Renegotiating price after survey?

[lawyeredout82]

We have just had a full buildings survey done on a Georgian property that we are meant to be buying. The house is generally in good condition but the survey has thrown up a number of issues - some repairs to the rendering on the house (£20k), a new boiler (£3k) and...most worryingly...replacing a lot of the doors and windows (upwards of £35k, potentially a lot more as they are going to need to be bespoke and we have to do like for like timber). Obviously we are buying an old house and expected some of this to come up...but the costs especially in respect of changing the very old single glazed doors and windows are astronomical (it is a big house with a lot of doors and windows).

The feedback was that we need to replace all the doors to the house as they are a security risk and have very poor thermal efficiency.

We think we have a good price for the house without a price chip but are worried that we will never find the cash to get round to doing some of this work as all of our equity from our current house is going in to the purchase. Where would you start with negotiating a reduction? Or would you just leave it accepting that you are buying an old house and these things crop up? Fwiw, we are selling our old house with original single glazed windows and I would be cross if our buyer tried to price chip because of them as we’ve refurbished everywhere and put in suitable heating (and they are original...one of the few remaining things!) so I don’t want to take the mickey with our sellers...

All advice appreciated, thank you fellow mumsnetters

Is the house listed? If it is I would accept it as is. If not it would depend on how much of it was actually a security risk (eg front door made just from glass) and how much was heat inefficiency which is normal for a house of that age.

You can ask... id say no. It’s sold as it is, not as a perfect hosue

I think if you start on about a reduction for the windows and doors the vendors will get antsy and think you are quibbling and trying to screw them over

I think the rendering issue would warrant some sort of deal though

and the boiler...par for the course!

It's a bit like buying a car, if you boil it down, I'd say boiler and windows are comparable to fuel and tyres, just stuff that is used and wears out but the rendering would be more like an iffy clutch!

It’s not listed...

I guess maybe a starting point is to figure out which are security issues as we are moving in with a young family (some of the doors are apparently warped and won’t lock)...also I suppose an issue with insuring the house!!

If the doors are warped to the point you can’t lock them, I think that’s beyond what you would expect from an old house and you’re entitled to talk about a reduction. Low thermal efficiency you’d expect, but being unable to lock doors you wouldn’t. Ditto the rendering is beyond what you’d expect for normal age issues in an old house. I think you should definitely raise the issues and discuss the price.

Thanks everyone who has replied so far - we definitely don’t want to get the vendors’ backs up too much (we are buying the house for less than they paid for it a few years ago so definitely want to strike the right balance)

Sometimes the surveys overestimate the costs. If you are really concerned about the rendering why not get an independent company in to give you a quote. Ditto doors - but only front and back for security. If the house is the right one then you can do other things over time.

The critical thing is what did the survey value the house at. If is less than your offer then you have room to manoeuvre, if it is what you offered or more you are going to see an uplift by doing this work so they are less likely to budge.
Sometimes even when the valuation is less people can refuse to budge.

ALWAYS negotiate- I've no idea why people are so reticent to do so here. The worst they can say is no! A vendor has no idea what issues their house has till a survey is done and they know each potential buyer will uncover the same issues unless they're fixed or the price is lowered. We renegotiated after our survey and saved ourselves £10k plus the vendor fixed a couple of issues. Sellers want to sell in this market.

We're in the same position regarding a 20k new roof (not that we can get a written quote out of our roofer to prove it ). Don't want to lose the house but it's a lot more work than we anticipated. Vendor was quibbling over really small amounts during initial negotiation so doubt we'll get anywhere but think we'll try....