Another renegotiating after survey question

[crompers]

Hi all, mumsnet always seems to be the best place to get a range of opinions when I'm lurking so thought I'd finally post here.

OK the situation, we are cash buyers, first time buyers and after much searching in the south manchester area we finally found a property we wanted in July.

Back then the market was moving very fast and we offered the asking price the day after the house went up and we'd seen it as we thought this was reasonable. Its a 1905 terrace in an up and coming area so we saw a couple of investors walking in and out the day we saw the property and decided to get in there quick.

The vendors were then gazumped on their purchase, and unfortunatley it took them until around two weeks ago to find somewhere (about 3 months in all). We were in contact with them by email as we prefer this to dealing with EAs and they are a nice couple that we get along with.

So we have had our survey done and the valuation has come in at £5,000 under our offer. It has also highlighted that the fuse box is very dated and needs replacing, this may also require some rewiring although i spoke to the surveyor today and he said that in his opinion it is not likely to be a full rewire and gave a ballpark of £1,000.

The survey has also shown two spots of rising damp that will need to be looked at and likely need work, talking to a builder friend we could be looking at anything from £500-£2000.

We are arranging to go round tomorrow and take some measurements, I'm also thinking that I would like to mention the problems raised and see if we can come to an agreement on the sale price. I would rather just agree a figure than get quotes for everything.

I appreciate that some of these issues are expected with an older property, and that as we will be improving the place it is up to us to bear some of the cost. Given the fact that the valuation has come to £5,000 under, would it be unreasonable to suggest a £2k reduction in these circumstances (while being willing to be knocked down to £1500)? I don't want to be difficult or to slow down the process however, we are hoping to save for a kitchen when we have moved in, £1-2's worth of repairs just makes this more difficult, and we are stretched as it is.

[Londonbased87]

In very similar circumstances - and with an equally good email relationship - we knocked £6000 off our house in London in early summer last year which was around £400k, which is roughly what we were quoted to fix roof and electrics. We have since spent about £13k on new bathroom, new roof and new electrics. My DH took the position of don't ask don't get and while I was annoyed at him - and a bit red faced at the whole thing - at the time, I'm very happy we asked now!

[crompers]

Thanks for the reply, I'm sure some would ask for more but I'm aware that they are really at the top end of their budget and it could potentially make life difficult for both parties. Every month we pay rent we are also losing money, so its swings and roundabouts to a certain extent as another month to us is £650 anyway.