Am I being unreasonable to demand fixes?

[rebeccajohnston1010]

Hi,

First time poster and long term reader. DH and I decided to finally get on the ladder and put in an offer for a 3 bed house in Harrow (DD starting school next year).

We have had our survey done and highlighted some issues, not major. The one that rather scared me away was some loft issue where the pillars (?) have split.

When speaking to the EA, they said I should have noticed (not sure if its the EA or vendor) and they refuse to fix it. We paid asking price.

Is this normal in this market or should I look elsewhere (DH said it should be fairly simple to fix, but I have my concerns about the EA / vendors' stance on this...they even said the house was perfect!)

What do you think - anyone had this type of experience recently. I want to have a happy buying experience rather than being told off for getting something to be fixed.

Thanks
Becs

Reduce offer by estimate plus 10% contingency

"You should have noticed" is ridiculous - you have noticed. That is what the survey is for.

Ultimately you have to decide how much you want the house. It is normal to renegotiate the price after a survey but the vendor does not have to agree.

How much will it cost to fix and what are the implications of not doing so immediately?

To be honest, it's a couple of hundreds pounds worth (am I being silly for standing my grounds?), the house is £350k. Also sounds like he wants a quickish sale...

Oh and no direct comparable (they are more expensive, but are also bigger houses) within the area unfortunately...

The EA / vendor also said it is not a new house etc

Owl is right. You have noticed; that's what survey is for. Having said that , any house is going to need some fixes (nothing is 'perfect') and a few hundred pounds is nothing if you're buying a £350k house. You just need to decide:

A) Stick with current offer and fix it at own expense when you move in
B) Reduce offer by cost of work and fix it when you move
C) Pull out of purchase unless they fix it

The agent doesn't get to decide which if these you do. It's up to you.

Just forget it and carry ahead with the purchase if you really like the property. It will cost you much, much more if this falls through and you have to start all over again in terms of time and expenses and there's no guarantee you'll be better off. For a start, you'd have lost your surveying fee.

For a couple of hundred, I'd leave it.

A couple of hundred? Not worth it.
A couple of thousand then yes maybe.

Its all relative on price of house too

I agree. I'd leave it too. Not worth loosing it over a few hundred in the grand scheme of things.

Presumably you have paid for a survey, a mortgage application fee and be in for solicitors fees on an aborted sale if you walked away. I would reduce the offer by the amount to fix the problem and go ahead. Otherwise you are about to write off an awful lot more money than a couple of hundred quid which will be knocked off the price anyway.
What ever property you go for will have problems and a lot will be a damn site more expensive than £200

Thanks all, it is actually the first time we went through with it completely (survey / mortgage etc) as we can't see how London could fall prices (I know they say it will rise 3% next year, but this is 3% we could save!). DH is applying his car buying logic to a house (doh!). Is it normal to expect some issues with a house - is there an older house out there with no problems, am I living in cuckoo land?

You are living in cuckoo land.
What happens when next year you go for another house and the survey comes back with something else. Are you just scared to commit to any house.

I mean this kindly, but yes, you're in cloud cuckoo land. Unless you buy a brand new house you're not going to get perfection (and tbh, I'd doubt whether any new house would have no faults at all!)

A few hundred pounds worth of repairs is NOTHING in the grand scheme of things. As others have said, you'll lose more by walking away. No survey is ever going to come back without issues.

A story for you: around eighteen months ago we accepted an offer on our house. It was less than we wanted but we were moving 200 miles so keen for a quick sale. Buyer had survey done. As always, it bought up a few small problems. We suggested he sent builder round for quotes so that we could negotiate way forward. He declined to send anyone round and instead tried to knock six thousand off his original offer. We laughed and declined (offering various alternatives). Eventually his demands became ridiculous. We withdrew from sale, spent £1000 fixing EVERY problem his survey had bought up and rented house out for a year. We've just sold it for £14000 more than his original offer, £20000 more than his reduced offer. He still hasn't bought anything. I genuinely think he's terrified of committing to a house, but his naivety/ twattishness lost him a potential £14k profit. Moral of the story: be realistic. Don't be a twat expect perfection

Thanks for all the responses. The house is in the right location and quite peaceful, it's very very close to what we ask for (there are always compromises), but I suppose some issues is to be expected.

Also, surveys tend to point out lots of things that aren't going to affect life in the house, its structural integrity or even it's value further down the line and are 'nice to haves if you have limitless funds to do everything possible to the house'.

Thanks all, it was actually something that was drawn up as urgent.

When we bought our house 12 years ago an urgent fix required was the flat roof on the porch as it could fail anytime with no warning.

We still haven't done it...