Negotiating house price after survey

[amandaleeds]

So I had my offer accepted for a house that I knew needed a new kitchen and bathroom, and it appeared that it needed all new windows and doors (quoted £9k).
However the survey has flagged up quite a lot of concerns and I'm not sure how to go about negotiating the price.
The surveyor valued it 5k below my offer but that doesn't bother me as it's not a huge difference in the grand scheme.

I really didn't want a project but the location really works for me and I'm so fed up looking for a property now. I'm keen to work with the sellers to proceed, but what concerns me is the sellers won't really be making much profit after buying it 6 years ago to let out. However it's clear these issues would have already been there and it doesn't seem to have been maintained.

It has failed cavity wall insulation causing damp - potential cost of removing it and addressing any structural damage is 8k.

It has damaged asbestos ceiling causing a break in the fire protection from the room upstairs. Cost of removing 4k plus the cost of new ceiling (noine has suggested fixing it).

It has the original wiring which I was advised to replace. Cost 5k. There's no safety certificate so I need to get this checked out.

It's in a high radon gas area (need to get it measured in the house) which worst case scenario is £3k to address.

The radiators are apparently very old and inefficient and ideally should be replaced plus no thermostatic valves. Waiting for a quote, but this isn't really classed as 'urgent' so long as I can get the agent to show me the heating works (been empty 18 months).

The loft insulation is a dreadful state and doesn't meet current building regs. Cost £1k to sort.

It has structural damage on the wall from the damp. Cost £600

It needs repointing. Cost £800

It needs the roof trusses securing to gable wall ends. Cost £300. Not a lot, but is structural issue.

What would your advice be? Do I ask them to address some of these things (i.e. structural/damp stuff) or ask for price reduction? It feels like it needs a good £15k knocking off but that's 5% of the price.

Yes I agree but the surveyor has said the valuation now needs reducing given the cavity wall inspection results so I have asked for a new copy of the survey and valuation report.

I’m still concerned about the repointing. That could be triggered by the wall tiles corroding and popping the cement, or just very poor cement. Have a walk around the estate and look at other house’s brickwork.
That UPVc garage window is an odd one. It looks new. Why does it have that surround on it? Looks like a window was fitted not quite big enough for the opening. Is this the only replaced window or there are others?
If a sale fell through after a previous survey, tread carefully.

Honestly OP the suggested prices to remedy those issues are very low to me. I am a civil engineer and cannot fathom how you could have the dragon gas dealt with for under 3k let alone £300! Are you sure that's not just the test? Then if it is found your best case scenario is 3k upto about 10k at the worst.

I DO do projects and this one sounds too much. The surveyor estimates are low, and living with much of that work is not pleasant. You say you can't afford the 50k more expensive house but this could easily run to that, plus what price do you put on your time and stress levels?

Simply put: This will cost you more than an additional £50K on a house that's in a ready to move into condition would.

Don't be so desperate to move that you saddle yourself with this house. It sounds like it should be condemned!

If you can't afford a house for 50k more and you genuinely need to do all the things on the list then you can't afford the house, because it's going to cost way more than 50k to get that lot sorted.

Edit to insert before the below: sorry I'd missed a couple of your posts and the issues you're describing sounds structural and severe to me.
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I would say though that I'd be checking if you definitely need to everything on the list. e.g. my house has a draughty back door, it doesn't Need a new back door but one would be nice. I'm sure a survey would say the house needed rewiring because it's not up to code but the electrics don't trip all the time of anything and the wires aren't so old they're rubbberised and disintegrating so it's perfectly okay.

Nothing about this house sounds like a good idea. Do you actually need something this big and yhen an extension? It sounds like it is just you and your partner as you haven't mentioned children. Could you open up your options by looking at smaller houses too?

I honestly believe that you will end up spending a lot more than you plan if you go ahead on this on.

Sprig made a good point, do you need a house this big? It sounds big. Who provided all those estimates?

I just bought an ex-rental & negotiated down the price due to roof repairs that need doing urgently. Anything I hadn't spotted at viewing but surveyor flagged I considered fair game for reducing the offer price. My roof estimate repair was £8k; I settled on £6k off price with seller. It galls me that asbestos-laden items were put in buildings as late as 1980s.

I group your items below. In negotiating, I'd open with taking off all £25k but hoping to settle for £10k (the essential items) + half-2/3 of the maybe important items £7-12k, so £17-£21k off ultimately.

I haven't heard of "fire protection" being important between upstairs & room below.

ESSENTIAL
£8k, CWI
£800 repointing
£600 structural damage on wall, repair
£300 trusses

May Be Important but also might be possible to leave it
£4k, Ceiling issue break fire protection
£5k, new wiring
£3k, radon issue
£2k ?, radiators replaced
£1k, loft insulation sorting (perhaps this belongs in Essential tbf)

Optional because currently functional
?? Bathroom, kitchen

The quotes were from local tradespeople.
I could just afford the bigger house but it would wipe out all my savings immediately, and I don't like the house so would still want to at least redecorate.

Agree it would be stressful and for a long time I've rejected projects, as I just want to move and have a life, but if the location is the most important thing, I'll probably have to accept a project.

A few people have mentioned the size of the house is too big for me which is very true and I've spent a year looking at smaller homes but not had offers accepted or homes were pulled from sale.

If partner moves over, we'll both need an office plus spare room for guests so this 4 bed feels it might be a better option tjan the much smaller homes I looked at. I got so desperate I considered another flat, but then remembered how much I wanted a garden, and saw the price of flats were similar to houses and came with £3k service charge a year!

I originally asked for a level 3 structural survey as I had concerns sbout the cavity wall insulation, but the company flatly refused, saying it would be a waste of money on a house less than 100 years old.

My partner is a structural engineer and couldn't see anything in the brickwork that suggested an issue that couldn't be rectified such as significant movement in the home, subsidence etc.

The repointing is on an area that is very exposed to strong winds and driving rain.

A neighbour is a builder living in a similar home, so I'm going to meet him there this week to get some advice. He can't quote me for any work as he has no capacity until Spring. He feels the house might have been built late 70s, early 80s.

Well it turns out that Google Street view from earlier this year suggests there may have been cracks/damp recently patched up.

So I might have to fork out for a structural engineer to get a more thorough inspection. Bit annoyed really given that I'd been refused a level 3 survey due to age of house, but it seems that may have been the right option as a structural engineer is going to cost the same as the level 2 survey. 😔 Still could all be due to the damp cavity wall issue, otherwise I'd expect to see these issues in the other houses in the estate.

@amandaleeds If you are still keen on this house, I’d go straight to a structural engineer. This could be a foundation issue but that crack was caused by something being wrong. You need to know what. What are the ground conditions in the area? Cksy? Gravel?

Asbestos building products were not banned until the 90s. This house might have been shoddily built!

If you can't afford that then you definitely can't afford this. It needs at least 25k attending on it which will easily become 35-40k if not more, plus all the hassle of a huge renovation project which is really stressful and horrible to live through.

This house sounds a nightmare, it's no age at all and yet has so many issues.

Walk away.

@amandaleeds you need to find out what triggered this remedial work.
Brickwork should not crack above a steel lintel. But also there should be weep holes in the first course of bricks above a lintel anyway.

So the original surveyor and a structural engineer have said it's all nothing to worry about, possibly all related to the damp from the cavity wall insulation failure and that the house is so exposed to weather. The strong winds there and age of windows will be why some are a bit twisted. The main issues I need to negotiate on in relation the current house value are the asbestos, failed cavity wall insulation and external repairs to brickwork. Everything else I feel is just rennovation requirements I wasn't aware of.

I'll need to do a proper look in the loft to assess any signs of a leak which may have caused the bowed ceiling the sellers recently fixed.

Ask your builder to take a long spirit level/straight edge into the loft and see if the trusses are bowed.
Ask if you can basically repair the asbestos ceiling and plasterboard then skim it. That will seal it ‘for good’. I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but it might be!
If it really is that exposed, and it’s only one wall, there are very good, flexible renders/stucco available nowadays.

Yes the surveyor is suprised none of the houses on that estate have been rendered, as many in nearby estates were.

I will ask if the asbestos can be repaired but the surveyor has said it essentially scares most buyers, so recommend to remove it.

If the house is so exposed to weather, and so poorly built that the ceilings have bowed, the windows have twisted, the walls have cracked, then it will be very difficult to repair as all of the dimensions will no longer be square and the house will atill be exposed to the same weather, putting it at risk of more damage, rendering the house is unlikely to solve all of the problems.