Buyer pulled out after survey

[Lily27]

We are selling a property we owned for the past 5 years to buy a new one. The one we’re selling is an unexciting post war property, and a number of identikit houses in the street and area have sold fairly quickly after listing. First time buyers made an offer and then conducted a level 3 survey which came up with all sorts of worrying concerns, seemingly. When we did a level 2 survey 5 years ago - and I asked the surveyor about doing a level 3 at the time and he said there would be no need - it was mostly fine, no major problems flagged up. I’m so worried now, we’ve made an offer on a property we love - what should we do now? Has anyone had this experience?

Relist it. In all likely it’s ftb reading things into the report that just are not there. Eg surveyor has said “ although internally no sign of water ingress,
the roof may need maintenance and I suggest a roofing contractor is employed for further assessment” - it’s covering his back as he hasn’t actually clambered up a ladder and physically checked every tile/mortar join on the roof. Or “electrical supply has not been tested, it would be advised that an electrician tested the circuits, as the fuse board has evidently not been upgraded for several years” - which could panic a ftb, but most peo would either go ahead with an electrical survey or shrug it off as another area covering exercise.

I have pulled out on a property after a survey for the same reason.
If the seller was willing to drop the price to accommodate all the many issues (vermin in the roof, spray foam roof, damp & condensation…)
I would have been willing to go ahead but they weren’t. It was a dated house and needed a bit of work but I just didn’t expect the other stuff.
Building materials are just too expensive as well as high interest rates to take on a renovation project not priced right.

I also understand that not all sellers are willing to come down on price to an extent as they need the money to move but just know you might be on the market for a long time if not priced right/ willing to negotiate.

The house I wanted to buy is still on the market. Almost 2 years total now it’s been on the market.
Somebody tried to buy after me but also dropped out. My guess will be for the same reason I did.

If you are open to negotiating it will sell or you could sell at auction if it genuinely has too many issues

Might be worth negotiating with them to see whether you could get the report (eg but it off then) to see what the issues are.

If the buyer loves your house they may want to get a builder/electrician etc in to see how much needs doing and if they're still interested they will ask for a price reduction. Up to you whether you're prepared to drop but if not you're likely to find the same thing happening again as a sensible buyer will have full survey.
My son is in the process of buying a 1980s house, full survey found various issues so he got a builder to look, negotiated 10k off his previously accepted offer with the buyer, buyer was very begrudging but presumably had the sense to realise if they withdrew it from sale and relisted the same thing would happen again plus a load of wasted time.
Anyone who doesn't have a full survey on a house over 5 to 10 years old is asking for trouble in my opinion.

FTB tend to panic when they read what are actually quite innocuous and normal surveys. FTB are also prone to taking stupid advice from barrack room lawyer relatives like 'keep em guessing a bit and then drop your offer 10%, everyone does it'. Eventually, when a few vendors have told them to PO, they learn better. Maybe your FTB are still in that first phase.

Thanks for replies. I’m really hoping this is a FTB issue. They didn’t even come back to negotiate so we’ve had to put the property back on the market. EA says that for this property it would be rare for a buyer to choose a level 3 survey. But if it doesn’t sell quickly enough we lose the property we have our hearts set on to buy sadly

The housing market is strange at the moment. Most house offers are 'Subject to survey', but the fact that they didn't try to negotiate is interesting here. I am tempted to agree with it being first time buyers getting spooked. They're in for some fun as surveys always say something as others have said.

Your house will always sell at the right price OP, and if you need it to sell quickly, you may have to do the price a bit.

Surveys always sound pretty worrying but FTBs don’t necessarily understand that & may have been concerned by the doom ridden talk of “may need new electrics” “may have damp” “roof shows signs of aging “ etc.

If they didn’t even try to negotiate on price then maybe they were already getting cold feet about the property for an unrelated reason because it’s common for people to use surveys as a reason to negotiate.

It’s up to the EA to try to get them to see that a deal could still be done (if you are open to negotiating). But if they have lost interest then you will have to start viewings again & hope the next buyer is more experienced or less cautious.

We had a level 3 survey done once many years ago (Victorian property) and it scared the crap out of us! Luckily we had a friend who was a surveyor and was able to talk us down 😄.

Fingers crossed your next buyer will have a more basic survey and it’ll all be ok. If there’s anything in the survey that’s a “quick fix” then get it sorted 😊

@Lily27 when we sold last year, our buyer did a L3 (1960s box, no need to!). Thankfully we were told of the one issue- a slightly high damp reading (which was by an air brick FFS).

The agents said that wasting money like this seems to be a theme atm. Buyers are more nervous, so spending money on things like electrical checks (they did the landlord standard one- of course the house was going to fail!), boiler checks, L3 surveys and damp surveys that previously they wouldn't have when the market was better and rates were lower.

Do your EA think it's dead? If so, what is their plan for getting viewers through your door now?

The buyers for my last house paid for a L3 survey, and he didn't take any damp readings despite me having put in the questionnaire that I'd had done damp work done. Absolutely waste of money.

My daughter only had a Level 2 survey and even that made it sound like the flat was full of problems - said the roof probably needed replacing etc.

She went ahead anyway after getting a 4K reduction on price and has had no issues. The management company got a drone to get a really good look at the roof ( something the surveyor had not done & he hadn’t really even got a good sighting of the roof) which gave photographic evidence it was fine.

She thought about pulling out though. These surveys really do make FTBs nervous.

I also pulled out after a bad survey. I was a bit annoyed when I found out after that the house sold for half the price I'd offered (considerably less than the asking price) then was repaired, flipped and sold for 50% more than the original listing price.

I then offered on another house which also had an awful survey but not as bad as the first. I pulled out but the vendors offered me a 25% reduction in price so I went ahead. Probably helped that I was a cash buyer and wanted to complete in 4wks.

Everyone's attitude to risk and plans for a property are different. We had a level 3 survey done on a property that told as the roof needed urgent work, but we knew we had plans to extend that meant taking the whole roof off any way so that didn't bother us, where as we pulled out of a previous property because there was a roof problem, but the extension had already been done.

Has anyone ever had a survey on a period property that DIDN’T highlight the roof as a potential problem? Serious question.

FTB make me laugh sometimes. It's like they don't understand the concept that they are buying a used item. Imagine expecting a five year old car to be identical to a brand new one, and complaining that the brakes may need changing!

Every single house for sale, new build included, will have some issues. Virtually all terraced houses have damp somewhere, and most will have questionable roofs and interesting plumbing. And don't get me started on new builds, they are a fucking joke. At least 100 years ago they built things to last, now they just build to get through the first ten years. And the shock on their faces when all those bright young things pick up to keys to their new build semi, only to find out about depreciation!

Surveys are just a joke, bring a builder, not a surveyor.

@Hereyoume

''Every single house for sale, new build included, will have some issues. Virtually all terraced houses have damp somewhere, and most will have questionable roofs and interesting plumbing. And don't get me started on new builds, they are a fucking joke. At least 100 years ago they built things to last, now they just build to get through the first ten years. And the shock on their faces when all those bright young things pick up to keys to their new build semi, only to find out about depreciation! Surveys are just a joke, bring a builder, not a surveyor.''

I agree. Most of the houses I viewed in my price range had some kind of visible issues: old electrics & pipes, neglected decor, some sign of damp/leaking gutters, Artex ceillings...not to mention that period properties will have decades of potential botched DIY and questionable remodelling.

Surveyors just come up with as many ass-covering statements as they can in their surveys and it is better to hire specialists (electrician/plumber/roofer) to inspect potential issues on top of the survey and then negotiate the price down. I wish I had taken more money out of my offer considering that my house needed quite a bit more work than I thought.

I had a new built flat in London and the quality of the workmanship was poor. Now I have a period house that indeed needs work and has some 'questionable' work from previous owners.

No property is going to be perfect unless you have a massive budget and buy the perfect mansion...

Re-list and be prepared to negotiate after survey if needed and you will be fine.

If they didn't even try to get a reduction after the survey, I'd say that's either mega cold feet due to being a FTB or they realised they couldn't afford it anyway.
I think it's sad that so many FTBs get cold feet about older houses and stampede themselves into new builds on the assumption there will be no issues with a new one, which is wrong- they can be a total nightmare and are usually a bad investment at best, financially, as they lose a lot in the first few years compared to the market overall. You almost always get a lot more space, house and land, for your money with a second-hand house, and the starting prices for new ones are beyond a lot of FTB. I was annoyed that the Help to Buy scheme was only for new builds- this prevented those most in need of help getting it. It was essentially just a scheme to hand our money to developers. Who, curiously enough, are big party donors. 'Go figure', as our American cousins would say.

We just pulled out as FTB too… the survey came back with £100k of urgent work on a house less than £250k. It had sulphate attack so needed new concrete floors, extensive damp, needed new windows, new electrics etc

To pull out sounds completely justified in your case

The surveyor was genuinely gutted for us I think @Twiglets1 and the owner had said the Damp was next door’s issue. It wasn’t… we were expecting around 20-30k not £100k. We were told it needs stripping back to the skeleton and rebuilt

It’s a shame but you don’t want to take on that much work, it doesn’t sound like it makes good economic sense.

I agree

Did they tell you what concerns they found worrying?
Are they actually worrying?

I'd ask them if you could see the survey to help you going forwards?

They have no use for it and at least then you know what you are up against.