WIBU to pull out if they don't agree?

[NeedANewNameBriefly]

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 didn’t like the wallpaper and the swirly carpets in my first house, hells bells am I kicking myself now. I should have asked for, nay demanded a considerable reduction. Come to think of it I didn’t like the decor in any of the rooms……

Ah @NeedANewNameBriefly - this is your first purchase of a Victorian/Edwardian property?

This is a pretty standard list of things which come on a Victorian survey. And a lot of these things I would have expected you to spot when looking round and/or live with (eg the doors).

A request for a 12% reduction is not just ridiculous but actually insulting. I would assume you were naive and probably actually not serious. Good plan to bring the question here to get some wider views as you are being badly advised.

Same.

Replacing shower and reducing/repairing decking is not really essential, I’d tell you to get lost, frankly, on many of these points. 12% is a heck of a reduction. I think I’d tell you it’s going back on the market.

@User367259791 - yes it is.

Despite the somewhat harsh words, I am also glad I came on here before saying anything. DH is more clueless on DIY matters than I am, but versus PIL, he definitely seems to be right about how to deal with all this.

I guess because we tried to fix every issue we could find before putting it up for sale, we expected too much of others. It's clearly not the way things are done.

@NeedANewNameBriefly - I’m glad it’s been helpful.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying all of these can be fixed with DIY, but fundamentally a lot of us live in houses with imperfect hot water tanks, a few tile that need replacing, some overdue pointing etc.

INTERNAL DOORS?! 😂

Disagree. You can easily lose the house if the seller thinks you’re trying to pull a fast one and they have other options.

I had a buyer trying to get a discount at the last minute when we were about to sign contracts but they were incredibly naive. At the time, properties were selling like hot cakes and as I wasn’t in a chain (I moved in with DH) so I could afford to leave it empty for a while. I pulled out of the sale immediately and left it about 4 months then put it back on with a price increase of around 25%.

It sold immediately to someone desperate to move into the area. 🤷🏻‍♀️

We're still in the process so haven't completed yet, the builder is going round this week so we'll see what that reveals and what we think might be worth asking for.

@JenniferPlantain - thank you. Depending on what comes back on roof, electrics/gas, will likely take a similar approach.

That tells me you booked the servey the same week but how far down the line are you? 1 week? 4 weeks? 2 months? How long has everything in the process been allowed to take?

On the roof issue ours doesn't have any felt either. Not an issue until we lost our ridge tiles in Eunice. When I spoke to the roofer he said quite a bit of water would get in if it was on the faces of the roof but the ridge not so much. Worth checking how damp the loft is with missing tiles and no felt.

@Leftbutcameback yes this! I cocked up in my first house purchase and didn’t get gas or electrics looked at professionally. Boiler completely died on day 2! And cost me £3k on a new one; a cost I wasn’t expecting or budgeting for! Learned my lesson there !

If you are having further investigations bear in mind that costs will vary and it may be cheaper to do , say, roof and repointing on chimney in one go with same scaffolding etc than to do so separately.

I’ve never yet received a survey that didn’t make it sound as though the house was about to fall down. They just cover all the possible bases. I might ask for something for the crack in the wall, but unless the report mentions subsidence, even that would be fairly modest.

You are taking the piss surely?

They do this a lot on 'Q place in the sun', don't they?

"We're going to make cheeky offer because of all the things we want done that we think the vendor should pay for".

It sounds as though its a new build you want and not an "older" house. Older houses wont be perfect. Internal doors and a leaky dishwash pipe is something that isnt essential. Also timber decking isnt evan part of the house, its in the garden. Fair enough get the vendors to replace the missing tiles in the roof, but to ask for a complete reroofing is nonsense, thats your choice to do that, it might not evan need doing. I bought my 150 year old house 20 years ago, and I am still doing it up. I havent had the money up untill now to do it, due to kids and life. if it is your for ever home, you live with it untill you have the money to do it. It dosent mean the house isnt safe. You do bits at a time according to prioty and money.

A new shower hose is about £10!

If the roof really is as described it should have been pretty evident on first viewing.

These issues all seem to be pretty personal & cosmetic rather than necessary or emergency issues so personally if you want to be pedantic go for it it but asking for 12% off is very steep.
The lowering of floors, leaking hose, adjusting door heights & changing windows are definitely a personal thing you have an issue with & not the sellers issue to sort.

When we bought this house we discovered there was a potentially serious issue with the kitchen floor collapsing into the cellar…we got a quote for the job from our habitual builder, and the vendors dropped the price by that much.

There were other bits and bobs in the survey, but par for the course with a house of that age (like yours!) so we didn’t try to negotiate any further off for those.

I do know what you mean - every house I've sold, I've made sure have been in great order. But I've had the luxury of time and funds to do so -but it always staggers me how some people want top money despite issues. It's just how it is!

I don't agree with the harshness here but the overall judgement is spot on, that the issues you've described won't warrant a reduction and are to be expected in a house that age. But still, it's hard when you're spending hundreds of thousands to accept you'll have to sink yet more dosh into it!

Surveyors always write things like that to look as though they’ve covered everything, my first house the surveyor said roof has a limited life span, six years later I sold it and in their survey it didn’t even come up

You're calling a purchase that isn't perfect your forever home and have gone madly over budget

Just read that back and hopefully you'll see how stupid this sounds