Dropping purchase price following survey - any experience?

[WorrisomeHeart]

Just had the results of an independent damp survey commissioned following our standard survey and we want to drop our agreed purchase price by £5k to cover some of the works. Has anyone had any experience of this? I'm worried the vendors will tell us to take a hike and given its a sellers market at the moment, we'll be in a bind.

What is the overall price of the work? Do you think you got a "good deal" on the original purchase price? Was their evidence of/a strong possibility of damp when you viewed the property or was it a complete surprise?

The vendors will know that every other buyer will probably find out the same thing. I'd imagine the questions above will be part of their thinking when deciding whether to accommodate you.

We're in London and with the crazy market here, had an offer of £30k over the asking price accepted, so from our pov there is room to move! The initial survey suggested retaining £5k and the new survey has only quoted for half the works at £2.5k so it's about par.

Oh sorry, from experience. We sold our last property at the height of the last boom. Buyers asked for some money off post survey (~2% of purchase price IIRC). We said no as there was nothing you wouldn't expect to find in a Victorian property. They proceeded with the sale.

We asked for some money off from the property we were buying post survey as the freestanding garage was deemed "unsafe". Vendors refused but actually did later give us a ~£3K reduction in purchase price as just before completion an issue with church tithes which was completely unforeseen by both parties and their solicitors had caused endless delays meaning we were all just desperate to complete and they would have been in a bind if we'd walked at that late stage.

So you're proposing to go in for the full £5K but would take a 50% contribution of £2.5K? Seems reasonable.

Yep. Tbh we'd go forward even if they refused outright as we've been looking for a year, but we're not telling them that! Also the issues are caused by poor rendering (over the dpc) so it's not normal wear and tear.

Go for it then Good luck!

We sold in Dec 2011.

At the outset buyers negotiated purchase price of I think it was 188K. (start price was 195k)

Damp survey said that 7k needed spending on house straight away due to rising damp. Buyers tried to negotiate this full amount off the sale price.

I sent a curt email to the estate agent, saying that damp or no damp the buyers had negotiated so much off the start price at the outset that they'd left us with no room to manoeuvre at this stage. I said we would knock another 1k off as a gesture of goodwill and that was that.

They insisted on another 1k on top off that and the sale proceeded on that basis.

Considering you have offered so much over the asking price then I would say yes,ask them. They ate getting more tha its worth any way.

This is v interesting for me as I'm in the opposite position. We are selling and have accepted an offer 3k under asking price. Their surveyor recommended a damp report which has suggested 4k worth of work. Prices are rising in this area (significantly since we accepted offer) and I think our buyers are getting a good deal. The house is over 100 years old and their surveyor said it is worth the agreed price in its current state. I don't really want to drop the price, as a PP said, these issues are to be expected in houses of this age.