Buyer wants money off following survey - what to do?

[Nellybell]

Hello,
Our buyer has had a survey, electrical survey, and 2 builders round to check our 1920s house. Following all these checks, buyer has asked for £5000 off but says house needs £10000 of work doing. I've asked for the detailed quotes but am not sure what the etiquette is with this type of scenario? Do you pay for essential work but not non essential as I suspect not all of it is urgent, essential work.

Our survey and subsequent builders quote showed about £20,000 worth of work - not all urgent the survey also undervalued the house by £5000 in total we renegotiated for an extra 7.5 off - 5 to bring in line to value - and 2.5 for the essential/urgent work - we had already agreed 10 off the asking price price prior to survey.
Our high damp reading turned out to be a massive leak from vendors dishwasher damaging the whole kitchen floor joists etc must have been going on for years! The surveyors can't pull out appliances or lift floorings up so if I ever bought a house again I would investigate these things!

Don't know what the original HomeBuyers Report surveyor valued it at. (As it was commissioned for the buyers, we wouldn't expect to be allowed to see it, unless it highlighted major problems, requiring work.) The fact our buyers did not saying anything about reducing their offer after the HBR had been completed (over a month ago) suggests the valuation was certainly not less than the Agreed price..

Badger This all boils down to you wanted to secure a quick sale. I would offer to meet them half way and reduce by £500.

Otherwise, if they walk away what have you got? How badly do you want the house you have seen? How much money have you laid out so far on the house you want? So if your buyer pulled out tomorrow how upset would you be if you couldn't get another offer?

And don't resurrect zombie threads, always start a new one with your specific problem.

I don't think it is as simple as if the surveyor didn't value the house as lower than what you've agreed then there's no issue.

If a buyer gets scared that there's 10k worth of work that needs doing it might make then think thag actually the house down the road which they also viewed which was the same price might actually be worth following up.

That's the risk you run.

When we bought our current home I asked for money off following the survey. There were a few things which needed doing the most urgent of which was french doors with none safety glass. We had a toddler so that needed doing straight away. We only got 1k off but it was enough to repair the doors.

As we were stretching to the max if we hadn't got that 1k off I think we'd have pulled out and gone for the house down the road which was 5k cheaper but layout wasn't quite as nice.

It will depend on how the market is in your area but as a general rule if a property values up fine then I wouldn't champion a purchaser who wanted to renegotiate and I wouldn't encourage a Vendor to do so. In my location (SE) there are not enough properties so everything that comes on is under offer quickly so the Vendor know that there'll be someone else who wants the property and after all a surveyor has said that as inspected it is worth the purchase price. I'm an EA and have renegotiated three properties this week two weren't valued at the purchase price and the Vendor/purchase met half way. The other valued fine, there were some items on the HB that were deemed urgent but it's an old house and you would expect that so the purchaser didn't get a reduction.

Just want your advice - just bought an inhabitable house. A neighbour was aggressive at us for making noises - we did few DIYs sometimes at 11am on the weekdays and never do any noise work outside the hours and on Sundays also I notified him that there was going to be some noises because the house needs work. Now we feel that we can't do anything about the house because i don't want a neighbour get aggressive at me again. I am living in an uncomfortable temporarily home with our little children.

probably a good idea to start your own thread. Not really related to the original thread is it?x

Hi just joined as I read yr threads
I'm selling my mum and dads house and we r building an extension for them as my mum is going into a wheelchair and there house isn't suitable

We put the house on for £138000. Then go a quick sale (as they need the money from the sale to finish building) dropped to £135000 same guy back again and it went against my grain but we agreed £133500
Now he phoned and said there were some things on the survey that flagged up and he wants to meet up to talk about them and the sale price
My mums house is in great nick always kept up to date if things needed fixing etc So by reading yr threads if it's something that might need done in the future i.e. Electrics as that seems to come up on surveys that I don't have to do the work unless it urgently needs done now
Sorry for being so long winded I'm just worried about meeting him and knowing we're i stand

Just tell him to copy the relevant parts of the survey and send it to the Estate Agent and his solicitor. Then you can speak to your solicitor and the Estate Agent about how to respond. Sounds to me like he wants to buy the house at a bargain price but unless any work was not evident when he viewed, or needs extremely urgent repairs now, you do not have to agree to any of his demands. However, without seeing in writing what he is trying to negotiate on, you cannot agree to a price reduction.

Thanks spickle
Good advice so will let you know how I get on with the buyer

We said we would pay builder/contractor direct a set amount meaning they had to have work done rather than just taking the piss.

I don't think they were happy as it forced them to have the work done immediately but they couldn't argue we weren't reasonable.

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Good advice to the more I google the more I c that this happens all the time. My mum and dad who r in their 80s have been more than fair said as he was starting out they would leave them some furniture and fridge and washer that's not built in just thought it would help them out but I think maybe they r mistaken dads kindness as weakness so I'm going to meet with them myself
This page has been great thanks given me lots of good advice and things I didn't know