveway is worth £370k.

You are saying it isn't.

Start from that premise.

_Sam_

I would still look even at different houses - what you want to try to gauge is how much a driveway adds to the value of a house (any house, say roughly same size as yours) in that area.

horsewithnoname

I wouldn’t buy it. It’s all well and good the current neighbours being ok, but what if they sell and you get a right pain in the bum for neighbours? If you wouldn’t have viewed the house if you’d known the drive was shared, I’d be reluctant to buy it. 

propertyrental

What is the exact wording regarding the 'access'? What is behind the drive?  Garages? If parking on the drive would block access to the neighbour's garage (or vice verse) then clearly that's an issue.

If the drive leads to nowhere, then what is it for other than parking?

As for the 'fair discount', what is fair is what would make you happy to proceed. If the vendor won't negotiate the price, then all you can do is decide to accept the price, and the drive access as it is, or to walk away.

user1977

We don't know anything about the property e.g. is it easy enough to park on the street? I drive, but not every day, so I'm not all that excited about how far away I sometimes have to park.

BargainJunky

If I were in your shoes I would take a step back.  If you were not in this position and were viewing the property with the facts that you now know would you actually buy it?  In other words if you knew that the driveway was shared would you buy it and if you knew the the EPC was lower than you were told would you buy it?  I would also consider the fact that there is no cavity wall - what has your survey picked up on this?  Are you buying more problems?  Afraid I would walk away discount or no discount.

dander

I'd recommend starting by viewing other properties. Get back on Rightmove and see what's available, view some in person as well if possible. Figure out what else is out there and how much you think it's worth. Then try and look at this house with new eyes. Is this the one you'd choose now you know there's a shared drive? 

Focus on comparing the house, as you know it is now, against the rest of the market rather than against the house as you thought it was.

Bigphil1474

By the sounds of it, a nice house with off road parking in the area you are looking in is difficult to find, and you thought this property had ticked all those boxes. Now turns out that's not true, and you think the property isn't worth what you offered. Offer what you think it's now worth, and if they say no, be prepared to walk away. Does seem weird that you would have 50/50 shared ownership of a drive that doesn't go anywhere and you can't park on?

I wouldn't go ahead with a purchase just because I was part of a complete chain and didn't want to break that,  if the house I was buying was no longer what I wanted. 

Albermarle

propertyrental said:

What is the exact wording regarding the 'access'? What is behind the drive?  Garages? If parking on the drive would block access to the neighbour's garage (or vice verse) then clearly that's an issue.

If the drive leads to nowhere, then what is it for other than parking?

As for the 'fair discount', what is fair is what would make you happy to proceed. If the vendor won't negotiate the price, then all you can do is decide to accept the price, and the drive access as it is, or to walk away.

Maybe there is access to the rear gardens? which could be handy for taking away garden rubbish or if any building work was planned for the house.