Would you expect the double glazing unit to be replaced?

[jamhammam]

I am buying my first house and the survey has come back. No major issues thankfully. All that the surveyor highlighted was:

a) one failed double glazing unit in a bedroom
b) loose paviors on the back step
c) minor damage to roofing felt
d) corrosion to a radiator which the surveyor stated will need replaced in 'the coming months or years'

Would you expect any of this to be remedied by the seller before purchase or is it more appropriate to accept these issues will just require some attention once I move in?
I'm happy enough to sort them out myself but I don't want to naively not ask for, for example, the double glazing unit to be replaced by the vendor if this is what most people would do. Would you expect any of these issues to be rectified by the vendor?

No, I wouldn't expect them to be dealt with by the seller. Just adjust your offer down by the amount you judge it will cost to rectify. My patio door has 'steamed up' but as I plan to move from here I'm not replacing the unit. I'd probably level paving slabs but only if they were a hazard.

No, it's for you to decide if these flaws are significant enough to renegotiate the price you'll pay.

No these are minor things. I’m not sure I would reduce offer for these either. Surely they were visible when you viewed and priced in by agent on valuation.

I would be annoyed personally if someone reduced for these and would go with someone else. If it’s a forever top spec renovated home then fair enough. But from what I am gathering this is a first time buyer standard home that’s going to come with some standard defects.

Oh come on - these are such minor things. You absolutely can't expect to "adjust your offer" or demand a seller repairs things that might need to be replaced years in the future - or reduce the price based on the property being in exactly the condition it was visibly in when it was valued and you offered.

No, the house is sold as seen and all those are minor issues. Some you can fix yourself.

Things like lack of building regs sign off or missing planning permission are the sort of things I expect to be rectified before I buy.

No, the survey is generally to let you know what you need to take care of when you move in or monitor over the next few years.

People may try to negotiate the price down for things which were not visible when they viewed the property and which would be expensive to fix. Nothing you’ve mentioned would fit that criteria to me.

Absolutely not - the survey is telling you what to expect to have to deal with, but there’s nothing there the vendor needs to consider.

Our survey found a structural problem. We got two quotes for repair and reduced the offer accordingly because that was a substantial issue. We would not have been able to proceed with the house sale without getting it sorted.

All the other things they found were the usual issues in an older house, which is part and parcel of buying a building of that age. We set aside a budget to deal with it.

Good luck with your new house!

Our buyer (hopefully not you) asked us to get someone for quotes to repair the double glazing......our solicitor was not impressed and the answer was no!

You can typically see when a panel has failed so I would expect that to have factored into their offer. But honestly, it’s not a lot of money anyway. If I was your vendor I’d tell you to do one if you came to me with that survey and wanted money off.

No!

I thought your post was going to be about someone who has damaged your window or whether your landlord should fix a problem.

No-you are buying a house and the survey tells you what's wrong. You can make choices...you can offer less- which the seller can agree to or not- or you can not buy it.

No. And if i was the seller and you asked to reduce the price I would tell you where to go! Sorry

Before I put my house on the market I did replace around 5 sealed window units that had blown. I paid £900 to replace the 5 units - I did it as really did want the buyer to start knocking off thousands for replacement windows. Most of the windows do blow eventually regardless of how much you have paid.

You can ask for whatever you like but why would you risk your sale for such small things? That said I made my last purchase on the understanding the vendors emptied the septic tank before they left.

Heck, these are really tiny things in the scheme of things. If these are the only things the survey came back with, be grateful the house is in pretty good nick. As a home owner you’ll have to learn to take such maintenance tasks as part and parcel of owning a property. If you asked me to reduce the cost of my house based on this kind of trivia, I’d think you were an utter piss taker and it would raise red flags about how awkward you’d be in the house buying process.

It costs hardly anything to fix a double glazed unit and it not disruptive at all. Plus you could see that with your actual eyes when you looked round the house and then put an offer in, So your offer was based on that being there.

Thanks everyone for your input.

As I said, my original instinct was to sort these minor issues myself once I've moved in, but never having bought a house before I wanted to check that this would be the view of most people. I didn't want to miss out on something that everyone else would expect to be fixed by the vendor.

I knew this would be FTB. Poor vendors. Please don’t text the previous owner six months after you’ve moved in, expecting them to pay for the boiler service.