Renegotiating price after survey

[DandelionPockets]

Hi all

Looking for some advice. First time buyers and in the process of buying a 1960s semi.

We've had the survey report and I think most of the repairs and suggestions are what you would expect and were evident when we've looked around the property. Things such as upgrading the roof insulation, repairing roof verges, cleaning guttering of vegetation, installing ventilation in bathroom and replacing back door. Totalling around £2500 which we would do over time in priority order. Adding to this, the property in general is very dated so we are expecting to do quite a bit of work on it over the next few years.

The survey also identified asbestos garage roof tiles, some of which are damaged. Estimated cost to replace around £2000.

A further survey identified asbestos in the artex ceiling throughout the property (every room). Estimated cost to plaster over would be around £2000 also.

Under these circumstances would you seek to renegotiate the price to cover some of these coats. Property originally listed for 270,000 and our offer of 248,000 was accepted.

Thanks

I personally wouldn't as the items you've totalled up come to 6.5k (some of which doesn't need to be done right away) and you've had an offer accepted 22k below the asking price, I'd expect to factor the 6.5k needing to be spent into the 22k reduction in price already negotiated.

The only cost I could see the owners perhaps negotiating on would be for the garage ceiling with exposed asbestos as that's probably something that would need doing right away, but again in their shoes I'd think that was already covered by the lower offer.

However nothing asked nothing gained!

I agree with Tatas. You’d probably spotted the artex ceilings yourselves, and plastering over them isn’t necessary — just something that you’d probably want to do and that is already factored into the price.

@Tatas @NewFriendlyLadybird thanks both, that makes sense. Really I just wanted to check I wasn't missing what is the norm but sounds like it would be a bit cheeky to be asking for any thing off the agreed offer. I'm happy with where we're at and the survey could have been a lot worse!

We had a very similar situation in terms of the survey on our house, but ours said it needed a re-wire so we did ask for some money off on that basis as it's a safety issue, we got a bit off. But nothing you've listed is a safety issue, all midcentury houses have asbestos. We had ours plastered for less than £1k so definitely shop around. And asbestos on the garage is less risky as it's outside, and fine if undisturbed. I wouldn't bother given you already had such a low offer accepted. You offered a price based on it being dated. And i am jealous where in the UK you are buying a house so incredibly cheap!

@Rosesanddaisies1 ah yes, safety issues would be a different thing to consider, thanks for sharing.

Small town in the middle of nowhere near the Welsh border!

Given your negotiated price and the costs you've quoted, no I wouldn't - unless, perhaps, you felt it originally overpriced.

However, if I were going to, I would only renegotiate on elements the survey uncovered that I didnt see on viewing, Id supply the quoted estimate to back up my reason why and mention to the vendor this work was not evident to me on viewing.

I would also be sure if requesting renegotiation I wouldn't be completely gutted if the sale fell through as that is a potential risk.

Yeah I think the fact you got the house significantly under all ready accounts for that really.

We are in a similar position but requiring a whole new roof (structure damage from lack of maintenance) but we offered asking price and asked about the roof prior to offering and was told it was 'fine' so it definitely wasn't priced for that.

Our survey came back for possible asbestos too and frankly I view it as a 'we knew that when offering' as the artex is a pretty visually obvious thing unlike the rafters and damaged chimney (which we weren't allowed to view the roof/loft space by EA as we aren't insured professionals).

I would be asking for 4k off to get the asbestos sorted out @DandelionPockets

& then maybe settle for a couple of thousand off.

No, these are all minor items and to be expected with a property of that age

Definitely worth a punt at asking for another 4k off in my opinion. They can always say no, but probably will do something toward your costs. As previously pointed out, focus on the dangers of asbestos.

I think it might depend on how long the house had been on the market. Although you've had a good amount knocked off maybe that just means it was over-priced.
Go back and say the survey has raised issues with asbestos that you weren't expecting and you'd hope they dropped the price to cover sorting those items out.
If they say no then you're not really worse off.

Personally, considering you've already negotiated down and these are relatively minor issues, I would leave things be.
I know some people are suggesting you take a cheeky punt on a reduction but we had a seller pull out of our sale when we queried the findings of a survey (huge damp issues) we hadn't even asked for a reduction, just for a further damp survey. They took great offence!
If you really want the house and to keep a good relationship with your sellers it's not worth it.

Given the asbestos in the house, I might ask for a reduction to cover the removal of that as a potential health risk.

The other stuff is normal wear and tear, so fair enough within the purchase price.

We recently had a survey with similar results - a few minor maintenance/upgrading issues and potential asbestos (artex) ceilings. We didn't ask for a price deduction for these issues. Similar to you, the house we're buying has dated decor throughout, which we'll work through slowly. Congratulations on buying your first home!

Agree. With ours, I didn't want to risk it. We knew the seller wasn't in a hurry and had another very good offer to fall back on. And it was literally the only house we could afford in the area we wanted. (Not just the only house up for sale – literally the only house that would be in budget.)

Thank you everyone for your advice. I think I will go with the majority here and leave things as they are as we did manage to get a good price after some back and forth. I don't want to risk creating bad blood.