How to go about reducing my offer?

[changeofname0987]

Quite far along into a house purchase; 3 bed Victorian terrace. It's been vacant for several months, is dated and needs renovating. I expected this and have a medium-sized budget in anticipation of this. Full structural survey has shown up a few more serious issues concerning damp and fire risk, but which can all be solved over time. These would absorb all of my budget so I want to renegotiate. First time I've done this, I'm awaiting the results of a 2nd survey and going to get quotes for the repair work. Has anyone done this before and can offer advice please? I'd like to extend and reconfigure the back which would actually go some way to solving the issues (poorly designed guttering causing damp, needs some rewiring as no RCD, drainage access is paved over and the side return lean-to is non-compliant and preventing air flow which is causing damp). I'm not expecting them to fund my choice to have an extension but it's forcing me to sink my whole budget into it from the off and to wait to do other things. Any advice how I can approach this and how shitty a thing is it, to renegotiate once you've already had an offer accepted? For context, it's no chain at their end and my buyer is no chain either. I'm dealing with the vendor directly and trying to not let that get in the way of things. Thanks.

Dealing with the vendor directly makes things a bit harder as you don't have the estate agent to go between you. It really depends on the quotes you are sourcing for the work, and the % decrease in offer you plan on making - if it's 50k work on a 700k house, maybe, maybe not if on a 250k house IYSWIM. You're doing all the right things though IMO - getting quotes and working out the best offer for you.

Be prepared for them to say no though...also some of the works you are describing might be seen as non-essential/immediate by the vendors in which case they'll likely say no. In that case you could try to negotiate a middle point?

Also important to consider a buffer - 10% is necessary when doing large amounts of work so if the work is really going to stretch you, might it be worth looking for a different property? I don't know where you are located but in my neck of the woods it's definitely a buyers market, and we had our pick of 'project' houses.

Best of luck

Thanks so much @mammabella1 I'll have to consider the reduction value but glad to know I'm not missing a trick in how I'm going about it. I'm in London btw.

the side return lean-to is non-compliant with what? If it was built before current building regs, then afaik, those regs aren't retrospective, so expecting a drop for that is a bit mean.

Thanks @scaryteacher this is what I want to avoid. It's non-compliant because it's built over the air vent but also there are windows on the party wall side so nice close-up view of the neighbour's messy brick wall as they've since had an extension built. I don't want to take the pee with any reduction, it's more the extent of the damp issues that's my concern.

Has it been heated if vacant, and aired? When we moved into our 1835 house, we had a retention on the mortgage because of damp. We moved in, whacked the heating on for 6 months, and hey presto, no problem.

We currently rent a 1774 house with no extractors in the bathrooms, just one in the kitchen, and again, no damp as we heat and air the house properly.

We are moving back to the 1835 UK house in 8 weeks. It has been empty for a couple of months and there are signs that a bit of damp is returning, but we'll move in, air it, whack the heating on for 6 months again, and the issues will disappear.

We also found that having the soffits and guttering replaced helped enormously, but heating and airing it adequately seems to be key with older houses. It's also worth getting a damp specialist who deals with older houses as opposed to one of the big firms. The former will use the right kind of plaster etc and suggest alternatives to an injection damp course which aren't always suitable. One suggested cavity wall insulation as well, which as I have solid stone walls meant he was sent on his way pretty sharpish!

scaryteacher is spot on - ventilation and proper heating (i.e. not just blasting it full whack when you feel cold and then switching it off until the next time you're cold) is absolutely key. We applied the same logic to our (previous tenanted by students) Victorian terrace that was riddled with damp and it's absolutely fine now.

This is a useful article FYI!

www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/managing-damp-in-old-buildings.html

Sorry for the late reply, thanks so much for all that info @scaryteacher and @mammabella1 so incredibly useful. Had no idea about controversy over damp and thinking about it, my Polish friend was telling me about how damp isn't so much of a "thing" in Europe. So grateful for this info thank you. I'm going to see the results of this 2nd survey then reconsider whether I try to renegotiate...