Survey results on house. Can we renegotiate price

[Monkeybusiness2]

We put in an offer on a property a couple of weeks ago and I've got my mortgage approved .Conveyancing has been started.
Had homebuyers survey report back today with the following 'red' category defects:

House built in 1970 and roof never been changed. New roof will be needed.

Cavity wall : "fine horizontal cracks to the external render, which could be the early signs of cavity wall tie
failure.
There is cracked and defective render to the rear of the property".

Chimney stack : damp found in roof space

No gas safety certificates.
No boiler certificates.

No electrical safety certificates + the distribution board not to modern standards. Possibly needs rewiring.

Are these fairly common findings and should we try to renegotiate the price?

Called agent who was unhelpful and said she'd send in one of her builders to have a look but we want a second opinion from someone else. She didn't think they'd lower the price.

LLangennith really?
I was surprised at the increase when I looked tbh. Nothing has been done and the pics are the same as 3 years ago. (apart from some decorating).

As others have been renewed I would get quotes. It’s usally the wood that rots
I’d also ask for a gas safety certificate as we had a fault gas fire and nearly died
Will defo get these on gas and electric.

We live in a house with its original roof and have just paid to maintain it. It has lasted 160 years so far!

There is absolutely nothing to stop you revising your offer, I certainly would. We revised our offer by £5k, and ended up paying £2k less. When we sold, our buyer revised their offer by the same amount and we reduced it by the same amount.
I'd offer them 10k less, and see what they come back with, especially as they have increased the price so much since they bought it, without doing any work to it.
Worst case scenario, they don't drop the price, you pay the asking price then have to get a new roof and a rewire very soon!

This survey has revealed a lot of red flags OP. Are you sure you still want to buy it? And if so I would ask for a significant reduction in price. Try not to let your emotion of wanting to move into a new property cloud a rational decision.

The property market isn't particularly hot right now, so its likely they are more keen to sell than you are to buy

I looked at our survey for our Victorian house ( bought over 25 years ago) recently. There were lots of ‘ this might....’ and ‘ age may ...’ references to many items. . A few things have been superseded by alterations like loft conversion and new bathroom and kitchen but everything else is as solid now as it was then. We’ve maintained paintwork, done some pointing and changed the inadequate gas supply when the kitchen was done and monitored all the points in the survey but they haven’t degenerated at all.

I think the roof on the house we own must be at least from the 60s if not earlier, and the one on the house we rent looks in keeping with the house, which was built in 1774. I wouldn't be worrying about the roof on a 1970s house.

Gas safety certificates, not needed for homeowners, but ask when the boiler was last serviced, and can you see the paperwork.

Electrics, meh. As a PP said, the regs are constantly being updated, so nearly every house in the UK would need rewiring constantly to be up to spec. A new circuit board might be required, but that doesn't mean a whole rewire.

A Homebuyers survey is a cover your arse exercise by the surveyor. I wouldn't drop the price for those things.

I'm pretty sure the roof to my house is original and it was built over 100 years ago. The surveyor picked up on something called "nail sickness", that's all. They did also pick up on loads of other odds and sods in line with an old building. We were quoted several thousand by our builder to rectify all of these and negotiated £2500 less with our vendor.

This is fair standard survey stuff. It's all might be. There is no reason to replace a roof of this age if nothing wrong with it.

And there is also no need to replace the electrics because of age, simply replace the board, and get a safet certificate. I had mine replaced when I moved here, cost about three hundred quid, but it was the old wire one which was in place. Getting the boiler serviced is easy.

I'm not seeing anything to cause major concern

There is no obligation on the seller to get a gas safety certificate - ask instead whether the boiler and any other gas appliances have been regularly serviced. If you want further surveys - e.g. gas and electricity then that's for you to do. If you are buying an older house then the electrics probably won't be up to current regs but that doesn't mean they are unsafe or wrong.

The two things that stand out to me are damp in the chimney in the loft by the sound of things and the possible wall tie failure. The rest sounds like typical surveyor backside covering.

You haven't said what the surveyor's valuation figure is - if he's valued it at the agreed purchase price then there's no reason for the vendors to agree to a lower price.

The survey points wouldn't bother me. We had much the same on our 50s house. It still has it's original roof and we've done nothing to it in the 6 years we've lived here despite its red rating.

Tbh, the rise in value in 3 years would have meant I probably thought it was overpriced but if you made an offer presumably you thought the price rise was reasonable for the area?

I wonder if that's why there's damp in the loft chimney stack then, because the roof is leaking?

Homebuyers surveys are pretty useless

Damp in the chimney could just mean it isn't ventilated properly. I wouldn't expect to renew a roof in a 50 year old house automatically unless it's a flat roof.

Prices have shot up in parts of South Wales recently since the bridge tolls came off.

Electrical regulations change constantly. A house 5 years old will not meet current regulations. If you are worried I'd get a local electrician in to take a look at the state of the wiring.

Unless the property has been let I wouldn't expect gas safety certificates. The vendor should be able to tell you if the boiler has been serviced recently. If not then ask them to get it done.

None of that would really worry me and would be fairly obvious to anyone with a critical eye without a surveyors report.
I would think there is nothing that screams renegotiate unless you are paying top end of price for that kind of property which would lead you to believe it was in top quality condition. You are buying a used property it is unlikely to be in perfect condition what you need to work out is the price right for the condition it's in. You can look at getting a reduction if the price is out of whack with that. Surveys always point out everything and look towards worst case scenarios.

Roof - does it have leaks, slipped tiles, cracked tiles? If not then just because it's original does not automatically mean it needs replacing. Our old house we replaced it's roof when it was 120 yrs old because the actual slates were starting to slip and enough were going that it warranted replacement rather than repair. Our current house is 140yrs old and has a combination of original and matched replacement slate, relaid 20yrs ago (when felt was added) and some minor leadwork repairs by us 4yrs ago, it still looks perfect and has no leaks.

Original electrics - often brought up in surveys, unless imminently dangerous (which is not what was said) you need to get a few quotes from electricians and see what actually needs doing. Even a full rewire may not be too expensive (it will probably be messy though)

Lots of things I would expect to see on an older property but nothing that would scare me. Whether or not you ask for a reduction is more down to how the house has been priced compared to others of similar age and condition.
Good luck, it is a minefield but you will work it out.

Are you a first time buyer?

I would be extremely surprised if the report actually says 'roof replacement needed' - is that something you have assumed?

The damp needs looking at but that's no surprise if there is cracked rendering because it could be getting (and slightly trapped) there.

There is no legal requirement for gas/electric/boiler safety certificates for a house sale, which also makes me think you are FTB. Nor have you said that the report has valued the house any lower than you need.

Often the flashing around the chimney stack goes (this is the normally metal join between the roof and the chimney) allowing water to penetrate. This isn't a big job to fix. Or there might be a bit of condensation inside the loft which is causing a bit of damp.
You could get a roofer to come and have a look. None of this will cost huge amounts to fix but they could give you a reasonable estimate which you could then use to negotiate off the price.

Estate agent isn't working for you, they are working for the vendor. They are not going to encourage you to come back and ask for a reduction. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't do so if work is needed.

Sounds a bit daft, but make sure you can open all the doors and windows, flush the toilet, check all taps, showers etc. I didn’t before buying and now I’ve opened the dining room window and it basically fell out! Too scared to try and open the patio door (which is a tilt and slide so feels like it’s just going to fall off).

I live on a 70s estate and I don't think anyone has had the whole roof replaced in the last 20 years we've lived here.
I'm assuming it isn't thatch I suppose.
House my parents stay at in North Wales has the original Welsh slate roof-built in I think around 1880.

What we have done with our room is had to replace the concrete along the top ridge tiles and the sides. Cost wasn't too horrific and a good proportion of the cost was hire of scaffolding-we have a very high side of house.