Isn't it normal to negotiate after the survey?

[BewareOfTheToddler]

Would you negotiate on price after a survey?

I thought this was normal where the survey throws up issues not reasonably anticipated at the point f offer. Our buyers did this - originally asked for total cost of all works, but we settled on half of their share (it's a flat). So reduced by about £2.5k.

Just had survey back on house we're buying, and it has highlighted a host of smaller issues (to be expected in an older property) and a couple of major ones (one relating to structure but fixable).

Valuation (not mortgage-linked) says we're paying about 3% over the odds (which is a five-figure sum, just). Total cost of work likely to be around £12k (roughly amount we'd be overpaying by).

We revised our offer to the new valuation, and the vendors have basically told us to do one and offered a few hundred off. We went up a bit, they huffed and said one of the issues is irrelevant and they're not negotiating on it (it's definitely relevant and expensive to fix). So I've asked them to make us a reasonable counter-offer.

Am I being wildly unreasonable? Would you risk losing a sale by refusing to negotiate on issues not reflected in the asking price but which you knew about?

It would depend how desperately you want that particular house and how much you can afford to write off the discrepancy.

Without knowing what the issues are, it is impossible to say whether they or you are bring unreasonable about things. If you've already agreed a price lower than the asking price you do run the risk of scuppering the deal if you ask for a further reduction.

It's one of things you have to consider when deciding on your strategy and tactics: if the sellers say no, what do you do; walk away or buy it anyway? When asking for a reduction it needs to be worded in such a way that the sellers are worried you'll walk away if they don't agree.

No, we offered slightly below asking price but ended up going up to asking as the "other offer" (assuming there was one) was from no-chain people but they preferred to sell to a family.

Issues include electrics (potential fire risk rather than updating to current standards) as well as fixable structural issue (don't want to say more for risk of outing myself). So not "we don't like the carpets and want to replace them"-type-stuff.

I am thinking getting them to meet us halfway on the costs of the major stuff which couldn't have been detected pre-survey is not unreasonable? We know they are keen to move, and so are we, but the asking price didn't take these issues into account - and they knew about them.

No it is not normal to re-negotiate after the survey. You are not buying a brand new home so the surveyor will always find issues. You cannot expect an old house to have bang up to date electrics/boilers etc. It is up to the buyer to modernise after the sale not the vendor. The only issues that warrant renegotiation are things like rising damp, Japanese knotweed etc.

To answer your question, no, its not normal to negotiate after the survey (in my experience) unless major issues are involved. You said yourself that mist if the issues are to be expected in an older property and a cost you reasonably expect to incur. What did the mortgage valuation say (not the one which isnt mortgage related)? If the bank says part of the mortgage should be retained pending electrics being sorted etc, you gave a stronger argument. If not it all comes down to negotiation and what each party is prepared to pay / accept. If there was another asking price offer, you're easily replaced which means vendors will be prepared for you to withdraw if you continue to haggle. If they're keen to move, they might agree to contribute.

Ah, I thought it was normal to negotiate if the survey revealed fairly major issues not anticipated at the point of offer. Our buyers negotiated, and I thought it was common. Looks like I was wrong.

The issues are not minor - there's a long list of stuff we wouldn't even bother to raise, surveys will always find stuff, as you say. And this is not about modernising - it's about safety/structural integrity. I wouldn't expect the vendor to foot the bill for my new boiler on the grounds that the current one is old.

No mortgage valuation yet. Mortgage has been approved though, probably because we are borrowing a fairly small amount.

Well, they can agree to a revised figure, refuse to drop the price, or decide they're not selling to us after all!

I have to admit, I thought it was normal to renegotiate if there are structural issues which you didn't know about when you made the offer. However if they don't feel it's a good offer to start with, they may not want to and you have to think whether it's worth continuing. There's nothing that says they have to negotiate.

As vendors we refused to enter renegotiations- put our property back on the market and sold it again the next day. The original buyers tried to offer again at the original agreed price but we refused their offer. So yes, people do risk the sale. Its a risk you have to take if you are determined to change your offer.

I have never negotiated after a survey. I always factor in a couple of grand into my offer, as there will be stuff that needs doing.

Basically, if the survey throws up something so serious and expensive you can't continue at the offered price, then yes, negotiate. They compromise or lose the sale.

If it's relatively minor things and you are still willing to pay the offer price, don't negotiate. You risk the vendors pulling out as a) you're now a buyer that may decide to try and renegotiate at any point and b) they're not losing anything waiting for another buyer.

I accepted an offer on our house on the clear understanding that there was to be no negotiation at all. the survey likely had a couple of minor issues, but i felt the price was fair regardless.

I think its normal to re-negotiate on major structural issues. But major ones - I withdrew from a sale because of the survey - they offered to negotiate but we were too worried by it. In the end we dropped the sellers a copy of the survey so they could see what it was - though we still didnt go through with it.

Obviously you can try and renegotiate and they can either say yes or no. Yours are saying no way so now you have to decide if it's worth it. We've bought and sold a fair few times and have never renegotiated on price. I do recall one vendor had minor structural work (which showed on our survey) done as it was covered by their insurance.

Yes it's reasonable to revise your offer, but the seller does not have to accept that.

If they are in no hurry to sell, or have a property that they are confident they can get other buyers for, why should they?

Equally, if they have already accepted a low offer from the buyer they may decide they are not prepared or can't afford to drop it further.

When I sold my last house we had request after request to drop the price in relation to different things the survey had raised. All relatively minor.

We'd already accepted their offer at £5k below the asking price to get a quick sale and their additional requests of £1k here, £500 for x and £2k for y just started to take the piss frankly.

So we just said no. Take it or leave it at the offer price. They went ahead anyway.

At the end of the day it's a business transaction and they were just trying to get the best price they could - same for us. It wasn't personal. It was simply a game of brinkmanship about who was prepared to "fold".

I wouldn't say it was normal either.

It would be factored into my offer. Anything large scale like you are suggesting would probably lead to me walking away anyway

I guess it depends on quite a lot of things. Maybe they can't afford to go any lower on sale price? Or maybe your request is unreasonable? Maybe they aren't looking for a quick sale and are willing to wait?

Our buyer asked for £10,000+ off (a £120,000 house) after survey highlighted a garden wall might need work in the future. After saying she was happy to proceed she came back with a £10,000+ quote to completely rebuild half the garden. We got our own quotes for the wall that came in around £3000. We offered to reduce sale price by half of that £1500, which I considered more than generous as the work was non urgent and not impacting the valuation. She said she wanted more so we told her to get lost (she had been a massive pain with a lot of over stuff as well - she knew we were pregnant and I think she thought she could force us into agreeing anything she wanted so we moved before the baby). We put the house back on the market, sold within 6 days for more than she had paid. (She was fairly silly to think we wouldn't as when we accepted her offer she had to outbid two other buyers and it had only been on the market 9 days that time. We wanted to move quick but weren't prepared to be screwed over.)

I've not done it, we view the survey as giving us the information on whether we wish to proceed with open eyes, I've had buyers try but generally I refuse and would just have got another buyer. The buyers I have bought from would have been the same. I've never seen it as a tool to reduce offer.

It's doesn't really matter whether the works are essential or even how much they cost. It comes down to the market plain and simple. If they think that they can put the house back on the market and get the price they want then they will. If you think they wont, or are prepared to lose the house, be brave and hold your ground.

Houses are like people, they've all got things wrong with them.

I think it's completely normal to renegotiate IF the survey throws up something not honestly foreseeable.

What happens then depends on the positions of the vendor and buyer, and their attitudes.

I've agreed reduction when unforeseen and really needs fixing issue has arisen.

OTOH, try to negotiate a reduction for every minor thing in an older house, likely I'll put it back on market. Cause I'm selling a character property, not one with a guarantee.

Ooh, PigletJohn, we all know you know what's what with houses.
But now you hint of wisdom about people as well.......

We didn't with ours as the survey didn't reveal anything that needed doing urgently. It found some possible asbestos but not in a location likely to cause problems. Our buyers did negotiate £1500 off ours as the survey noted that the chimney breast directly above the master bedroom was unsafe and not supported by a load bearing wall. Didn't blame them for that one 😲

Well, we've managed to negotiate about half the cost of the essential remedial works, which is about a quarter of what we'll have to spend. As we want the house, we accept we'll be paying over the valuation as the vendors are just not willing to budge on price. We wouldn't have negotiated on minor stuff but structural issues are different.

Next posting: the fixtures and fittings list, aka "what our gracious vendors will allow us to purchase at faintly ridiculous prices". How much would you pay for second-hand carpet?

I think it's normal to negotiate if the survey picks up expensive things you wouldn't have expected for the condition, or things you can't see for yourself (like the fire risk electrics).

But ultimately it's a negotiation - and it depends on your relative strengths of position as to how it works out!

How much would you pay for second-hand carpet

Nothing! Tell them to jog on if they want you to pay for carpet.

Folk we were buying fron refused to renegotiate after survey - we were still offering above valuation. We pulled out, house remained on market for over a year, and sold for less than we offered. Tits

Unless it is something major and structural I think it is a shitty thing to do.

However if your vendors are trying to charge you for carpet I think that's awful! It didn't occur to me to do anything other than leave carpet for our buyers even though they nitpicked over the survey and I absolutely despised them