Survey flagged this..... do we proceed and shall we revise asking price??

[mullingitallover]

After a lot of searching we found a house ask the family liked in the right place, at the right price.

We offered just under asking, then went up to asking price to secure it.

The survey has now flagged the house is originally a non-standard / designated defective build. It's had the remedial work done and we now had the PRC certificate from the sellers.

The previous prospective buyer pulled out because of all this.

The seller has now had their offer accepted on an end of chain property. Great news for us as we bravely/stupidly broke our chain to get moving.

My question: should we consider revising our offer of full asking now we actually have ask the facts about the the house?

I suppose it depends on how much you want the home?

Depends if your mortgage company will lend on it or if you plan to resell in future.

If you still want to buy it your next step is to check if you can insure it

… and to check your lender is ok with it

What was the original non-standard/defect identified? Is is a problem that's going to require ongoing vigilance and potentially further remediation in the future?

It's always going to flag with a future sale, so I'd definitely be reviewing my offer based on that information. Regardless of location or features there's always going to be a strong Not-This-One factor relative to any other property with similar features in the same area but without the NS/D hanging over it. Particularly with a strong negative outlook on property prices in general over the next 12 months.

@DogInATent it's a post-war concrete slab construction (called Unity) that's on the designated defective list. It has had all the necessary, certified work and standard construction extensions added.

I'd pull out.
Sorry.

So it's fine then?

The only issue would be selling it on if people were nervy but if it's had all the relevant work done it shouldn't be an issue for mortgaging

Should we fork out for an official market valuation to help with revising the offer?

First off, sanity check your offer against completed sale values for similar properties of the same construction method on the street. These post-war rapid-build methods were rarely used for just one property in isolation.

If it's a semi- or a terrace, have the adjacent properties also had the remedial repairs done?

Have you spoken to your proposed lender about the issue?

@DogInATent no similar builds have sold on that end of the road for many years. It's one of those houses EA's list as "rarely available" and the valuation on Zoopla is about right - if that actually counts for anything.

I've asked EA for info on the status of the adjoining house. How would that affect things if they haven't had the remedial work?

Still waiting to hear back from our lender - our conveyancer contacted them approx two weeks ago.

Feeling strongly they should have disclosed all this info when we asked why the previous buyer fell through - and before we made our offer.

I've asked EA for info on the status of the adjoining house. How would that affect things if they haven't had the remedial work?
If an attached house structurally fails, there's an obvious implication for your property. And lenders will have views on this.

Zoopla valuations are based on a lot of assumptions. A general one being that everything about a property is 'standard'.

The blindingly obvious thing is that you cannot proceed until you hear back from the proposed lender. And you can't make a binding revised offer until your hear back and know their views on how mortgageable the property is or how the survey reveal affects their valuation. Whilst your waiting to hear back, it would be prudent to go to a mortgage broker to investigate their opinion and start to consider alternative lenders.

@DogInATent thanks verymuch, appreciate you taking time to respond