To renegotiate after survey or not?

[IWBAGE]

We've had a homebuyer's survey and an asbestos survey carried out on a DREAM home we're buying. The chain is us -> sellers -> seller's sellers.

The survey brought up a couple of category 3 things, and there's also white asbestos in basically all of the ceiling artex.

We're happy to swallow the costs of the professional artex removal, as it's technically not a category 3 problem and we want to do an internal remodel in a couple of years anyway. But the rest of the repairs will be ~£20k to address, which is around a 4% reduction on the previously agreed price.

We're buying from a lovely couple who have been very accommodating, the process so far has been fine and everyone's getting along great. We all want to complete before the stamp duty relief deadline.

Should we try and renegotiate to have these costs factored in, or not? I worry about jeopardising what is essentially our forever home, and I don't want to mess anyone around - but on the other hand I do want it to be a fair deal for us too.

Would you pull out if we tried to negotiate?

Yes, it is a good idea to renegotiate in these circumstances. Even if you eventually decide to meet halfway you're better off than if you don't try.

it depends. how far away was your offer from the asking price? Did the survey value the house, even with these results, as worth what you're paying? If they thought you were messing them about and pulled out of the sale, how would you feel? Even if they agree a reduction, have you factored in enough time to re-do the paperwork with new sale price & complete in time for SD?

• Offer was bang-on the asking price
• We didn't have a valuation as part of the homebuyer's survey, so no idea! The lender approved our mortgage in 3 days, and just did a desktop survey that we can't see.
• I would be completely heartbroken if they pulled out. My Mum died from cancer a few weeks ago, and we're still in the rented place we quickly moved into so I could be close to her. I hate it here.
• Hmm, no, had not thought of paperwork - how much more time could that take? 😕

I wouldn't have artex removed. Just get a plasterer in to skim over it.

We need to remove, eventually, as we want to knock down and move walls internally

If you agree a price that's £20k lower and you're getting for example a mortgage with a LTV of 80% your lender will need to revise their offer. Not sure how long it would take, could be simple but I'd have a chat with them?

You should have paid for the valuation with your survey. Ours came back with numerous category 3 issues which they argued against but they couldn't argue with the valuation (cost an extra £50 on top of the standard survey fee) and they've agreed a reduction in line with the valuation.
I think it's worth discussing it with them - ie we are happy to address XYZ which are category 3 but had not expected ABC to also be category 3 and will need to renegotiate the price to compensate for this.
If you send them extracts from your survey they may decide to pay for the works themselves, it's worth trying as you don't want to pay more than the house could be worth. Fingers crossed they'll deal with it quickly - send the estate agent the issues as well as your solicitor as it will be much quicker. We've been waiting for our buyers survey issues to come through the solicitor for 6 bloody weeks!

We've decided to keep the same mortgage amount and reduce our deposit. This is very quick to sort with the bank but they did say if we reduced the mortgage they'd have to do a new application which would delay things further, so keep that in mind if you're renegotiating.

Pants, didn't know about that. Only ever bought and sold in Scotland before. The system of buyer surveys here is confusing, especially in a fog of grief.

The estate agent already has the extracts from the survey, and they've been very helpful, along with the vendors, with being flexible for people coming round to quote. They're an elderly couple and very sweet.

I do think (you never know) they would try to be as fair as possible, and meet with us on the negotiation, but I'm not sure about the delays now. Our searches were meant to be back next week but they've been delayed by two weeks. I would also like to think the lender would be quick, but perhaps they're even more snowed under. We have gone to them via a broker, though, so perhaps the broker would be able to advise.

If it does get delayed past the deadline, the net 'saving' would be about £6.5k after stamp duty, which doesn't seem worth the extra stress maybe

We renegotiated ours after survey showed it needed a new roof and our mortgage re-offer was back with us the same day our IFA submitted it.

I would if I were you, as you’d offered asking price. £20k is a lot of extra not built into your original offer. Then can always say no, in which case you can accept or walk away.

I've spoken to our broker, and he thinks that the new offer would be issued pretty much instantaneously - we'd be keeping our deposit amount the same, but lowering the mortgage and the property price, so no re-application required.

I think we've decided we will ask the vendors what they think about the repair quotes for category 3 things. We'll make clear we're not hardballing, and we're still keen to complete by the end of March so everyone can avoid stamp duty.

Hopefully they'll see we just want it to be fair, and although it seems like a huge potential reduction it's actually only about 4%.

My next question is - who does the negotiating? Our solicitor with their solicitor? Us with their estate agent?