Survey problems - reduce price?

[Jillyhilly]

I am selling my dad’s house (he is deceased). I’ve never been through the selling process before so am a novice to this.

Estate agent has just informed me that the buyer’s survey has uncovered several problems and they have asked for a price reduction as a result.

What do I do next? Do I / can I ask to see they survey to understand exactly what we’re talking about here? Do I have to commission my own survey (really not sure I want to go down that path)? Or do I yet agree with what they want? I’m really keen to sell and they seem like very motivated buyers.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Did you have lots of interest and more than one offer on the property? How big is the price reduction they’ve asked for?

What kind of issues are they talking about, and would they have been visible upon viewing the house - e.g. windows clearly needed replacing?

We’re in the final stages of buying a house which had loads of hidden issues shown up by the survey. We asked for a reduction - not massive like 7k to cover remedial works costed by specialists out of a 625k purchase price. The vendor told us to bog off. We’re still going ahead (grumpily) because there is a massive shortage of houses of that size in the area we want.

You can say no to your buyer, they could decide to keep on with the sale if they really want it.

Has your estate agent said that prices are going down in your area and therefor you should try and keep hold of this buyer?

I would ask to see the survey document if possible. It rates the issues according to severity and the buyers could be trying it on re: less important issues.

Thanks WobbleHead. That’s interesting. I am so keen to sell and just don’t want anything to hold this up but I need to take a breath I think. I will ask to see the document. Issues definitely not clearly visible.

Are they first time buyers? It seems strange to ask for a reduction but not state the reason or the amount. We asked for a reduction on a house previously based on the survey, but we clearly outlined the issue and stated our figure based on the findings. Without telling the buyer the amount or the issue, I don’t know what they hope to expect other than a straight “no”.

I would ask for the survey and for exactly what price change they are proposing?

If you don’t have the info you can’t make a decision.

Don't ask for the survey, it belongs to the buyer, they paid for it. Ask for the relevant sections relating to why they've asked for a reduction. Quite unreasonable of them to ask for money off without telling you why though

A survey will point out issues like damp and may even give an estimate of costs but more likely suggest a separate damp report (or whatever the issue is). The buyer would commission the report (and is usually free as the damp guy will expect to be hired to deal with it). So say it is damp and the damp guy says it’s £5000. Then the buyer would give you a copy of the report and ask for a reduction, which would probably be 50% (£2500) as they will be benefitting from the improvement. But they may try to have price reduced by full amount.
If there’s a lot of things then they negotiate on that. However if the buildings is of some age you’d expect a few things to be needed. Presumably the agent priced it knowing it would need redecoration etc. You’d usually only renegotiate price if it was something significant like rewiring or damp or roof needing replacing etc.
And the buyers should show you actual estimates for remedial work.

Also how fast are houses selling in the area? If it’s a slow market they’d expect a bit of a reduction in price even if there wasn’t any issues.

Just read these updates, thanks very much.

We have asked for the survey (did that before reading your post @Kamma89) and they have refused. I will ask again for the relevant bits so that we can make an assessment.

The house went on the market in May and we had 2 offers at the same amount in a month. Under asking but we were prepared to go with what the market offered and the offers were sensible. It didn’t get as far as going online.

We are keen to sell but I want to be sensible!

Agent seems to think if we turn them down we’ll definitely get another offer. But I know that if we reject we run the risk of another buyer doing the same thing, slowdown, running into Brexit etc.

To me it depends on whether the problems are what you would expect for a house of that age and condition, or whether they are unexpected. Some people seem to take the attitude that any issues in the survey are an excuse to reduce the price, but ignore that it was priced taking such things into account.

Agent who has seen the survey says it is all pretty expected for house that age. Nothing unexpectedly awful or dramatic. I think we were reasonable in coming down from asking price with a view to the sort of work a new owner will have to put in.

I also suspect that they know it is the property of someone deceased and are hoping you need a quick sale.
If the reduction is simply the age of the house then that should have been reflected in their offer.
Some people just us the survey as and excuse to drop the price.
So they should give you reasons and you then decide if the reduction is justified .If it is justified then is the reduction too much,you can negotiate that too.
It sounds like a try on and you can say no,if they walk away it sounds as if you have other buyers.

If it's all typical things then I would say no. Or something like "We are not happy to negotiate the price unless the issues shown by the survey are unusual for a house of that age and condition. If the buyers wish to share details of any specific issues that they think are unusual then we can review them if provided."

Ultimately they might still walk away. But if they are just using the often generic stuff shown on a survey to try and knock some money off then they're probably not the most reliable of buyers anyway.