House survey- unexpected issues

[helloimnew123]

We are trying to buy a house. We had a RICS level 3 done last week.

The house is a doer upper for sure (previously rented/ empty for months) but things have come up on the survey that we hadn't accounted for. We did get £25k off the asking price but we didn't budget for some of the issues. It had been on the market for 4 months before we offered.

For example:

We had accounted for:

• new render to the front, as it's visually damaged

-new kitchen & bathroom as not useable -new floors as floorboards etc. -decorating

We had not accounted for:
-4 of the windows are so broken that they don't open. They looked fine.
-the back door, the leaf door is soo broken it doesn't open. The agent only opened 1 door when we viewed.
-the lock on the font door is misaligned and hard to open & shut. The agent opened/ shut when we weren't around.
-the left boundary fence is beyond repair and needs replacing. Can't be seen behind bushes.
-the boiler is only a few years old has been tested and is in bad repair/ not working well.

Do you think we should suck it up as part of the refurbishments? Or should we try and negotiate as we didn't expect these costs?

Thanks

Having read through most of your thread, seen that you are in London and that you got the house for approx 100k less than walk in ready alternatives which are 850k, I have to say, given the absolutely extortionate price of materials and tradesmen at the moment, I would avoid it (unless you really can't afford not to), because it sounds like a money pit.

As well as everything mentioned in your previous post you have mentioned roof tiles, gutters, and so forth. It's one thing buying a do-er-upper if you're getting a 25% reduction in price, but you're not, and you're in the most expensive part of the country for tradesmen. The good ones will all be booked for 6, 9 months in advance too.

My cousin, in a pretty crappy part of Kent, is currently charging 75K for a two storey, four metre house extension to be built, for example re: costs - and, as far as I'm aware, that's just for the bricks and mortar (bricks have more than doubled in price in the last 2 years).

If you have oodles of patience and can budget for the unexpected, go for it. But somewhere that's already in bad condition is bound to have other things crop up that you haven't been able to investigate yet.

And no, it's not blinking normal to open every window and every door at a first viewing. That's how a vendor gets to know you're gonna be a PITA as a buyer and might lead to rejection of your offer. Most I ever do is ask to turn on a shower/bath tap to check water pressure.

Have you checked the sold prices on the postcode on the land registry? I always look back ten years to see if any have dropped in value, or risen, and by how much, and if they've risen, how much, on average per year over ten years, so I can think about negative equity scenarios too.

But we are FTBs so I'm far more cautious about negative equity than those who aren't.

There is very mixed feelings on here.

We don't want to take the piss, but all these things will cost a lot of money.
I don't think it will cause issues if we put forward a considered/ evidence based negotiation

They might say no, but they might not 🤷🏻‍♀️

That's a really good point. This is a business to them. They have owned it and a second property for 15 years and it's doubled in value.

They would have to do a lot of work if they want to rent again. So I feel we are in a strong position to negotiate for reasonable things

I think it is a money pit. But I can really see the potential for a brilliant family home.
It's a big house for the money, ticks all our boxes (once done) and in a desirable location.

My partner can do a lot of the work himself, but not everything. If he wasn't a tradesman we wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. That's why properties like this aren't very desirable

It would be a 10 year + home so we don't need everything done straight away. But our savings need to make it habitable.

You can try to shave a bit more off if you think you can get away with it. Sounds like a reasonable deal, but if there's no interest they may try to keep you by accepting a further drop after your survey - don't be greedy though is all I'd say

You say the kitchen and bathroom
Isn't habitable...... so how do you expect to live?

I think it's worth a conversation

We are in a position that we wouldn't have to move in straight away. We are chain free and in temporary accommodation

Why is nothing ever easy?

Have you a) done a backwards pricing exercise on rightmove and zoopla for properties in similar condition to see what they're worth now and b) considered getting builders in during another viewing to quote for works that need doing?

Can't really say whether you should knock a cheeky chunk off the offer until you know what like-for-like sold for, rather than fancy-pant-perfect homes.

That is valuable advice - if the seller gets fed up of you, they'll pull the rug and re-advertise.
Given this house suits your needs, I'd be tempted to just roll with it and sort the issues yourself.
They're all very minor in the grand scheme of things, and easily sorted.

Buying a property is a huge investment of money and if you need to do a lot of work on it, it is a huge investment of time and emotional energy.

You need to consider the costs of everything you will need to do to property to get it to a state you are happy with and then consider if it is worth it.

We overpaid for a house because we didn't want to do any work. We also overpaid for a house because it was the only one that suited our needs at the time. We ended up having to address everything in the survey over time and each was more expensive than we originally assumed but it was our home, ultimately increased in value over the time that we owned it and met all of our needs while we were there.

@Deathbyfluffy

The whole house needs redoing so I can't see how that's minor? I would think boilers/ windows are quite fundamental? I get that it's structurally sounds but apart from that it's all in poor condition.

We haven't said anything to the seller yet. Even if we were FTB I came on here for advice, not stupid comments/ insults.

Why is being informed and savvy a bad thing?

Surely the people who just buy properties and dont challenge anything being are the foolish ones!

It's really hard to know the best thing to do.
The property really does tick all our boxes and will be a great family home.

Even if we bought a done one, it might not be to our taste.

I really like the idea of getting it all done as we want, even if that takes time.

It's hard to compare like for like because the road is all the same house but some are extended in different ways/ have drives/ better gardens/ different conditions etc.

It sounds like you are basically buying a house shell on a plot of land. What condition is the roof and plastering? Is the plumbing/central heating good? What’s the EPC rating?

There’s no way you should buy it with a wonky fence, misaligned doors and god forbid …….. removing a compost heap !!!!!!! 🙀

My personal experience of the recent housing market is that, due to mortgage rates spiking, I've tried to talk myself into all manner of houses that 'we can make work' or will need completely re-gutting and doing over time.

If we wound back the clock a year, I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot barge pole. But that's not the market we're currently in.

I realise this doesn't help the 'should I knock it down with a cheeky offer?' question, but, said with all good intent - are you trying to talk yourself into a house you wouldn't otherwise buy, if we were in different times?

Then I guess the question is: can you wait a year or two until more houses in better condition start coming back on the market again?

I have found it mostly to be the dregs that are for sale atm (or, vastly overpriced properties).

I think I would have regretted all the houses I was trying to talk myself into. Even most of the do-er uppers were overpriced to the tune of 40k in the 300-400k bracket because people are so desperate.

It certainly doesn’t sound like you’re getting much of a bargain here - you haven’t had a reduction, you had your “under asking price” offer accepted which I think is very different. If you could buy a renovated one for 100k more then what’s all the blood sweat and tears of doing it yourself!

I would go back and try to renegotiate just because it sounds like you’re overpaying for it in the first place - although you do then run the risk of pissing the vendors off.

and no it’s not fucking normal to try all the windows when you view a house whatever contrary Mary suggested it’s your fault for not checking!

If the doors and windows are not opening and/or closing property, is there a possibility of subsidence or heave?
Hopefully not from your description but that's the worst case scenario that popped into my head

🤣🤣🤣 thanks for confirming about the windows! Only bloody weirdos on MN would make you feel stupid for not doing it.

We did offer on another house on the same road that cost more and was 'done' but it wasn't all to my taste. We got outbid. It was also smaller- no loft extension and small kitchen. And no drive.

This one is appealing because it's big, has a huge kitchen, loft extension and big drive. It was cheaper because of the condition but obviously needs loads doing.

I can see it being the dream house, but it's going to take a lot of money and energy!

It's a mid terrace and there and no obvious signs of anything like that.
I think it's cheap fittings that haven't been looked after 😩

Have a day off 👋

@KievLoverTwo

I don't really know how to answer that question.
Most people can't afford their dream home. As your options improve so do your aspirations. Everyone always wants one better.

There are properties available here but nice ones go quick for asking/ over asking

There are soo many ex rentals/ no chain as landlords are selling up. We viewed 7 in one weekend all ex rental. Most in shit condition.

We have no chain and are in temp accommodation so waiting for the dream isn't our ideal plan.

We were buzzing about this house from the first viewing, we can see the potential.
We are slightly daunted by the work as we've never owned a project like this before.

I completely understand. When you're not in your own home, you feel have to consider most things as an option.

We've come to the conclusion that our dream home will be 100k over what we can afford and have agreed to buy a mate's house for 95k less than that. It has no parking and I'm going to have to knock down a wall to build a bigger kitchen (disability related), so I get where you're coming from: most people can't afford their dream home. So we're buying a lovely home in our dream location instead.

Is the temporary accommodation driving you up the wall, or can you wait a while?

Genuinely think there are very few fairly priced houses around atm that are not the dregs. As we get deeper into this year there will be more and more LL's who cannot afford new mortgage rates who will sell up. 1.5 million people are expected to have to remortgage this year, many of whom will have been on 1 or 2% deals. The mortgage newsletter I get emails from daily shows LL rates to currently be quite horrific, far above what a normal house buyer is paying.

I didn't want to wait either. We were looking at EVERYTHING. Then our friends called us and said 'we can't afford to live here anymore' and things started to fall into place.

But, by that time, we'd had months of discussions about 'we absolutely have to wait a year because there is nothing good out there.' I got sick to the back teeth of doing the valuation work to discover that a lot of people were bunging 20% on the value of their houses and it was wasting my time.

Negotiate, without a doubt.

We bought a ‘significant doer-upper’ where some things were ‘obvious’ (new heating), some things were ‘nice to have because the existing, if extremely basic, were functional’ (new kitchen and bathrooms) sone things were ‘cosmetic’ (total redecoration and new floor coverings throughout) and some things were ‘a nasty surprise in the survey’ (chiefly electrics and windows)

We factored the first 3 sets into our offer. The extra ones that came up in the survey, we got indicative quotes from agreed trades and lowered the offer by that amount. We didn’t really have much option, tbh - electrics and windows were both dangerous- and the vendor knew any survey would show up the same issues.

@KievLoverTwo

We are lucky that family have provided somewhere we can stay that is lovely. We can stay as long as we want for free but we need a home. Also it's 30mins out of our home town and we have work/ childcare to commute back for so it's not a long term solution.

Are can stay here while work is done too so that helps.

We are happy to do the work, we just need the house to be the best price possible.

I think we'l wait for the mortgage value, then go view again ourselves, then try to make a calculated negotiation. They can always say no, but I doubt they will find someone else quickly and their only other option is to do it up themselves and rent it out again. I think we can in a good position to get it for a fair price