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Original poster

To negotiate or not to negotiate

57 replies

StuckInARug · 23/06/2022 15:49

Survey on a 1900 house, spoke to the surveyor who says house needs a new roof. We can patch it up etc but it’s just “throwing good money after the bad”.

DH spoke to the EA who said he’d ask vendor about it. Vendor said they heard same thing when they bought house 20+ years ago and it’s just needed some patching up here and then. They said they accepted our offer off market and already sold at a good price.

Would you negotiate? We’re not willing to walk away. We love the house and we see ourselves living there for the rest of our lives…

OP posts:
dudsville · 25/06/2022 07:13

If you're renovating the loft anyway and already have an agreement under asking price and see this as your forever home is crack on with buying.

I have only purchased two properties. One hat a fine but old roof, the other said the roof needed structural support, and the mortgage lender made this job a condition of offering me the mortgage. So, just a heads up, you might get that from your lender.

Lonecatwithkitten · 25/06/2022 07:25

We had similar survey saying roof needs to be done, but there is already planning for an extension which requires the roof off anyway so we ignored that as it was in our existing calculations.
What we had miscalculated was the cost of all the small nightly things - leaking outside plumbing, boiler work etc.

FurierTransform · 25/06/2022 07:27

Sounds like you know your offer already prices in these issues and therefore negotiating will be viewed dimly by the vendors... I'd say just proceed

Wnikat · 25/06/2022 07:30

How does he know there’s Japanese knotweed in the neighbour’s garden? Why was he looking in the neighbours garden??

Original poster
StuckInARug · 25/06/2022 07:31

So do we now need to share the survey report with our solicitor and they will let our lender know of any requirements?

nothing about the roof came up in the lender valuation survey.

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Ohthatsexciting · 25/06/2022 07:32

Bloomin heck pp

im very gung ho but I get a powerful comment like that from a surveyor - I walk away

oh and what a surprise - the vendors disagree

Original poster
StuckInARug · 25/06/2022 07:32

@Wnikat I think he just peeked over the fence. I’m guessing he couldn’t see the whole garden but didn’t see any severe infestation. He saw the knotweed across the road as I’m guessing he was either looking for it or he parked just outside it….

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Ohthatsexciting · 25/06/2022 07:38

Op
mixam aware of all your other threads expressing concern about this pripeety

Foul sewer works within the boundary
Japanese knot weekend
No room for a bath in the bathroom
and now this issue

have you convinced yourself you want this property but actually the signs are that it is a bit of a shit show?

Ohthatsexciting · 25/06/2022 07:38

Sorry typos!

Ohthatsexciting · 25/06/2022 07:41

And a 15 storey block of flats being built 200 metres at bottom of your garden!

and the dodgy covenant re neighbour property and right to light

I wouldn’t touch this property with a barge pole and fact that you got it well below asking in London in this kind of market where gardens in cities are treasured.. speaks volumes

Hiyawotcha · 25/06/2022 07:49

Ours was built around 1900. We had a loft conversion and given that scaffolding needed for that anyway, and the roof was then 115 years old we absorbed the replacement of the roof as part and parcel of the general works needed at roof level. Was probably expensive if you look at just the slates and the cost of the roofer, but not a noticeable hit in comparison with, say, the steels we needed. Looks lovely and safe in knowledge that the roof’ll last longer than we do!

Original poster
StuckInARug · 25/06/2022 08:29

@Ohthatsexciting that is probably more a sign of my anxiety than of the state of the property 🤣🤣🤣 I just tend to overthink every single thing.

the block of flats at the bottom of the garden was another property we were considering but didn’t go ahead (because of lots of things). This one is amazing. We’re definitely going for it, I need to stop worrying about everything!!!

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Original poster
StuckInARug · 25/06/2022 08:31

@Hiyawotcha how much did the roof cost, if you don’t mind me asking?

I think we’ve just accepted we’ll do it when we convert the loft. We probably won’t be able to afford it for another 2-3 years so hopefully no strong winds until then 😁.

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SpidersAreShitheads · 25/06/2022 15:21

@StuckInARug I've been in a really similar position to you - different issues but same dilemma.

House that we absolutely don't want to lose - level 3 survey showed some damp. Unlike you, we paid over asking and were in a very tense bidding war before our offer was accepted. We knew that if it went back on the market there would be a queue of offers. It's a doer-upper anyway so I doubt damp would put people off.

Surveyor thought we could renegotiate and that was our initial instinct. But then we were worried about annoying the seller or seeming unreasonable - especially as the house was priced as a doer-upper. The clincher was that we're actually planning an extension straight away (building an annexe for DM) so the walls with damp in are being knocked down. We decided that as it wouldn't actually make any difference to us, we would proceed without renegotiating. We were probably due a bit of a reduction but given how much we really want this house, the queue of waiting buyers, the scarcity of this type of house, and the fact we're doing an extension anyway we thought proceeding at the price previously agreed was the best option.

The only thing I'd say to you is make sure your solicitor tells your mortgage lender right away. We didn't know that they had to be informed - and just when we were at the point of exchange our solicitor told us that the lender had to be informed. And that's where we are now - our buyer only has 3weeks before their mortgage offer will expire so we're against the clock to complete. Currently waiting for the lender to confirm they don't mind about the damp.....

Petronus · 25/06/2022 15:30

If the knotweed doesn’t put you off buying it at all I wouldn’t renegotiate. They aren’t living in the house, I don’t see that you’ve got any leverage. They’ve already sold it off market and reduced. I should think if you mess around they will go and test the market.

Original poster
StuckInARug · 25/06/2022 16:56

@SpidersAreShitheads did you ever mention anything to the vendor about the damp? The surveyor found some in “our” house too but he said it wasn’t very much and he wasn’t concerned about that.

it’s really hard when you know your bargaining position is not very strong. We’ve decided we won’t try to negotiate.

@Petronus we’re ok about the Japanese knotweed as it’s far enough from the house and over the road, also apparently it’s everywhere in London nowadays. Agree with you we’re in a very weak position and don’t want to lose the house, so we’ll carry on as it is.

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BlueMongoose · 25/06/2022 18:47

It is, of course, now 20 years since another surveyor thought the roof needed work, so it's 20 year closer to needing it.....
I'd get a roofer to look at it and give you a quote. We had the same with an Edwardian terrace, the quote wasn't anything like as much as we'd thought to sort it out, just a grand or so. With the current house, 1920s, our surveyor just said it looked structurally OK but would need reslating in the medium term. We're having it done now, three years later. It's basically 2/3 of a largeish hipped slate bungalow roof, plus a completely new pitched roof putting onto a single storey extension which currently had a flat roof, and fitting that into the old roof with gullies etc.. With 4 largeish veluxes, it's come out at 20 grand plus scaff, but including any slates that need replacing and all the materials for the new pitched roof incl. insulation and completely new gutters, fascias, downpipes, and a new gable for the extension. That's in the NW of England, which tends to be cheap, but with a good roofer, who tends to be expensive. I've been up the scaffolding, and there are more slates that I had counted from ground level that were cracked or slipping and might not be reusable; I think it's a fair price.

Ohthatsexciting · 25/06/2022 20:12

SpidersAreShitheads · 25/06/2022 15:21

@StuckInARug I've been in a really similar position to you - different issues but same dilemma.

House that we absolutely don't want to lose - level 3 survey showed some damp. Unlike you, we paid over asking and were in a very tense bidding war before our offer was accepted. We knew that if it went back on the market there would be a queue of offers. It's a doer-upper anyway so I doubt damp would put people off.

Surveyor thought we could renegotiate and that was our initial instinct. But then we were worried about annoying the seller or seeming unreasonable - especially as the house was priced as a doer-upper. The clincher was that we're actually planning an extension straight away (building an annexe for DM) so the walls with damp in are being knocked down. We decided that as it wouldn't actually make any difference to us, we would proceed without renegotiating. We were probably due a bit of a reduction but given how much we really want this house, the queue of waiting buyers, the scarcity of this type of house, and the fact we're doing an extension anyway we thought proceeding at the price previously agreed was the best option.

The only thing I'd say to you is make sure your solicitor tells your mortgage lender right away. We didn't know that they had to be informed - and just when we were at the point of exchange our solicitor told us that the lender had to be informed. And that's where we are now - our buyer only has 3weeks before their mortgage offer will expire so we're against the clock to complete. Currently waiting for the lender to confirm they don't mind about the damp.....

But usually it’s a condition of the mortgage to have a survey done?

Ohthatsexciting · 25/06/2022 20:13

Ie between you and the bank
rather than you, your solicitor, and the bank

Ohthatsexciting · 25/06/2022 20:14

Or was this separate to the mortgage valuation survey?

debbiewest0 · 25/06/2022 20:23

Which town are you buying in? We don’t have knotweed and nor does anyone we know in south east London? So I wouldn’t say it’s everywhere??
roofwise, our surveyor said same and one quoted £25000 to replace everything. A proper roofer looked and said only certain bits needed doing for £7000

Original poster
StuckInARug · 25/06/2022 21:10

@Ohthatsexciting this was our own survey. The bank did a valuation / survey a few weeks ago and although they haven’t shared the report, they said it came back satisfactorily.

I will ask my solicitor if I need to share this survey with her - and if in turn she needs to report any findings to the bank.

OP posts:
Original poster
StuckInARug · 25/06/2022 21:12

@debbiewest0 were in London. Of course most houses don’t have it, but there are lots of it around. I guess a lot of people don’t even know what it looks like so I imagine it’s very underreported!

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Ohthatsexciting · 26/06/2022 07:23

StuckInARug · 25/06/2022 21:10

@Ohthatsexciting this was our own survey. The bank did a valuation / survey a few weeks ago and although they haven’t shared the report, they said it came back satisfactorily.

I will ask my solicitor if I need to share this survey with her - and if in turn she needs to report any findings to the bank.

The relationship between you and your bank is precisely that. You solicitor is involved with the purchase but not the mortgage.

so it will be explicitly stated in the terms and conditions of your mortgage agreement with your bank as to whether you are expected to update them of independently arranged survey results where damp has been discovered.

i would be very surprised if this wasn’t a condition

Ohthatsexciting · 26/06/2022 07:25

Japanese knotweed is most certainly not “everywhere” in London!!