Buying older propwrty

[emma123456]

We have sold our house and have put an offer in on an older property. We had a structural survey done and Its come back with a lot of issues. Some I think are pretty standard for an older house, others are more concerning e.g., huge retaining wall which surveyor can't really say if it's sound or not. The surveyor has said there is a major issue with the garage - the steel supports on the the floor are corroded and could collapse, the roof is leaking as well. Vendor says it's nonsense. He won't budge. Would you walk away?

So a trained and qualified engineer has given you impartial advise, yet your vendor thinks they are better suited to make a judgement? I'd be wary of dealing with them in anyway. Look for another property.

Surveys on older houses always come back with 101 issues. A lot of these issues tend to be minor (rot in a window frame, garden wall in need of repointing, some dodgy floorboards, ancient boiler) but you have to watch out for the big expensive ones.

Was it priced to reflect the problems? If so, the vendor isn't being unreasonable (our house needed a lot of work, but the vendors didn't go down much because the price reflected the poor condition).

If you're paying top dollar, though, expect the vendor to drop the price to reflect the issues - unless you really, really love the house, can afford to cough up for repairs if and when needed, and won't feel resentful about it for ever more.

It sounds like you are being quite measured on the normal/expected issues but something like 'garage needs to be totaly rebuilt' I would expect a renegotiation on price.

Thank you. The vendor is adamant that there are no issues and surveyors are just keeping themselves in work to find problems where there are none. Sadly I think we will have to walk away. Vendor has a structural engineer who is a mate and has apparently visited the property over the weekend and will take a look. However, the fact that his mate doesn't see a problem doesn't help us!

We are buying a house that needs the garage ripped down and built again... but we knew this from the viewing
We are so in love the house and luckily have just enough to do the work needed so haven't even tried to get the price lowered as we are scared someone else will end up getting our dream home
By the sounds of it you are ok with walking away so am I right in assuming you aren't smitten with the house? And are confident you can find something else?
If so then walk away x