Negotiating money off purchase price

[moveblues]

We have just received our house survey which has shown some issues with the roof and the garden (very invasive and extensive bamboo).
We want to negotiate some money off the purchase to sort these issues, which are down to the fact that the property hasn't been maintained (rented out for the past 15 years!)
We are thinking of getting a roofer and aboriculturalist in to examine these two primary problems but ideally want to test the water with the vendor beforehand. Otherwise it'll just be another expense!

Any tips on how to handle this? Never negotiated money off before
Thank you!

Could you not see the bamboo on viewing? How old is the property/roof?

We have friends who spent £40k trying to chase bamboo out of the foundations of their house. It’s such a nightmare that I’d run far far away. They likely knew there was bamboo and were hoping it’d not be noticed.

The trouble with an invasive plant is that you can (hopefully!) eradicate it from your garden ... but there is very little stopping it from coming right back from next door's garden.

@LIZS

Could you not see the bamboo on viewing? How old is the property/roof?

Oh we saw it but had no idea how extensive it was.

@Chronicallymothering

We have friends who spent £40k trying to chase bamboo out of the foundations of their house. It’s such a nightmare that I’d run far far away. They likely knew there was bamboo and were hoping it’d not be noticed.

Blimey that is hellish. Fortunately it's a good few meters away from the house but it's still potentially problematic due to spread. Plus we could never put anything in the garden like a shed or garden room!

Oh my goodness just had a quote for excavation - very approx starting from 2k....

The house that we bought had about six clumps of bamboo dotted around the garden and one quite close to the house. Once it started to run across the lawn, we decided that it needed to go. We eradicated it ourselves, by just digging the clumps up and then removing any new growth as soon as it appeared. I think we also treated it with glysophate weed killer. It wasn't an easy or quick job, but it definitely didn't cost us a lot of money.