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

Thanks. I think we will go for it, just what we focus on and how much. I don't want it to seem like a sweeping piss take. I want them to know we budgeted and based our offer price on our original expectations.

I'm surprised that soo many people would swallow that cost of everything found in a survey because they would have foreseen every eventuality. We aren't developers obviously.

Loads of people here seemed to think £25k was a huge discount! Even though they didn't know the house value 🙄 I think £25k under is quite standard here.

Our original offer was about 10% under asking.

Our final price was about 15% under asking.

25k is, by comparison, nothing.

(It helped, emotionally, that we were a family of just the age and make-up that the owner’s family had been when they had moved in over 50 years before)

Yes, I think you're right. Eventually, when the mortgage paperwork turned up, the lender had valued it at exactly what we offered for it (which is frankly lazy, we offered 2k under asking which was not a round number).

They (or the mortgage broker) wouldn't tell us the valuation in the weeks it took between valuation and the paperwork turning up though.

I don't know why you're getting such a hard time from some pp op. I think some may have had bad experiences with their own buyers and be projecting a bit.

My DSis is an EA and would think you were a mug for not attempting to renegotiate. You don't get a prize for being most reasonable, easygoing, pushover buyers.

£25k off is a minimal % of the asking price and based on what you could see. Now the survey has thrown up some unexpected extra issues, of course you go back to them. Best case scenario - a discount. Worst case scenario - they say no. In today's market they're unlikely to have a strip and drop you for a polite, reasoned request.

Have a strop!

It's always fair to negotiate for any reason you like, just don't be surprised if vendors come back with a 'no'.

Personally I don't think Windows not opening, doors sticking or the boiler being old in a doer-upper are reasonable unforseen reasons to renegotiate. The vendors might feel this way too and get annoyed - but that's a risk only you can navigate as we don't know them.

Thanks, i agree. I'm really surprised about some people on here.

The house needs lots of work doing that makes it undesirable. I don't think they will get a better offer and it's not in a condition that they could rent it without serious investment.

We didn't get it for a bargain so I don't think we should have to swallow the costs for every eventually

Perfectly reasonable to try to negotiate especially in a falling market which is a buyer's market now in most areas.

Obviously they could say no. But in the current market I would be surprised if they threw a strop when presented with a reasonable, considered renegotiation.

We are solid buyers with a big deposit and no chain. I'd be surprised if they can get better. And any future surveys would throw up all the same problems. Unless they find someone who has covered every eventuality and has a bottomless pit of money, they will probably be asked to reduce for something.

There is lot of talk about hard work buyers... but it sounds like lots of sellers aren't reasonable either

Thanks. I think we will after the mortgage survey

Good luck. Imo, a sensible seller will negotiate in this sort of market where falls are expected (personally, I expect v large falls although I know many disagree).

Keen to know what happened OP?

We need to wait another week for my bonus pay slip for the mortgage. Then I assume they will do their survey/ valuation.

I have given the estate agent the heads up about the survey. He agreed we should get some quotes for windows/ doors/ fence/ boiler etc. he said the seller probably isn't aware about lots of the issues as it's a second property that was managed by agents for rentals. They didn't even know there was a crack in the front render until he approved the photos apparently! The agents advice was to address the issues and that the seller will have to be mindful that everyone will highlight all the same problems.

The seller might be an arsehole though as he wants to sell us the only half decent thing in the house- an integrated oven! Really!? Even though the kitchen around it is crumbling! The estate agent actually laughed when I told him!

So I think we might have a fight on our hands!

Urgh. I feel you are gonna have a fight on your hands.

Did the sale ad say ‘fitted kitchen WITH SPACE for integrated oven’? Because if it didn’t, he has to leave it. Pretty sure sellers are required to leave integrated appliances unless it was advertised as ‘space for.’

But, check with your conveyancer, if you can even be bothered.

Not sure you are gonna get past the haggling for cost of building works tbh 😥

Yeah I agree. I think it would be foolish to not even try, but I'm not confident that I'm dealing with someone reasonable.

The estate agent said he would have a word with the seller about the appliances. I'm not sure what the reaction was. My partner was furious about it, more out of principle than anything.

Yeah, as I think he should be.

We pulled out of a purchase last year with completely unreasonable people (they lied about everything on legal forms).

They wanted to remove the smart thermostat and fit a standard one, after boasting to us at the viewing about how useful it was, and giving no indication they would remove it.

So that started the ball rolling to them losing the sale a week or two before she thought exchange was going to happen. All for the sake of a £200 thermostat - at least, that's what started the ball rolling and had me questioning every single thing they said and did. But it spoke a LOT about their lack of reasonableness.

Yeah I did tell the estate agent that it left a sour taste when reading the forms. He agreed that it was ridiculous and he would feedback. I don't know how that conversation went though.

The seller obviously doesn't have a clue about the property- he doesn't even know which boundary he maintains (as he never has!) he doesn't know about the back access road etc.
but he expects us to buy his fitted appliances!

Do you think we should add it to the conveyancing enquiries? That we expect them to be included as integrated?

We are tempted to say we don't want them as I expect he won't remove them. It will be effort and money to remove them. I'm hoping he's a chancer rather than an arsehole.

Also a random question, there is a big compost heap in the garden. It's the size of a garden shed. We want it removed. How would you go about that? Add it to enquiries? Get them to confirm that they will remove it before completing?

I just had a structural survey done yesterday. The surveyor is preparing the full report but he emailed me to say the house I am buying is in general good order but there are still with some issues/features he wants to mention.

I am dreading the full report to be honest and I fully intend to share it with the agent and renegotiate if these issues end up being fairly costly to fix/worrying rather than just the basic expected quirks of an older (1930s) house.

I would recommend an independent damp/timber survey too, I wish I'd spent the £300 on one, it would have saved me £15K .

I downsized to this 1930's bungalow in March 2021. My L3 surveyor had said to investigate woodworm in the loft but on completion, I had received a 25 year Timber Guarantee. When I tried to ring the company, they'd gone out of business in 2018.

In November 2021 the curtain rail fitter had alerted me to the rotten floors - when I pulled the carpets up every single floor was black with mould. Wet rot/dry rot and woodworm in the floorboards of the front bedroom, spongy black chipboard in every other room, including the bathroom. The seller, an older single woman like myself had given me a hint - she said she'd 'overwatered a plant' in the back bedroom. She hadn't revealed that she'd had a company in to replace all the floors in 2016 - the company folded in 2018. When I had the floors replaced last August the men said the joists weren't tannalised wood, and they had found a big floorboard repair - which had been attached to a severely woodwormed joist.

At this point I don't think I'd bother quibbling over anything: appliances, compost heaps, anything that's financially quite minor.

Save your energy for haggling over the expensive discount for all the things that need doing. Then address the other things further down the line once you're past the major financial hurdle.

@KievLoverTwo

You are soo right.

I think my brain is soo scrambled with it all. I'm struggling to know the best way to manage it all.

I'm not holding out much hope of getting money off for any of the big things! Maybe that's why my brain has gone back to the smaller stuff which they might agree to.

Il follow the process and see how it goes

If it's a real doer-upper, they will be the least of your worries. If it's that much less than a done house, I as a vendor wouldn't reduce it any further for things like that.

Don't share a survey with anyone without the surveyor's permission. I wouldn't ever let anyone see all of one even with permission, though I have allowed a short quote on one occasion where something was in dispute (again, only with the surveyor's permission).

@BlueMongoose

What do you mean with the surveyors permission?