Lowering our offer after survey?

[lemonsandapples]

We're in the process of purchasing a house. It was marketed at £196k, our offer was £197k which we upped to £202k for best and final and our offer was accepted.

That was back in August, sellers were slow getting paperwork to their solicitor and our solicitor was on holiday for 4 weeks.

We've just had our survey back and it's pointed out a few issues. The bath/shower is leaking into the living room and it's clear that the sellers had redone the plaster in the days before the survey and painted over it to cover it up. The surveyor said that it was wet plaster and wet paint with a clear patch right under where the bath and shower are. This rang alarm bells for me. We have spoken to our builder who says we'll need a new shower & bath unit, plaster below to be hacked off and area dried then skimmed again.

The roof verges also need redoing, possible asbestos in ceilings and the attic is riddled with woodworm and the front door is broken and apparently doesn't close properly. The roof will require scaffolding which isn't cheap and ceilings will need sealing and skimming.

My DH is saying we should revert back to the original asking price, reducing our offer by 5k to allow for the works. The roof work needs doing asap, there's huge gaps on the verges and the front door needs replacing as it's broken. (It was open when we viewed it so couldn't have known).

I am stressing as I want this house. Haven't given that away to the vendor or estate agent but I feel cheeky lowering offer. Then the rational part of me says the vendor is clearly trying to cover up the leak so they obviously know about it! The asbestos did worry me as we have young kids but our builder has said we can get it sealed and skimmed and it's all in good condition so shouldn't be a problem.

Has anyone renegotiated after offer?

Any advice would be gratefully received :)

To add - our mortgage is approved, no chain and searches are all back. The vendors are moving in with his sister so they don't have a chain either.

Is the woodworm active or historic?I would get quotes for a new door (£1000?) and for woodworm treatment, assume £10,000 for a bathroom and similar for a new roof and ask for the full price of these off the house price. Hopefully they will meet you halfway or just give up and pay the lot and then you can decide whether to shoulder some of the cost or walk away.

If the woodworm damage is bad then there could be structural issues and I would consider walking away.

Also worth considering that if they have covered up these issues, what else have they hidden that hasn't been found yet?

I'd be inclined to pull out to be honest. What has the surveyor said? The woodworm in the attic sounds particularly alarming to me. I would be surprised if £5k would cover the work that needs doing. The asbestos in the ceiling is actually the least worrying thing to me as it's probably in artex and as long as you leave it alone then it's not a problem.

Our new front door quotes were coming in at around £3k alone!

Another who would pull out of this. It'll be a money pit.

I would pull out, what else are they hiding? The house will be a money pit.

New bathroom is bathroom is 10k but wait for bathroom fitters is around 6 months, a door at least 1k. Asbetos is easily removed but a messy job and is an issue in houses of a certain era - it’s the artex but again it’s not cheap.

I have no ideas about the woodworm. That is ringing alarm bells for me.

We paid some £5 for half a roof replaced 10 years ago.

The work will undoubtedly cost considerably more than £5k. I'd get some sensible quotes for everything that needs doing and reduce your offer accordingly.

The woodworm alone would have me backing out. Treating the ww may be affordable but how much damage has the infestation done?

Probably not what you want to hear but I would back out.

I wouldn't buy a house where the attic (you mean the rafters?) are riddled with woodworm and the roof needs redoing. The bath leak and door are trivial but these bigger things are not.

another one to vote walk away or at least get proper quotes for everything and lower offer accordingly. We walked away from a house we loved but similarly owners had covered up lots of issues … it saved us a fortune in long run. At the time I was so torn and now can’t believe I hesitated for a moment! Good luck either way!

Get someone to look in the roof space and check for woodworm. If there are flight holes, it's a historic problem. We had this in our house survey which if the surveyor is doing their job properly mentions every potential issue.

If it's an older property, you'll often find mentions of historic problems such as this and asbestos. You don't need to panic and walk away, particularly if you really want the house and you're some way along the process. Use the survey results to justify reducing your offer, so you'll have money to correct the problems identified.They can only say no, in which case you can think again.

One word. WALK

Thank you everybody for your responses! Really appreciated.

We've been looking for a house like this in this village for 5 years and this is the only one that's come up. Houses just don't go up for sale here and when they do they go mega quickly. We were one of 4 offers and thankfully got it.

I've re-read the surveyor report this morning and must have missed it the first time - the woodworm is in the attic attached to the garage, not the house. So that's not as concerning as I thought.

You are right tho about if they've covered up the leak what else are they covering up. We're going to go and view it with our builder, he does doors, plastering and pretty much everything so he'll be able to give us an accurate idea of costs.

I just need to get over feeling cheeky. We're paying 5k over asking so it's not like we've already had a reduction. I hate the house buying process!

When I bought my first house i discovered after the survey that it had damp (was an ancient cottage) I got quotes for ALL the work that needed doing to repair. Set it all out in a letter (with all the prices quoted) to the seller and requested a reduced price covering the cost of works, or that they complete the works and we continue with the agreed price.

They reduced the price by the lowest estimates from the quotes. This worked for me and the sale went ahead.

Why did you wait until now to get a survey if your offfer was accepted in August? It's normally done a few days later.

It sounds like a new house might suit you better if you expect everything to be perfect when you move in. The woodworm is probably historic or could be easily treated. The door coud have swollen slightly. A leak in a bathroom can be fixed without the cost of fitting a new one.

The attic and roof could be expensive, and to be honest that would make me rethink. Good idea to go round with a builder, and reduce the offer if those works are looking expensive.

As for the bathroom, I don't understand why you'd need a refit or spend £10k. Over the years, we've had leaks in most bathrooms in most houses, and it's been a case of finding the leak, sorting, redecorating when completely dry. Thinking of our experiences, it's been things as simple as sealant, loose shower connector in the wall cavity, overflow needed mending, leak behind the sink. None of it's cost more than a couple of hundred to sort and we've done the decorative stuff ourselves.

The front door might just need rehanging, if not, you can buy one for less than £400, plus fitting of course. I assume there's artex on the ceilings, millions of people live with that, it's not an urgent issue.

Not RTFT so apologies if I've missed anything pertinent, but get a quote for the works needed and then negotiate to reduce the buying price accordingly, OR get them to rectify before exchange.

It's not being cheeky OP, it's standard practice (in England at least), we've done it on pretty much every house we've bought and sold!

Please don’t think you would be being cheeky! They are sneaky dishonest bastards. They’ve covered up that leak deliberately.

Re costs, also having front door quotes and they are all £2.5K plus. Bathroom, ours was a good £10K.

They either need to fix the defects themselves or accept the drop in price.
I wouldn't feel guilty about this, they have been dishonest in covering it up and strategically leaving the front door open so that you wouldn't spot issues.
Get quotes for all works you think need doing off the back on the survey and present it back to the vendor with your reduced offer.

We have spoken to our builder who says we'll need a new shower & bath unit, plaster below to be hacked off and area dried then skimmed again.

For a leak?!? He’s declared all this needs doing without even having looked at it himself. He’s seen you coming.

Unless the surveyor found the leak in the bathroom and confirmed it’s still present, is it possible the patch of wet plaster and paint is the vendor repairing the ceiling after the leak?

I usually take the view that all houses have problems and you should stick to the price, but this sounds a lot as there are almost always more issues that you can’t see, especially where someone is actively trying to disguise them. I would also pull out.

The point of a proper survey is to raise these issues so I wouldn't put yourself in a situation where you can't afford to fix your house for the sake of buying something now.

But then I saw your update that it's the only house you liked in 5 years so I guess they have a monopoly on your purchase and you have an interest in getting through. I would make sure you have a decent chunk in cash left to fix this stuff - and get a second opinion.

We just had a couple doors done and the external door was £3K

The asbestos is a non issue as everywhere has it, but I'd want someone to look at the woodworm and the leak. We did buy a house that had a leak repaired and have had to do further work on it (bad guttering going into the wall) and it's definitely not ideal to have water coming through the ceiling. It was into our garage so luckily not much damage but it's definitely worth checking properly.

Also can't believe it's been dragging on this long without them dropping you for someone easier. Just cause your solicitor was on holiday for an entire month? So I'd be careful about further delays if your heart is set on this house.

If I’d accepted an offer back in August and the buyers had taken 3 months to get a survey done, and then tried to renegotiate the price, I’d instruct my EA to get the house back on the market by the end of the day.