Should I be knocking money off my property??? Advice please

[rattlesnake]

My buyers surveyor has come up with the fact that the portion of pipe from the street that feeds our water supply runs through a lead pipe..as do the majority of the 1930's houses in the street. Ive had the water company test the water and its come back safe levels.. The buyers want me to foot the bill for a replacement, stating that it may be deemed safe now, but it is still a health risk. Should I be paying for this???

[wowfudge]

It depends how determined they are and how much you want the sale to them to go ahead. I would be saying that with a house of that age there is a strong possibility of lead pipes and demonstrate that other houses have sold at x price with the same issue - has anything else sold on the same street recently? See what they come back with.

They are either overly anxious or trying it on - the levels are currently safe so why should you find the replacement? It's a bit like them saying the roof has x number of years life yet but is likely to need replacing during their ownership so you should cut the price to allow for that.

[AJPTaylor]

No.
Various houses we have sold the survey has come back with exactly what you would expect for a property of the type you are buying.
This is one of them. Dont reduce the price. It doesnt make your house worth less!

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

No I wouldn't reduce.

It's a 1930s house, they know they're not buying a brand new one with everything brand new with it.

And is deemed safe after testing. No reason to reduce.

[Coughingchildren5]

No way. It is ridiculous what people come up with. If you want to go to the hassle of replacing the pipe then let your buyers know that the price of the house will Increase accordingly. While you are at it perhaps you would like to replace the drive and install a carport and add those to their bill.

[spurtions]

Double check with the water board but I’m fairly sure we just had this and they replaced it free of charge

[rattlesnake]

Thanks everyone !!

[whiskyowl]

Is this becoming a new trend - to pick holes in a house and ask for a reduction even over things that are utterly anticipated owing to its age? It's a bit...grabby. I would expect that kind of behaviour for a multi-million house in Kensington and Chelsea, but not on a standard road.

[KitKat1985]

If the levels came back safe then I think they are taking the mick asking for money off. Like PP surely you expect this sort of thing if you are buying an older house.

[Madbengalmum]

No,its quite common for pipes to be lead and not ridiculously expensive to change them. They are nit picking

[Viviennemary]

No I don't think you should. Plenty of older houses have lead pipes. But how much would it cost. It might be easier to knock a bit off the price than go to all the bother of arranging the work yourself. Depends on how likely they are to find fault with something else and be general pains and time wasters? If I suspected this I'd tell them to do one.

[Melfish]

Jokers. I bet they'll contact you again asking for more spurious attempts at work at your expense or money off. The house is almost 90 years old, what do they expect?!