Worth offering lower so close to stamp duty deadline?

[Finallygrowingup]

Hello all,

We are contemplating offering a lower price. We have received draft contract and searches which showed subsidence (removed and rectified). We would need to declare this on buildjngs insurance which would amount to a difference of nearly £300 a year on buildings insurance. Have calculated over a period of 30 years this could amount to circa 9k more plus an excess on any potential claims. We are contemplating making an offer of 10k less due to the increased cost but we are so close to stamp duty deadline - how long would it take lenders to revise their paperwork and how long for solicitors - is if a straightforwars typing swap job?

Or is it not worth the risk being so close to stamp duty deadline?

I certainly would not reduce my sale price by any amount! How do I know you are not going to resell the property next year? I think you are being very unreasonable- there are lots of reasons why insurance may be higher on one property than another and you don't go around renegotiating on this basis!

If it wasn't for SDLT then I'd completely understand reducing offer by £10k for subsidence on resell value alone. I guess things to think about are - how long does the chain need between exchange and completion, do you have a provisional completion date agreed, can the buyers afford £10k less, did you get a reduced price in the first place etc. Time-wise though, if everything else it ready to go, you have plenty of time to negotiate a price change and handle the paperwork in the next 4 weeks.

We were in a similarish position and the seller gave us a £2.5k 'allowance'.

It meant that the paperwork didn't need to change and everything could still go ahead quickly but we got that money off due to an issue with the property. Might be worth asking your solicitor about?

So something is going to cost you £9k over 30 years and you want £10k off now.

That seems a bit ott.

When did you find out about the subsidence? Is there a certificate of structural adequacy? It might be perhaps ok to see if the seller wanted to offer a small cash amount to cover the subsidence insurance for say 5 years? By then you should be getting close to market rates for your insurance anyway.

Is your seller buying somewhere? As they would probably have to reapply for their mortgage on the new property, which they might not be able to do, which could make the whole chain collapse or delay beyond the stamp duty deadline. I'm not sure of the values of the properties involved by 10k is a big chunk of change in most transactions.

I also think you need to treat SD as separate from the subsidence issue. Don't try to use one to force the other. Particularly not this close to the SD deadline as even with all your ducks in a row there's no guarantees you'll make the deadline.

10k I’d tell you to find somewhere else

If I was the seller I'd possibly agree to £1.5k to £3k off - £300 per year for 5-10 years max. 30 years would be too much

But even that would depend on how tight my budget was, if it impacts on the mortgage I'd need (which would add additional time to the process)

What is to say seller didn't already discount the price knowing buyers would be put off by earlier subsidence issue?

Yabu, this reads like you are being a CF.

Yabu, this reads like you are being a CF.

This

Yabu and a cf
I would call your bluff and tell you to jog on

Ok no need to be mean. Its a genuine question I was seeking advice over not person opinions on what you would do as a seller in this situation.

The house is the most expensive house on the road to sell to date and the subsidence issue wasnt declared until it was revealed by us fairly late in the process and several months on to the transaction.

Well that’s grabby, 😂

@Cocoaone

If I was the seller I'd possibly agree to £1.5k to £3k off - £300 per year for 5-10 years max. 30 years would be too much

But even that would depend on how tight my budget was, if it impacts on the mortgage I'd need (which would add additional time to the process)

Thank you :)

Thanks. This is helpful :). Yes you are right about SD, my thinking was I'd rather pay for housey stuff like insurance, repairs than the SD lol

@Andthenanothercupoftea

So something is going to cost you £9k over 30 years and you want £10k off now.

That seems a bit ott.

When did you find out about the subsidence? Is there a certificate of structural adequacy? It might be perhaps ok to see if the seller wanted to offer a small cash amount to cover the subsidence insurance for say 5 years? By then you should be getting close to market rates for your insurance anyway.

Is your seller buying somewhere? As they would probably have to reapply for their mortgage on the new property, which they might not be able to do, which could make the whole chain collapse or delay beyond the stamp duty deadline. I'm not sure of the values of the properties involved by 10k is a big chunk of change in most transactions.

I also think you need to treat SD as separate from the subsidence issue. Don't try to use one to force the other. Particularly not this close to the SD deadline as even with all your ducks in a row there's no guarantees you'll make the deadline.

Thanks. This is helpful. Yes you are right about SD, my thinking was I'd rather pay for housey stuff like insurance, repairs than the SD lol

@belimoo

We were in a similarish position and the seller gave us a £2.5k 'allowance'.

It meant that the paperwork didn't need to change and everything could still go ahead quickly but we got that money off due to an issue with the property. Might be worth asking your solicitor about?

Thanks. I'll have a chat to them today and suggest this and see what they say :)

When was the subsidence? This makes a difference as some insurance companies ask you to declare subsidence over ten years old (I have such a policy). This meant that we paid over the odds for the first year we lived in our house but have had a normal policy for a decade.

Personally I wouldn’t risk detailing the process at this late stage if you can avoid it, and afford the extra cover for the requisite timeframe.

Wow some people can be harsh. I don't think it's unreasonable to request a reduction but as pp mentioned it depends on when the subsidence was.
If it was last year and the sellers haven't been upfront about it then yes definitely I'd probably ask for £10k (and wonder what else the sellers might be hiding)
If it's 30 years ago then I wouldn't ask

Thanks this is helpful. The subsidence was remedied in 2019 and signed off a year later in 2020. I will speak to my solicitor to see what is doable.

The other thing to note is that the weird system in England means that the "natural" time to declare subsidence and other issues is through solicitors via the property information form, so although it seems like it's later in the process if the seller is just going through the motions they may not think it's "late".

That is really recent subsidence - if they didn't declare it and you discovered it late in the process I would be asking a lot of questions Op. Particularly around the actual cause, it's also fine to ask how much their insurance is and who it's with. As a buyer I would definitely be expecting a discount for undeclared subsidence (and would be strongly considering the purchase). As a seller if I hadn't declared it, I would expect it to come up on survey and expect a reduction!