Survey back- what next?

[birkensocks]

Just need some advice on what we do next... made an offer of 430k house. House was valued at the original market price of £425 by the mortgage company with the proviso that damp and wood worm survey completed. Specialist surveys now back and the work is estimated at £10k. The suspect the house will need reworking too as the fuse box is old. Additionally, there are some other maintenance issues to be addressed which the survey has raised.

What would you do?

*rewiring

If the market for that type of house has quietened down you may be able to knock a bit more off. If in your area people are still chasing every house that comes on the market someone else will probably pay the full asking price.

You can go back and renegotiate. As you have a firm figure they may pay half of that. The other stuff may be just part and parcel of buying an older home - you can't expect it to be in pristine condition.

@Hannahcolobus the 10k covers the specific damp and woodworm. The list price was 425-450 and we offered 430. It had been reduced.

@Livingintheclouds absolutely- the other issues are wear&tear but probably a lack of overall maintenance. I wouldn't expect money off per se for those items but would use them to say the house is generally in poorer condition than we thought at viewing and now has these additional damp & woodworm estimated costs.

I think if you were expecting it to be in better condition it’s worth a conversation. I recently offered on a house that was top of budget and really high spec so when the survey came back with some fundamental issues and the vendor wouldn’t budge we walked away. Now buying a fixer upper on which I expect the survey to show lots of issues, but we know this is the case and are only having the survey to check for major problems.

Just to update we went back, offered £30k less. They settled at £25k less. Damp and woodworm cost £12k in the end. There was also £1.5k of electrical work (some safety some aesthetic) needed. The damp and woodworm were really inconvenient in terms of mess and effort so feel justified in offering less. Some other issues have become apparent but not things you would expect a survey to be picked up - think no maintenance for the last decade or so. We are slowly making it ours and are very happy here.