Survey Before Buying.

Jemma01

the seller may not negotiate the price, but may agree to fixing things, like the electricity might have an old fuse that wouldn't pass an electric test and needs doing which would be at least 1K.

Regardless what the seller says about the price negotiation, you should absolutely have a survey done so you know if your offer is worth it. I've done a survey + valuation, so that someone can tell me "for the condition of the property it is worth bla", so I'm not taking the seller's word for it. Yes the property needs fixing, but how much fixing? Will you be at a financial loss doing the fixes? property investors buy properties below the asking price so that they can renovate and then make profit, are you making any profit? Would you be in negative equity if the property is worth 100K and you did 50K worth of corrections, the property may only be worth 120K after your fixes given the area and surroundings and whatnot (the building structure, etc...).
Whether they negotiate or not, you need to do your due diligence, should you continue or step back. Also you need to calculate how much it will cost you to fix things, will the property even be worthwhile if you fix so much for an overpriced property? would you get your money's worth? If he says it is already reduced, that's not for him to say! That's for YOUR surveyor to valuate. Again not all surveys come with valuation, if I were you, I'd get someone to valuate it (don't rely on the bank's valuation, it has it's own purpose).

RHemmings

TheJP said:

fatboydaz said:

I called the EA yesterday and offered to pay for a Survey with my own money and the seller has refused that too. The house has been empty for over a year, I have stated that I would not try and amend the offer depending on the findings and the seller has today refused this with no reason. I have walked away from the property. 

If you weren't going to change/negotiate after the survey then why not get the survey done after you complete?

No survey until after completion? What kind of strategy is that? 

Another option for after a survey, other than change/negotiate, is to walk away. EDIT: And, as @Jemma01 says, have things fixed. 

Personally I think that any private treaty offer is 'subject to survey'. Given what I see in this thread it may be best to leave that unsaid. But, surely everyone reasonable knows that. 

The seller may have been 'burnt' and may now be unreasonable, but I think it's the seller here who is behaving worst and is the one who should be avoided. 

TheJP

RHemmings said:

TheJP said:

fatboydaz said:

I called the EA yesterday and offered to pay for a Survey with my own money and the seller has refused that too. The house has been empty for over a year, I have stated that I would not try and amend the offer depending on the findings and the seller has today refused this with no reason. I have walked away from the property. 

If you weren't going to change/negotiate after the survey then why not get the survey done after you complete?

No survey until after completion? What kind of strategy is that? 

Another option for after a survey, other than change/negotiate, is to walk away. EDIT: And, as @Jemma01 says, have things fixed. 

Personally I think that any private treaty offer is 'subject to survey'. Given what I see in this thread it may be best to leave that unsaid. But, surely everyone reasonable knows that. 

The seller may have been 'burnt' and may now be unreasonable, but I think it's the seller here who is behaving worst and is the one who should be avoided. 

The OP said they told the seller they wouldn't change/negotiate the price offered whatever the survey raised yet when the vendor said no to the survey they pulled out. My point is if you weren't going to renegotiate after a survey then do it after you buy the place if you want to then fix things.

Jemma01

TheJP said:

RHemmings said:

TheJP said:

fatboydaz said:

I called the EA yesterday and offered to pay for a Survey with my own money and the seller has refused that too. The house has been empty for over a year, I have stated that I would not try and amend the offer depending on the findings and the seller has today refused this with no reason. I have walked away from the property. 

If you weren't going to change/negotiate after the survey then why not get the survey done after you complete?

No survey until after completion? What kind of strategy is that? 

Another option for after a survey, other than change/negotiate, is to walk away. EDIT: And, as @Jemma01 says, have things fixed. 

Personally I think that any private treaty offer is 'subject to survey'. Given what I see in this thread it may be best to leave that unsaid. But, surely everyone reasonable knows that. 

The seller may have been 'burnt' and may now be unreasonable, but I think it's the seller here who is behaving worst and is the one who should be avoided. 

The OP said they told the seller they wouldn't change/negotiate the price offered whatever the survey raised yet when the vendor said no to the survey they pulled out. My point is if you weren't going to renegotiate after a survey then do it after you buy the place if you want to then fix things.

You wouldn't need a survey once you moved in. You'll figure it out yourself anyway. Doing it after is just waste of money. A survey isn't for negotiation only. It should answer a key question "is the condition of the property worth the asking price". What if the survey after purchase has lots of issues that bring the value down!? Where do you move from there? Fix at your own expense when you could have put your money on a less problematic house?

RHemmings

TheJP said:

RHemmings said:

TheJP said:

fatboydaz said:

I called the EA yesterday and offered to pay for a Survey with my own money and the seller has refused that too. The house has been empty for over a year, I have stated that I would not try and amend the offer depending on the findings and the seller has today refused this with no reason. I have walked away from the property. 

If you weren't going to change/negotiate after the survey then why not get the survey done after you complete?

No survey until after completion? What kind of strategy is that? 

Another option for after a survey, other than change/negotiate, is to walk away. EDIT: And, as @Jemma01 says, have things fixed. 

Personally I think that any private treaty offer is 'subject to survey'. Given what I see in this thread it may be best to leave that unsaid. But, surely everyone reasonable knows that. 

The seller may have been 'burnt' and may now be unreasonable, but I think it's the seller here who is behaving worst and is the one who should be avoided. 

The OP said they told the seller they wouldn't change/negotiate the price offered whatever the survey raised yet when the vendor said no to the survey they pulled out. My point is if you weren't going to renegotiate after a survey then do it after you buy the place if you want to then fix things.

As I said in my previous post, and Jemma added other reasons, even if someone isn't going to renegotiate, there are still reasons for having a survey. E.g. if asking for things to be fixed (Jemma) and possibly deciding to pull out if something really nasty is discovered.