WIBU to pull out if they don't agree?

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Reposting for traffic

Short version - are these issues bad enough to withdraw from property purchase and collapse the chain. Or should this be expected when buying a house.

YABU - Even without a reduction, these issues are not that bad

YANBU - They definitely need to reduce the price a bit

Full version

We are trying to purchase our "forever home", have gone madly over budget on something that isn't perfect, but we are happy enough with. Survey has come back and the work that needs doing seems to be quite a lot. We want to renegotiate the price and based on repair costs for the most significant things, so not just decorate issues for example we want to go lower by about 12% (that's what I've worked it out as being) - estate agent (of course) is saying they won't agree but she doesn't have their actual answer yet. To complicate matters, they are overseas and we cannot reach vendors directly (currently trying via the solicitors instead though)

Basically, we are not quite sure the best way to approach this and how much of this the vendor thinks should have been priced in to our offer, bearing in mind we were unaware of 99% of the issues prior to the survey. The 1% is an issue we believe they should and could still deal with through their buildings insurance.

For context here are some of the issues:

•Repointing of brickwork to two chimney stacks
•Replace a number of missing, slipped and damaged roof tiles (particularly to the front and rear slopes). However, given their age it may be more economic to recover the whole roof rather than continuing to repair. This is our main issue - we want to replace not further patch up the roof. Lots of patchy repairs previously done apparently.
•Carry out crack repair to the front elevation.
•Replace some of the double-glazed units to the conservatory - showing damage
• Porch – replace several roof tiles, and carry out longer-term repair to the far right post which is damaged
•Install additional air bricks and replace damaged air bricks to the right side - doesn't have anywhere near enough. Those it has are damaged
•Reduce the height of the external ground level at the front (or install a French drain) - drain is right in front of doorstep and cut back the timber decking at the rear- to mitigate damp penetration
•Adjust five of the internal doors - almost all doors do not close at all within the house
•Rectify leak from the shower hose/replace shower in the family bathroom
•Hot water cylinder appears undersized/replacement needed
•Replace the waste pipe from the dishwasher and rectify leak from gulley surround
•Secure boarding to the timber decking and carry out timber repairs where required

I don’t think all of these warrant reduction. Specifically these should not effect the house price:

Adjust five of the internal doors - almost all doors do not close at all within the house-

•Rectify leak from the shower hose/replace shower in the family bathroom- as above

•Replace the waste pipe from the dishwasher and rectify leak from gulley surround

•Secure boarding to the timber decking and carry out timber repairs where required

I think it’s quite cheeky to include these tbh.

We had a potential ask for a 12% reduction because that was the cost of the extension he wanted to build!
Of course let me find your extension. Ffs

Fund

With all the damage you mention to the roof i would suspect they may have damp as well (which id be more worried about ) but a lot of this seems to be relatively cosmetic.

An old house will always need ongoing repairs and maintenance so i suspect you might be a wee bit unrealistic with your expectations. You can only ask, if you are going to struggle it is not the time to overstretch yourself

if the estate agent says they probably wont accept even without asking them this means one of two things - either (a) the vendors cant possibly afford to sell at that price or (b) the estate agent thinks the reduction you are asking is too much.

Talk to estate agent and ask what they think would be a fair offer given the work that needs doing and see what they come back with (the estate agent wont take into consideration anything cosmetic). You can get quotes for work and then negotiate but I would only stick to "essential" rather than cosmetic repairs as its unfair otherwise.

No house is perfect and its unfair to assume that the vendors will bear the cost of what you think needs doing. i.e. a house is still worth the same with certain things like skirting boards, doors etc, changing them does not make the house worth more it just makes it look better and be more saleable.

With you mentioning a crack and the doors not shutting properly i wouldn't touch it with a barge pole until you got a complete full ding-dong survey on it in case the subsidence is not settlement and may be an ongoing issue.

word of warning though older houses are a bit of a money pit and if its not been maintained for many years it will need a lot of money spending on it, half the time people wont even turn up to quote and then you have to check they do a decent job and dont damage anything else while they are at it. Living in a damp house is awful - you need to have windows open almost all the time and heating on all time to keep mould at bay and dont get me started on the lovely clothes i have had to throw out because of a wardrobe with mould inside it. Buy something that is not damp its no good for your health.

YABU.

If I was selling to you I'd say no way am I reducing for things that are normal on a survey! Had a buyer try this with me. Not a chance. Maybe you should look for a different house that you really really love.

Having owned a couple of Victorian houses, these are all pretty standard.

I’d tell you to F off to be honest. Most of those things I would expect you to have noticed without a survey to be honest and put in an offer accordingly.

If I was the seller I would refuse to reject your reduction request/demand and no longer negotiate with you.
Agreed price or I'd pull out myself and relist

Plus this is all standard for older houses. OP I think you should just look for new builds

So basically, you can't afford it.

I think you have got a real cheek tbh and I would tell you to jog on.

12% of the purchase price! Those issues you’ve stated don’t sound like they warrant such a big reduction in the PP. Quite likely the vendors and agents probably knew there was some work required and that’s already reflected in the valuation.

Could it be that really you have over stretched yourselves and have been looking for an excuse to ask for a reduction which would make the house price s lot closer to what you’d have liked to pay. ?
if I were the seller I’d tell you where to go tbh.
If you love the house then patch up the roof and save up to replace eventually. It’s not the sellers fault you’re stretching yourselves.

The survey completed on behalf of the seller prior to putting the house on the market and gives the market value taking into consideration any repairs required. You are being very unreasonable and I know if I was your seller I would put my house back on the market if you came to me with the silly things you have listed

Yeah, that all seems in the realm of "normal" feedback I'd expect from a survey to be honest, and I'd be laughing if you asked for any more than a token amount off the agreed price.

You get a period of time to check all that and if anything costs more than a set amount (5 days and £400 on the house I have just bought) to notify them if said issues and it is the sellers responsibility to pay for it

We want to renegotiate the price and based on repair costs for the most significant things, so not just decorate issues for example we want to go lower by about 12% (that's what I've worked it out as being)

No way, if I were the vendor! Those are all quite normal and pretty minor things in a house.

It's not a new build. Deal with it. Of course there's going to be issues from the survey. Yeesh.