Survey shows work needed - ask for price cut?

[CloverCannot]

We're having a structural survey carried out next week. It's a late Victorian house and we're expecting to find we need to do some bits and pieces, but wondering if there's a generally accepted threshold or category of work above which it's reasonable to ask for a reduction

It went for quite a lot above asking price & agents told us there was a lot of interest, though we suspect that might have been a ruse to get us to increase our offer.

Thank you

You offer what it is worth to you. There's no etiquette.

A few bits and pieces on an old house are to be expected. But if it needs major work that you didn't budget for, time for a rethink!

Thank you!

It's worth an awful lot to us, but not becoming the be-all and end-all of our family life

I wouldn't fuss for a couple of k, or for things you should have noticed e..g age of boiler.

Recent purchase for me was a Victorian building

Survey brought up:

New boiler needed
Oil tank in wrong location/unsafe
Damp to end gable, pointing done in cement and not lime
Asbestos tiles on some of roof and water tank
Wood worm in parts of the loft
Mains water no stopcock in place-God knows how that happened
Mains electrics been messed around with

All above I got a reduction on, except the boiler which we had already agreed a small reduce to take account of

The survey also threw up the follow which I felt was obvious stuff and I should have known:

Kitchen and bathrooms all needed replacing
Every door in house broken or needed attention
Some broken floorboards on a wooden floor
Driveway needed replacing or a lot of repair
All trees needed heavy cutting back
Rear garden wall 50% broken/knocked down

We sold our house in 9 days with three people bidding on the house at same time, it went for more than the asking price. Buyer got survey and despite it only highlighting non urgent work that 'may' need looking at in the future (and didn't impact the valuation) they asked for a 10% reduction in house sale price. When we got our own quotes for the work they came in at 25% of theirs. They were clearly looking to reduce sale price significantly from the start as they had had to increase their offer so much in order to secure the house. They waited until the exchange in order to spring this on us and I imagine they thought they could back us into a corner and force us to accept the reduction. We told them to get lost and put the house back on the market. It sold for more than they had paid within 6 days.

I guess what I'm saying is you can't buy a house expecting it to be brand new and without any work required. If the things highlighted don't impact the valuation of the property you don't really have a reason to ask for a reduction in sale price. If something significant is highlighted that does impact the value of the house then by all means ask for a reduction, however if the house has had a lot of interest you may well find yourself no longer purchasing it.

Thanks, your additional answers are really helpful.

@maggy, we have zero intention of trying to renege on agreed price as part of a master plan to backtrack on our bid. Just wasn't clear whether eg £20k to reroof urgently, or £10k to sort problems with brickwork would be considered "to be expected" of an older house.

We don't want to mess sellers round or risk losing house, but nor do we want to end up paying way over market value for a property before we've even started to consider updating, redecorating & generally making it home.

The survey will tell you if you're paying a fair price for it in its current state.