survey back - who pays?

[poocatcherchampion]

we've had a survey back on a house we love and there is loads to do. (there is also a potential subsidence issue which I will put to one side for the mo).

jobs include:
resetting chimney
possible re wiring
new boiler central heating
electrical checks
one new window to replace a rotten one
floor board checks

its a lot of work but I'm not too put off. my question is - who pays? where is the line between what is general and improvement of a property that needs it and stuff a vendor should get straight or knock some off the price?

an added factor here is we are currently paying £270k - there is also the demolition of a "lean to" utility and shower room recommended, so we were thinking of taking £10k off but we wouldn't mind getting down to £250k for stamp duty purposes.

thanks in advance

Do you know what the ceiling price is for the road? If it is much higher then they may have taken a sufficient amount off the asking price but otherwise you should offer a lot less. Those jobs are really expensive and disruptive so £250K sounds reasonable. That's without factoring the subsidence. DNT believe the TV shows where they do everything for five bob or assume friends will do it for you at a cut rate, even if they will it is better to have a professional relationship with the builders. We have done loads of work and are delighted with the result but it was not easy.

No set rule. Depends on whether work being needed was factored into asking price. Vendor can reject any reduction in price or accept it.

As netguru says, there is no set rule, it's all horsetrading and brinkmanship at the end of the day. Morally though, the feeling is that anything that wasn't apparent at the time of making the offer is fair game - i.e. you should have checked the age of the boiler, and noticed the number of radiators, and asked the vendor when the house was last rewired before you made your offer, so it's not really fair to knock money off for those at this stage. But something that wasn't apparent such as resetting chimney, and rotten window, should be reflected in your revised offer.

they do, in that you revise your offer downwards., telling them why.

they either accept or refuse.

resetting chimney
new boiler central heating
one new window to replace a rotten one
new electrics but not the check
not the check on wood but any treatment done to the wood

Take all the above off the agreed price for the house.

I would work out the price of the house when finished and take off the cost of each individual job - including flooring/decorating/damp proofing/electrics etc if needed. The exception to this is if a new house has OK kitchen/bathroom/flooring that just isn't to your specific taste.

Also check if the lean to is asbestos? It will be a few thousand to remove

What has it been valued at? If the valuation is lower than your offer then start negotiating. If it's been valued at your offer then you're actually getting it at a fair price and it comes down to how affordable the work is for you.

And remember that surveyors are excessively cautious so some of the things they recommend don't actually need doing. Why does the boiler need replacing? If it's just old that's no reason to change it. You don't know if it needs rewiring until an electrician has checked it and the same for the floorboards, they need to be checked by an expert before you'll know if anything needs doing to them.

the buyer will argue over anything that you ought to have seen before putting in your bid, as they will say you should have taken it into account already.

What it boils down to, though, is: can you find a better house for less (if so, go and buy it); or, can they find a buyer willing to pay more (in which case, sell it to them).

Take a view according to what other houses you have seen in the area that you would be happy with.

I agree it comes down to whether you want the house and how hardnosed you want to be. What was the valuation? What was the house on the market for (i.e. how much of a reduction has the vendor already agreed to by accepting your offer?) Do you know if there were other interested parties? Any other offers (i.e. does vendor think there other buyers waiting in the wings if he doesn't agree and you pull out?) How willing would you be to walk away now knowing that you've already invested in it (survey / mortgage application etc)? All those will impact on how you want to play it.

From a sellers point of view, if they wanted to play hardball, they don't have to accept any price reduction. And it depends how the survey is worded - if the survey says that any of the work needs to be done immediately (or there is a mortgage retention for any of it) then you have a really good argument - if not, its all down to bargaining. If the survey says yep, its a 10 yr old boiler and it'll need replacing in due course, then thats not something(I anticipate) a vendor would agree to a price reduction for.

Also depends on the age of the house - apart from the resetting of the chimney, if its an older house, I think its probably fair to say that you should expect as a buyer to have to check the electrics / floorboards / wiring etc you probably should have expected that.

if it has been surveyed then the surveyor will give a valuation based on its current condition, ie the valuation should be in its current condition. if you have offered more then yes reduce your offer.