Survey back what should we do?

[Allhallowseve]

So we have had our survey back on the house we are purchasing . Feel so unsure what to do could really use some advice.
It has flagged artex which could possibly contain asbestos . It is on the bathroom ceiling, lounge , bedrooms some of the walls what a nightmare! Should we get it tested prior to completing ? We can't just leave and skim over downstairs as we plan to knock down walls sort electrics etc.
Survey also flagged:
Damp in lounge
Unusable conservatory
First floor bay window has dropped by several mm due to not being supported correctly
First floor front and rear bay Windows not tied back to main body of the house
Ceiling of lean to needs repairing
Leaking boiler
Recommended that property is inspected by a timber preservation and damp proof specialist
Wow sounds horrendous when all listed like that.
We got the house for fairly good price for the location and they wouldn't negotiate so we offered asking price.
Should we be negotiating now after all the survey has flagged up or just take it for what it is?

How old is the house? Tbh l'd be more concerned about the windows not being supported properly than risk of asbestos. In what way is conservatory uninhabitable? Can you see the damp? You can't really negotiate on basis of visually obvious issues or those which might arise as a result of changes you want to make.

Don't panic too much, surveys always come back with a massive list of issues, particularly in slightly older properties. Things like recommending an inspection by a timber person I think are fairly standard and don't mean there is definitely a problem, just that they can't guarantee there isn't one without a specialist inspection? The artex for instance, pretty much all artex put in in the 80s or earlier (which is nearly all artex!) 'could' contain asbestos, not all actually does! If you can arrange for testing prior to exchange that would be helpful.

What you need to understand is the likely bill to fix all the things which need immediately fixing, and you then need to consider whether it's reasonable to say these were already factored in to the cost of the house compared to a similar house without the issues, or if they will actually lower the value of the house. Things like the conservatory being unusable were surely apparent when you offered? Other things which are small jobs such as fixing guttering and making good damp patches don't really need to be negotiated over if they are only a few hundred £ to fix. But yes, if the survey has thrown up unexpected issues which will cost a significant amount more than you were expecting to fix then absolutely go back and renegotiate, be prepared to walk away if necessary... you may need to ask to go for an additional viewing with a builder to cost up some of the jobs, of course they aren't obliged to agree but if it means saving the sale most sellers will play ball!

@lizs thanks for replying . I think 1950s/60s . Yes we are concerned about the Windows aswel.
Conservatory beyond repair and needs replacing is actually what the survey says.
We need to go back and look properly r e the damp.

@maxelly it's hard to say with regards to house values. It's a sought after road only one similar recently was 30k more was done, this house needs complete modernisation . Although I do feel that the price was good ...by no means cheap but decent for the house and area. Survey recommended 7k to fix the things it has highlighted.

Ok well £7k is not a huge amount, seems quite low for that list of jobs - well obviously in the 'real world' £7k is a lot but proportionate to the value of the house, presumably it's a small amount? If you are planning on doing a complete modernisation with electrics and everything, you must have a substantial budget? What does the additional £7k represent as an additional bill, does it mean you can't finish the house for instance or is it just using up some of your contingency (you absolutely must build in contingency to these kind of projects)?

I think the normal 'form' is in these matters is to negotiate with the vendor, you start by asking them to reduce the price by 100% of the surveyors estimate of extra costs and usually end up more at 50% taking into account that the condition of the house will already have been factored in to your offer. In this case though if the vendors were already reluctant to negotiate AND you feel the price for the house was reasonable in its condition, then I'd be a bit careful about risking the sale for the sake of £3500 ish, you'd presumably lose near that much in legal fees and the cost of the survey itself if you pulled out now so you don't have that much leverage?

@maxelly thanks baring all that in mind it doesn’t really feel right to negotiate over to be honest. The house was priced competitively and we wouldn’t want to pull out even with all issues considered.
With regards to the asbestos this was something we hadn’t really factored in so we would be going in hoping that it’s fairly straight forward to remove and testing samples when we got there .

Surveyors do have to warm about the possibility of asbestos in artex in all properties built 80s or earlier. Not a problem if you skim over it and don’t drill into it. If you plan on knocking down walls it might be advisable to get it tested but builders will know what to do, it’s so common. I think there are companies online which will send you a small kit for you to send them a small sample to test, relatively cheaply.

Thanks everyone I think we will just test when we are in and go from there @CoolShoeshine
We haven’t done this amount of work before but this house is in our perfect location and big enough for our family (in small 2 bed now with 2 dc). I think we just need to go with it once we are in.

A lot of that seems to read like generic arse covering - we had the "get the timber checked" and "might be asbestos around because of the age of the house" comments in our survey when we bought this place.

We also had some corkers like scathing comments about how the fireplace was "dated in design" and the avocado bathroom suite - yes the whole house was the finest of early 1980s interior design - that was why we got it so cheap!

Windows would worry me (but the bay window here has been the sodding bane of my life for years), damp would have me wanting to know the cause (we had damp - some was an issue and some was just because of the fact the house had been empty for 2+ years).

We actually found when we rang the surveyor he talked us (stressy first time buyers) through it in a lot more calm and sensible terms about what actually needed worrying about and what was just stuff that he had to include to cover his arse really.