House survey- help!!

[Cats234]

First time buyer. House survey has come back with LOTS of Amber and red points which are estimated to cost £20k to fix. What do I do now?? I love the house. Do I negotiate with estate agent? How do I do this? Do I just ring them and ask for 20k off my offer?

Is it definitely going to cost that much?
I think I would be renegotiating £30k less.
As far as I can see. Certainly locally to us, it's a buyers market

For me it would depend how serious they are and how easy/impactful they are to fix. If they weren’t serious and I wanted the house I’d ask if the vendors would fix or renegotiate price. Whoever the vendors accept an offer on, a survey will still highlight the same problems if they had the same level of survey. Buyers presumably are more cautious in this market so I would think it’s in the vendors interest to put things right. Have a chat with the EA. I wouldn’t be buying at market value with that amount of work to do for sure and if there were any serious issues I’d walk away. Hope that helps.

Thats what the surveyor has put the costs would be - how would I find out if its actually going to cost that much? Sorry if I sound clueless, I'm doing this all for the first time on my own.
How do you negotiate? Do you literally just ring the estate agent and say due to these issues I'd like to change my offer?

My friend had this.
Needed a complete new roof.
Asked for reduction- vendors said no - so they pulled out.
It could easily turn into a money pit.

@TammyJones my biggest concern is it being a money pit. I simply don't have money to pit!!!

We had this, didn't pull out, now living in a house full of cracks that are not fixable without hundreds of k so cannot sell. Run.

What kind of things are coming up? You just get trades people to go round and give you an estimate, then negotiate the price so you can afford to do the work.
Surveyors are generally trying to cover there arses so usually overestimate work that needs to be done.

You have to look at the survey very carefully. If necessary try and find someone in the know to go through it.

My DD is just about to buy a house. There were 9 reds, and numerous ambers. Reading the report, you would think she was buying a pile of bricks! Surveyors have cover their backs. She got advice from people with more experience than her (an ex suveyor, a builder friend etc)

So don't think OMG this is awful, I need to knock £30K off the price. Try and get some independent advice.

p.s. DD going ahead with house. She did get a small reduction, but really because one sold in the road almost identical for a lot less. The 9 reds on the survey clinched it, but they were not hugely major. It was high readings of damp in one part of the house but what victorian terraced house doesn't have a bit of damp...

Do not buy a money pit unless you have

the knowledge to know if the sums indicated in the survey are realistic

the willingness to live on a building site

the time and money to do the work ( plus a generous contingency)

the understanding that money pits usually have a whole lot of higher things wrong with then , which you won’t uncover until you’ve started work

a very strong relationship with your DP/ DH

Hi @Cats234
I would speak to the estate agent and tell him about the survey report. The options i would give is either the seller gets the repairs done or reduce your offer. If the repairs required are really bad perhaps you might want to think about not going ahead at all. Hope things workout x

Have decided to get a builder round to assess the extent of the repairs and get quotes
My biggest fear is buying a money pit because I simply won't be able to afford it.