Would you expect to agree a price reduction after getting the survey back?

[BoBoo]

We've had the survey back on the house we are hoping to buy. There's nothing terrible in there, but it indicates the possibility of some work in future - rebuilding chimney, replacing flashing on the roof, building a French drain, filling cracks etc. Is something we are expected to absorb or should I try to negotiate a reduction?

We got 20K off the asking prices (but this was only around 5.5%) but the vendor was very clear that he needed the final price that we agreed the sale at to make it worthwhile. I guess it's worth a go and if he says no we haven't lost anything.

If you were asking for a reduction on the strength of the survey, I would want to see the survey. What does the report say on the valuation?

Depends on the age of house and urgency of the works - if it is 100 years or or more that sounds par for the course maintenance wise. I would want some sort of substantiation from the survey of what needs doing and costs. You may find the previous survey from when vendors bought will say similar !

You need to get costings it doesn't sound like the repairs would be more than £5k probably less than £2k so I wouldn't do a price reduction if you want the house. The surveyor won't do the costings you need a builder and a roofer.

We found approx 6k of fairly urgent repairs when we had our survey back. However due to our vendor believing she'd massively undersold the house and generally being very volatile, we didn't dare ask for any more money off (she kept threatening to put it back on the market every few days... However if yours is a normal reasonable person it wouldn't hurt to ask, but be prepared for a 'no'.

Hmmm. The valuation comes out at what we are offering for it, but although there are some things that have been badly done the survey summary says that there's nothing urgent and it's things that should be expecting in a building of that age (1925) and should be considered as part of a problem of general maintenance.

I think I may just suck it up.

In that case I don't think you can reasonably expect a reduction - you've agreed a price based on a property fo that age and therefore take into consideration associated maintenance.

I don't think you can really negotiate on it in that case, but be aware, a chimney re-build is around £3k and lead flashings around £2k

Well, the chimney doesn't need rebuilding at the moment, it's just something we've been told to keep an eye on as it's leaning to the left. But I think it's a shared chimney so I don't see why we should incur the whole cost should it come to rebuilding it.

A survey will always tell you what you need to do in the short/medium/long term. If something is expensive and needs doing now then fair to ask for renegotiation but not reasonable for work you my need to do in the future. The surveyor is just making you aware for your own information. And covering their own back. And of course, a house of that age will always have a list of ongoing maintainance.

He/She has valued your house at your offer. So they clearly think it's worth what your paying for it.

My rule of thumb is that if the points are what could be reasonable expected for a property of that age/condition you shouldn't expect any money off.

You say you have nothing to lose by asking but I'd say you have 'good faith' to lose. He might take the money off but remove everything removeable on departure to get that money back. I don't think it's worth the aggravation.

TBH 5.5% off the same is very little. Have you checked what is was bought for previously? It sounds like there's potentially lots of work to be done in the near future .

The vendor will be delighted to have had a potential sale (and at so close to asking) so I bet he'll be open to negotiation rather then lose a very rare buyer.

It's buyers market just now. If he doesn't sell to you know he faces great uncertainty about when he might sell in the future as prices are on the way down.