Survey - roof replacement

[sleepyhollow1]

Survey on a house we've offered on has come back saying the entire roof needs replacing and has active leaks. The surveyor has given a roof estimate of £40-50,000 (it's a complicated roof).

The agent and vendors knew that we were at our maximum when we offered, and there's no way we could afford to pay even half that.

Would it be cheeky to just say that whilst we are prepared to write off other things the survey has flagged up, we can't do that with the roof as it's such a huge expense.

Not cheeky at all. After we had our survey we managed to get £8k off the asking price because it turned out the garage needed a lot more repair work than we thought. But the survey underestimated other work (such as the garden wall) so we didn't actually save anything in the long run.

Needing that much work would put me off a property. You could back out now. You paid for a survey but at least you'll save money in the long run.

That's true Frankie. It's just we loved the house. But I suppose we can but try.

I'd probably get a roofer to have a look before doing anything, if they agree with the work needed and the estimate then I don't really see that you have any option but to renegotiate or walk away.

I would do what tentative has suggested - get a proper quote from a roofer and see if you can negotiate with the sellers - after all if you pull out their next buyers will come up with the same Problem. It might also depend on whether the house price is reflecting the fact that it may need a new roof or not. An estate agent wouldnt necessarily know the true state of the roof so could have priced the house too high in the first place so its true value might be £50k less.

Roofs are notorious money pits. If you don’t have the money and cannot get at least £40,000 off the agreed price, walk away. You simply cannot afford this house. Was the price set to reflect the work needed. If it was, they probably won’t agree to a reduction that size. If the roof timbers are rotten and the leaks have caused further damage, £40,000 won’t touch it. Do you need this amount of hassle?

We did exactly this, got a quote from a roofer and renegotiated the price down.

Ok thank you all. The price didn't reflect roof works. Our offer was much reduced from the asking price, but that wasn't to do with us knowing the roof was in poor condition.