Received survey well over a month ago and now all of a sudden want reduce offer

[LimeTree89]

My father passed a while ago and we have to sell his property. We tidied the place up and received our first offer at £380K (they ended up pulling out/they felt it was taking too long).

The property went back up and we ended up accepting a lower offer of £350k understanding the market has changed and although the property is liveable, it does need updating and I know they want to do a complete refurb. All reflected in the reduced offer.

So they had a survey completed. Due to the first offer falling through I wanted to check that they were happy to proceed before moving forward with solicitors and incurring more costs. The EA told me the sellers had the survey back and not referred to anything so hopefully looks okay. Now we are 6 weeks down the line with solicitors….

The survey apparently was terrible and they want another £10K reduction. Am I right to be annoyed at the timing of this? This was my family home, so I am sentimental. I don’t want to lose a sale but also feel I am being played.

Call their bluff and ask to see the survey, or at least the elements of it that they want to negotiate on.

It’s understandable you’re upset and the reduction is probably less about the survey 6 weeks ago and more about them getting cold feet about the cost of refurbishing the property and whether or not they overpaid.

Still, at the end of the day, it’s “only” 10k - a not insignificant amount but probably not worth losing your sellers over. In your shoes I would accept the 10k reduction but demand something in return like a quick Exchange of contracts. And make it clear you’re not happy.

I’ve received the survey. The ‘overall opinion’ is that the purchase price is reasonable provided you are willing to accept the cost and inconvenience of dealing with repair/maintenance work expected and not uncommon for a property of this age.

The main things flagged are electrics, heating etc. some dampness internally where bathroom needs some work. I personally couldn’t see anything that you wouldn’t expect for an old property or that you would pick up on as you were viewing the property. To me these are what I expected and took into account when accepting the initial offer.

Thank you. I know that really I’m not in a strong position and this happens all the time. I guess just frustrated at the long unfair process alongside the grieving

We are in a similar situation at the moment - you have my symapthies. I have never been so frustrated by anyone as I am by our buyers. It took 4 weeks for the surveyor to turn up, 2 weeks for our buyers to bother to read his report and now they want to renegotiate - more than three months after we accepted their offer. I have no real problem with renegotiating, but can not deal with any more delays. Everyone else in the chain is ready to go, but they want some more time to think!!!