Are our sellers being unreasonable?

[Lottapianos]

Dont want to bore you to death, but trying to buy a house. Survey showed up concerns about garden walls and a few other things which will need replacing very soon. Had this confirmed by another building professional, and got an estimate for cost of work.

Shared this with sellers and they said tough shit, you want the house, you pay for all repairs. Not prepared to reduce price by a penny. Practically dared us to pull out. After a lot of soul searching, we have decided to go ahead with purchase.

Now there are various other small charges that our solicitor wants them to pay, and they're having none of it. We are virtually at the end of the process, and they're telling us to shove it again. Cant quite believe their stubbornness and belligerence. Anyone had a similar situation? We're in England, up North, if it makes a difference

did the price initially allow for some doing up (was it commersurate with neighbouring properties or was that estimate already there)

What are the small charges as well

Hate to ask the questions but its hard to definitively tell!

The house has been overvalued according to our mortgage company, and we're paying nearly the full asking price.

Cant be too specific about smaller charges, but we're talking a couple of hundred quid

What kind of things did it show up? Honestly, I think that sometimes it's difficult to quibble over stuff that's obvious, even before a survey. I imagine it would be pretty noticeable if the garden walls need replacing?

I can well imagine their stubbornness is frustrating (we had the same issues when we were buying), but as you've conceded once already to costs which I assume are more than you're asking for now, you're not in a strong negotiating position. They probably imagine you agreeing again eventually

And we will agree, because we want the house, and we want them out of our bloody lives! Was just wondering whether others had been through similar, and whether people thought they were being unreasonable. I know it's hard to say, but I dont want to give too many identifying details

What a coincidence. There's a topic on the mumsnet property forum from a seller moaning about their buyer wanting all the garden walls replaced!
Op, if it is just a few 100 quid I would suck it up. It's small beer in the overall cost of a property and you will lose far more if you back out now.

We will suck it up, but I'm so sick and tired of their shitty attitude

It's not actually garden walls, but something else big and structural and costly. The other thread is definitely not about me!

I would look to see if I could find anything similar and compare price and condition and if you can see you are paying too much including immediate fire works, I'd just pull out but only you know what you really want.
My last property I sold, I let it go at a snip but that was for personal reasons and when the buyer tried to ask me for a contribution towards a very small issue, I said no as I felt the price reflected that some minor tidying up was needed.

*fire = future

I don’t think they are being unreasonable. I think once you’ve agreed a price, unless the survey showed up something big (like needing a completely new roof, for example), you shouldn’t be trying to get the price down for normal maintenance costs. It would be a rare survey which came back with nothing that needed fixing.

Hedda, funny you should say that......

It's hard for them to argue about the mortgage valuation but ultimately the house is worth what you are willing to pay for it, which may be more than someone else.
I would not argue over a few hundred pounds. In fact unless over £5000 I probably wouldn't, unless it was something that meant the house was not livable in.
House buying negotiation is largely about bluffing, and you blinked first so the sellers aren't going to give way over anything now.

Ah ha!

There mustn't be a single house that doesn't need something doing and home surveys can make scary reading. Read between the lines and you will probably find it isn't as bad as it seems.

Unless you are talking about thousands for something structurally wrong that genuinely affects the value I would not be going back and trying to knock the price down. And I certainly wouldn't be faffing about negotiating over a few hundred pounds.

You did make the offer in the first place so do you think the house is worth it?