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Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Property/DIY

Need to drop offer after survey - how do we go about this?

26 replies

BetteDavis01 · 10/07/2013 07:00

Hi all - the survey has shown up loads of expensive work and we need to drop our offer to reflect that. We cannot afford to pay the current price we have offered and complete all the work.

My question is- how do we go about it and any tips on how to be successful?!

Do we go straight to the Estate agent or do we need to inform our solicitor as well? This is my first purchase so I'm just not sure what I'm doing! I don't want to get on the phone and sound nervous and unsure of myself. We need to reduce offer by 10k.

TIA

OP posts:

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BikeRunSki · 10/07/2013 07:05

You ring up the estate agent and say you want to drop your offer by 10k, due to issues identified by the survey. The ea will contact the vendor. Be prepared for them nit to be happy, refuse re used offer and/or negotiate.

Would you be happy to maintain original offer if the vendors did the work?

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BetteDavis01 · 10/07/2013 07:10

The vendors are very frail and I think they can't wait to get out of the house. I don't think they would be prepared to undertake any work on the house. That scenario will just not happen.

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SoupDragon · 10/07/2013 07:17

Yes, tell the estate agent (or solicitor, I've done both). Say what needs doing, that you can not afford to proceed at the original offer and need to reduce it by £10k to cover the remedial work.

There will most likely be some negotiating but it is usual following a survey.

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lucidlady · 10/07/2013 07:20

I would just be honest, and be prepared to share a copy of the survey. We had to drop our offer by £15K due to wet rot, and we gave the sellers a copy of our survey report as back up. They accepted the reduced offer quite quickly, but that might be because we didn't try to force the full discount through - if i remember rightly there was another £30K of refurb required but we'd already priced that into the original offer so we didn't ask for the full £50K discount, just the bit that we hadn't anticipated i.e. the wet rot.

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BlueSprite · 10/07/2013 07:30

When we were in this situation, we didn't share the survey, but we did send a long email to the agent detailing what work needed doing and estimated costs. At the end of this email, we explained that we were reducing our offer to reflect this, and that we hoped the vendor agreed this was fair. That way, the agent and vendors could see we weren't taking the pids by dropping our offer for no good reason.

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Mendi · 10/07/2013 08:46

Why not just share the survey? They can't argue with that. If the survey has identified issues needing urgent attention e.g. roof needs replacing, then vendors should accept a reduction equal to the cost of the work.

If you're after a discount to cover "nice to have"-type work identified in the survey e.g. get double glazing, then I think that's more difficult.

But assuming it's the former scenario, I'd go with sharing the survey.

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MultumInParvo · 10/07/2013 08:57

Did the surveyor down value it?

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specialsubject · 10/07/2013 10:13

the survey will be marked 'confidential' and you are not allowed to show it to anyone else. What you can do is tell them what it says.

contact the estate agent (not the solicitor) tell them briefly what the issues are and what your new offer is. The sellers take it or leave it.

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SoupDragon · 10/07/2013 10:31

the survey will be marked 'confidential' and you are not allowed to show it to anyone else

I don't think that is true. It is marked confidential so that other people shouldn't look at it - you can show it to whoever you like.

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specialsubject · 10/07/2013 11:30

you can show it to them but they can't look at it?

?????

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SoupDragon · 10/07/2013 11:35

No, other people don't just pick it up and look at it without permission.

Like anything that is marked confidential.

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Mendi · 10/07/2013 11:44

Agree with Soupdragon! If your pay for a survey it is up to you what you do with it. It's for your benefit, not the surveyor's.

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BetteDavis01 · 10/07/2013 11:47

I don't think we can afford to buy the house if they don't drop the price. Surveyor said whole house needs re wiring and the kitchen is past it, will last maybe another year with repairs. So, a new kitchen is required.

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LIZS · 10/07/2013 11:50

Was the dilapidated kitchen not self evident on viewing ?

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SoupDragon · 10/07/2013 11:53

I think you'll struggle to get a reduction on the basis of the kitchen. Unless it looks OK on the surface but actually turned out to be held up by duck tape.

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middleagedspread · 10/07/2013 12:00

When we got our (20 page) survey back, we did as BlueSprite suggested.
We made a list of the essential works that needed doing, the ones we didn't know about, got estimates for the work then emailed the EA.
In our case we knew we were buying a wreck & agreed to go 50/50.

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TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 10/07/2013 12:03

You can show the survey to anyone - I read our buyer's full survey.

You can offer a reduced price but they are under no obligation to accept it even with a surveyor's report. I refused to accept a lower offer and the buyer decided to proceed anyway. That said it depends on the market where you are and how competitive it is. If it is structural I think you should ask via the estate agent.

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TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 10/07/2013 12:04

BTW IME full structural surveys especially on period properties always read like the coming of the apocalypse.

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claracluck71 · 10/07/2013 12:15

I'm often a bit bemused by the sudden need to reduce an offer after having a survey done. Surely most things that may need doing to a property are obvious when viewing, and the property marketed accordingly? Surveys are great for prioritising work you may wish to have done once you've moved in.

We are in the middle of a sale and purchase, and we know the house we're buying will need rewiring, new boiler, new bathrooms, and kitchen? Basically everything will need replacing over the next few years. But that's obvious from the age of the property and the current occupants; we don't need a full survey to tell us that! The house is occupied and clean and tidy, which is good enough for us. If it was in pristine, show home condition it would be worth a lot more.

Having said that we haven't got the survey back yet

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SoupDragon · 10/07/2013 12:20

Surely most things that may need doing to a property are obvious when viewing

Off the top of my head:
Damp isn't
Woodworm isn't
Rot isn't
Subsidence isn't always
Dangerous wiring isn't
Plumbing issues (eg lead pipes) aren't aways

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middleagedspread · 10/07/2013 12:32

Nor is

Death watch beetle
Rising & falling damp
Unusable fireplace
Broken Sceptic tank
Unsafe roof

Our survey was worth every penny.

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AnneEyhtMeyer · 10/07/2013 12:33

I think they will refuse to reduce because you fancy a new kitchen. That should have been factored into your original offer.

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claracluck71 · 10/07/2013 12:40

Fair enough

But an older property that hasn't been renovated or updated for a number of years is obviously going to throw up some problems. I just think that having had an offer accepted, which I would assume the buyer was happy to make even with dodgy wiring, old windows, old kitchen, etc, it then seems unfair to suddenly want to drop it. It would take a very strong person to tell the buyer to bugger off in the current market, especially if they were in the middle of a chain.

So, unless a survey picks up something really serious that may impact on the integrity of the structure, such as dry rot or subsidence, I still think asking for a large price drop seems a bit like emotional blackmail to me.

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Bowlersarm · 10/07/2013 12:43

Echo others about the kitchen. Surely you saw the state of the kitchen when you viewed the house? Personally, I wouldn't drop my agreed sale price for that.

You may get some off for rewiring but even then, if the couple are elderly and the house is dated, it would probably be obvious again that there will be a certain amount of work to be carried out.

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NowhereNow · 10/07/2013 12:56

Our survey recommended getting various things checked, including the electrics. We got an electrical installation condition report, which is meant to be impartial and will code things as C1 (danger present, needs to be fixed immediately), C2 (potentially dangerous, should be fixed urgently) and C3 (improvements recommended). It might not be as bad as you think - and if it is then at least you'll have a very clear idea about what's required that you can show to the vendor (and use to shop around for quotes). Ours cost about £110, but the price varies depending on the size of the property.

Like some others, I think it might be hard to justify knocking money off for the kitchen as that must have been apparent when you viewed the house but I suppose you could talk to the agent about it.

Good luck with your negotiations!