Buyers asked for a roofer to come over a week before exchange

[Movinghouseisstressful]

Estate agent says “it’s just something they meant to do before and hadn’t gotten round to” but this is clearly a negotiation tactic. Thing is, we took an offer £20k below asking because they’re FTBs and in a great position and we wanted to sell quickly to be in before schools start. We’ve also really really stretched ourselves so we could move quickly and chose a vacant property. We accepted on the basis that there could be no further negotiation.

We just can’t afford for them to negotiate but the stress is horrendous.

The roof does need doing at some point , but it’s fine at the moment. No leaks, no missing tiles etc. We had a minor repair done last year after a storm which we disclosed - it was minor but it’ll need doing at some point. We thought they might come back with it after the survey 2.5 months ago but they said nothing.

Any advice?? On the property we’re purchasing - there’s been a lot of selling on that road because of an upcoming and something with a better spec come on recently for a similar price, but if we had to negotiate I don’t know how I’d even frame it. I’m not a cheeky fucker and have bent over backwards trying to be nice (have spent months cleaning behind and under every piece of furniture I can, have been packing but fixing up every hole left by a nail etc).

Hold your nerve if they do ask for a reduction!

Agree with PP. If they offered 20k under asking price, when they come back and say "oh but the roof needs doing and it will cost us £X so we want £Y price" you go back with "you already have £20k off the asking price" and don't cave.

We bought a house and did negotiate down due to some major external work that we felt needed doing but we had offered full asking price ...

If you genuinely can’t go down any further, I’d be tempted to say to the estate agent now in a calm but direct way that if this is a negotiating tactic the buyers should be aware that as soon as they ask for a further reduction beyond the generous one already agreed, your house goes straight back on the market.

Just say no, they can’t have a roofer come and look at your house…

That’s really stressful. I think I’d be saying that the 20k they’ve had off the asking should cover any roofing work. Is the work likely to cost more than the 20k? That’s your tactic if not. It’s such a stressful
process isn’t it.

Didn’t they already have a survey?

I would ask the estate agent what the buyer is trying to achieve ? I'd get prepared they might pull out and warn them there will be no further negotiations on price. I would let them have the roofer though as saying no makes it look like there is something to hide.

I would be there when the roofer is there and make it clear there are no leaks

We had 7 weeks of shite from our buyer after the survey put a question mark on the roof. Two builders later and she gave me a quote for £26,000 (including a new roof & various other things). The house is sold as a doer upper so it’s glaringly obvious that things need doing.

We ended up renegotiating the price but I discarded the new roof and said that yes the roof is old but it is in working order and if she would like a new roof she will need to pay for that herself.

At your stage i’d be reluctant to let them bring a roofer round but if the whole sale hinges on it you don’t really have much of a choice.

I’d probably tell the estate agent that there are no signs of anything being wrong with the roof, the survey hasn’t highlighted anything and so you’re not inclined to agree. See what they come back with x

I had similar a few years ago. I said that I had accepted a low offer for a quick sale and that they wouldn't get anything better for the money. Said I would put it back on the market if they didn't want to proceed.

I really didn't want to relist, but they didn't need to know that. A house a few doors away had gone up for sale at a higher price since I accepted the offer so they knew they weren't going to get anything cheaper.

I had something a little similar and I just referred them back to the fact that the reasonable house price had accounted for the current state of the house and that if they didn’t want to proceed I’d just put it back on the market. I did too! CF soon stepped back in line although he was sore that I wasn’t phased and kept dragging his feet and wouldn’t exchange until I changed some fences for like £60 which weren’t even my boundary side of responsibility. Honestly, I thu k selling is worse than buying!

Thing is as well (how unless you were allowed to choose the roofer) does the seller know it’s not a set up from a friend that’s going to quote tens of thousands pounds of work that needs doing just so you’re in a strong bargaining position. And on the other side even if it’s a genuine roofer they’re always going to give the worst case scenario obviously as they want the work!

Good advice, so could say sure if you want to spend a hundred plus on checking the roof, knock yourself out. But given the house has already been discounted, just note that if this is a renegotiation tactic the house will be put back in the market as that’s disingenuous behaviour and you’re not tolerating it.

They are presumably spending hundreds of thousands of pounds to buy your house.

It really isn’t unreasonable for buyers to find out what they are looking at in terms of future outlay etc.

Just let the roofer come, and deal with whatever transpires.

If you are not able or willing to accept any negotiation on price, calmly hold that position.

But you might have to work out what to do if they pull out.

On the other hand they might just want reassurance that the leak wasn’t serious and the repair effective.

If they’ve already had a survey I think it’s fine. They should know the condition of the roof already.

Well, you can have a survey and it says roof looks dodgy - which ours did but we had already noticed, as there were stains on the upstairs ceilings and the tiles were all over the place. A roofer can tell you how expensive the dodgy is. I our case, 8 years ago, up north, we got a quote of 9k for replacement and 3k for a bodge job.

Our initial offer was based on houses in the area and the fact that the house was scruffy and obviously hadn't been maintained since a renovation, a decade previously. Our final price on exchange was based on the findings of the survey and the follow up from the roofers. Also factored in was the fact that the vendors refused to provide gas safety certificates for the boiler. For all we knew it didn't work at all. It turned out that the thermostat controller was knackered which was a simple fix but the vendors were incapable of even changing a light bulb (we asked them to prove that the upstairs bathroom lights worked before we offered and they knackered the fittings changing the bulbs).

So no, neither your initial offer nor the survey findings are the end of it.

I'd say OK but make it clear to the EA that having accepted such a massive reduction in the price, there would be no further reductions and if they were not prepared to pay the house would go back on the market.