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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:
Ohthatsexciting · 26/06/2022 07:25

5% of uk households at a max

debbiewest0 · 26/06/2022 08:38

Yes I agree it’s not everywhere in London that’s what I was trying to say!
The surveys on the houses I’ve bought and sold in London over the last 2 decades have never shown it either.
I was trying to ask what part of London as that roof quote I mentioned was last year in London so might be similar for you.

Ohthatsexciting · 26/06/2022 08:43

Yes
My post was for the op

Ohthatsexciting · 26/06/2022 08:44

I was supporting your assertion that it’s not “everywhere”!

daisychain01 · 26/06/2022 09:15

StuckInARug · 23/06/2022 17:51

Another question... (again sorry for drip feeding!)

The surveyor found apparently LOTS of japanese knotweed on the garden of a property opposite the house we're buying. He couldn't find any on the garden of the house we're buying or on neighbouring houses, but the house opposite ours (so on the other side of the road, not sharing a garden boundary) has loads. Would this put you off? He said we could get an indemnity in case it spreads to our house, from what I've read it doesn't spread over air but just through roots? I am guessing it's unlikely the root will cross over the road?

I'd walk away.

this is a big investment and you've now said 2 things that together give me no doubt that you'd be buying into a property with problems before you've even moved in.

anything cosmetic would be less of a problem but things like environment/ location or structural, you'd be mad to buy into those problems. Having to insure your way out of Japanese Knotweed - god no way. I bet they never mentioned about it and it was only through your own surveyor that the problem came to light. Not good.

daisychain01 · 26/06/2022 09:17

it's unlikely the root will cross over the road?

no of course the roots don't cross over the road, they are roots and highly invasive ones which burrow underground.

SpidersAreShitheads · 26/06/2022 19:41

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.

We didn't say anything at the time because I would have just felt as if I was hinting for him to reduce the price. I've since mentioned it to him because we're waiting for the lender to give the sale the green light and it's taking bloody ages.

The vendor was a bit confused about the damp but didn't argue. It's not obvious at all when you're in the property which is why I'm guessing the basic survey maybe didn't pick it up? But he now knows the survey found some.

In fairness to him, his boiler stopped working during the process of selling. He could have tried to get it repaired but he rang me and asked what we'd prefer - either a repair (to a very old boiler) or £2k off the price and we'll sort the boiler once we're in. We chose the latter as we wanted to put a new boiler in anyway!

Our vendor is lovely and we're very happy we didn't try to renegotiate. If the damp would have increased our costs or meant we needed to do extra work, it might have been different but as we're knocking the wall down it just seemed the "right" decision.

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