Sellers won’t budge after survey price negotiation

[Montysmoon]

Hi everyone,

We had our offer of £735k accepted on a £750k house a month ago. The house was on the market a while - about six months and had no proceedable offers in that time (other buyer were needing to sell). It’s a probate.

While the house is old (100 years ish), no major alarm bells rang during our viewings.

But our homebuyer survey flagged urgent issues like gutters in disrepair that are causing damp throughout the property. The electrics are 40+ years old so the house will need rewiring, and the boiler is also old. There are other minor issues too like decaying woodwork etc.

We have asked the vendors to consider taking £10k off the sale price as this is what has been quoted to us for the repair work to the gutters and damp. This does not include anything for electrics or anything else.

Vendors are refusing to renegotiate price. I want to push back because we simply won’t have the money to do this repair work otherwise, plus they’re not exactly inundated with other offers so they’d be silly to risk losing us.

I’m also selling so I appreciate that it’s not always straightforward just lowering the price, but given the obvious defects in the house I think it’s a reasonable sum. Does anyone agree/disagree? Advice very welcome 🙏

I suppose the point is there is no law that everything has to be “done up”. If the electrics work and are not dangerous nobody NEEDS to rip them out and change them. Some people want high spec and brand new and others don’t. The price difference between the ceiling price (£900k) and this house (£735k) reflects the market value of that difference.

A non business home repossessions are rising rapidly at some of the highest levels ever seen outside of a complete crash with over 28,000 people losing everything in 2024.

On top of active repossession over 80,000 houses in the UK are in mortgage arrears. Defaulting then effects everything on your credit, you can't just borrow your way out of it.

We could all take chances on making loads of money by spending other peoples money in make believe land but thats not how reality work.

I’m sure Op is not totally thick, you’re talking about very basic stuff she’ll be well aware of (as am I and I’m sure most members of the public) No need to be such a drama llama.

At the end of the day it does not matter whether you "should" have noticed the gutters during ypur viewing. That's what the surveys are for to pick up on stuff not noticed,amongst other things.

I would be prepared to walk away if the seller won't reduce and if you do not feel you can afford renovation.

I wouldn’t give up hope of getting this house. They may very well come back to you at a later date to agree with your deduction. Hope it works out for you.

Well yeah, that's obvious to me as well but apparently not to the poster I was reply to. The point still stands though - 40yo electrics and an old but functional boiler do not make a house a "fixer upper".

I would have assumed that most of these issues would have been obvious when you viewed and given that it’s a probate sale, therefore your offer should have reflected that. I would only have asked for a further reduction if there was something totally unexpected like subsidence or new roof etc. Some questions for you:

1. are you willing to lose the house over 10k and over things you can get done over time?
2. have you asked them to meet you half way?
3. if you’re genuinely concerned about unexpected issues, have you paid for a knotweed and asbestos survey?
4. did your mortgage company have an issue with the valuation?
5. are you thinking that because the house is a probate sale and because it had been on the market for a little while that you have an upper hand so you can get a discount? If so then please remember, these people have lost a loved one and don’t need someone to play games

They already reduced it by £15k from the asking price. It’s your issue that your survey didn’t pick up these things and now you are trying to blackmail them into a further £10k reduction because you somehow know they’ve had no other interest! You made an offer and they accepted it … you are BU to now try and change that! They should tell you where to go and maybe go find a house you can actually afford!!

That’s not the sellers issue. You need to consider all costs prior to putting in an offer. You sound like you have stretched yourself above your means to afford the house and now are unable to pay for any work to it. Maybe you need to find something more within your price range.

I think it is likely that if the problems you mention had already been dealt with then the original price would have been higher and maybe out of your price range. If the only way you can afford a house like this is because it is a 'doer upper', it is a bit unreasonable to be complaining that it needs 'doing up'!

Yes, this makes sense. Also the remedial work needed may well have been taken into account when the agent set the selling price.

Probate sales can be funny though. The executors need to try and get the maximum they can, plus there may be several beneficiaries all with different ideas about what they will.accept.

Who quoted for “damp work” and what are they doing? Have a research about people claiming to be damp experts and conning people for damp course injections that are not needed. Have you considered that if the gutters are leaking, this alone may fix the damp problem. Could you or partner etc fix the gutters yourself?

I bought a house a couple of years ago, also 100 years old with an extensive survey which I did take with a pinch of salt. Our gutters leaked too. We weren’t bothered whatsoever, it’s our forever home and we expected there would be repairs needed.

The executor does need to get the best price.

I’m due to complete on my late parents property next Monday. There are four beneficiaries. As executor I’ve consulted them every step of the way because I’m acting on all their behalf’s.

I got the property valued realistically, taking into account it was older and needed modernisation. It was put on the market at priced to sell, and initially we had silly offers which we refused. It sold at guide price, it met the survey, and a builder inspected it, a relation of the buyer, acknowledged what needed doing, and thought it a sound property, priced realistically.

If I hadn’t sold the property when I did, we were going to take it off the market, and remarket in spring. We were prepared to wait.

Crucially, our buyers are realistic. They have funds to spend money on the property going forward. They have budgeted for this. They are going to move in and do it up as they go.

OP, seriously consider pulling out, and buy a lesser priced property. You’re overstretching perhaps?

I think the OP has long since gone on this one!

You would have been able to see the old guttering, old electrics and old boiler on viewing. The electrics and boiler are not urgent if they still work. We lived in our house 7 years before we rewired etc.

Plus you already offered £15k below asking. They are obviously not in a hurry to sell and as its probate, it’s not like you’re in a chain that needs to progress.

i don’t think the cards for negotiation are stacked in your favour.

OP doesn't have the money to do it up. OP doesn't even have the money to fix the gutters.

Then OP can’t afford this house.

Indeed.

Oh come off it, it doesn’t take a genius to see when a house needs new electrics or a new boiler (these are things you should ask to look at on a viewing).

6 months on the market is nothing at the moment.

To me, it sounds like the balls in their court. My money is on you buying it anyway, you’re just trying it on!

It's no good taking on a house needing work if you're at the absolute limit of what you can afford, though I appreciate that this is very frustrating if you really like the house - or what you envisage the house could become. Some problems you can live with, others you can't, but the odds are that you'll need extra cash to fix unexpected things that aren't revealed by a survey as there are likely to be some.
As@housethatbuiltme says, "the OP is paying £735k for a house on a street where she claims similar but more recently modernized houses sell for £900k... of course its a doer-up and priced as such. They didn't just fancy giving away £165,000 for pure niceness".
The quote that@Montysmoon received sounds a bit over the top but the house is already priced to take the work required into account, normal with doer-uppers and common with probate sales. Despite this the seller has already given an extra reduction on the asking price which was reasonable in the circumstances.
Surveyors always point out things like electrics in older houses, it doesn't mean they need urgent work, just that they're not up to the current code (which changes to some extent every three years). A functioning boiler is fine, it would be nice to have a brand spanking new efficient one, but there's no reason why a sellers should subsidise a buyer's improvements to the house.

Yes. I agree having gone through their other posts. They should probably pull out rather than sink money they don’t have.

Probably been pointed out already but just because the electrics are old it doesn’t mean they need ripping out. Surveys will always do a catch all bunch of advisorys. If the fuse board isn’t tripping then leave the electrics, not a day 1 worry. We had the same thing with our house - I’ve been replacing the electrics as I go through doing renovations and we did the boiler (had to pay someone to do that of course) in the first year of moving as the old one packed up. Guttering, what is wrong with it? Just leaves that need clearing out or busted? Either way it’s a really really simple DIY job if it’s a bother. Ladder and a bit of patience. Worst case you’ll spend a few hundred quid getting some scaffolding put up so you can access it. Or pay someone grands to do it for you of course.

It does sound as if the real problem is, as others have said, that you can't really afford the house, no wonder you are getting cold feet.

It's not as simple as identifying £10k of urgent repairs you'd need to do and asking for £10k off the price. That money still isn't going to be in your pocket to do the repairs (at least I can't imagine that it would be, as taking £10k out of the equity you are putting into the house would surely reduce the amount you can borrow and you said you were maxed out).

And regardless of repairs, stretching yourselves to the maximum a bank will lend you is really risky. It leaves no margin for a change in circumstances, interest rate increases, or cost of living increases. If the mortgage payment is a substantial percentage of your monthly income then its going to be hard to replenish savings or do repairs.

I understand with the position you are in hopeful the sellers would reduce the price, but I also understand the sellers feeling that the condition of the house was already factored in. It's interesting that such a small percentage of the house's value is a deal breaker for both sides, but I think that's happened because you can't really afford it and it's taken the survey for you to realise it.

How would you tell by looking please? I got screwed on boiler on my new purchase despite survey so wondering what I should have looked out for, for next time!