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 🙏

What's the top value for the road when renovated @Montysmoon?

Ultimately, the vendors do not have to sell their house to you. There is nothing you can do if they say no.

This is what I came to say. The “‘£12k” I was quoted for roof, drain and other various works (post-survey) came in at over £50k and a whole new roof in the end as we discovered lots of the timbers in the roof were rotten (once work began). Issues with damp, old wiring, historic woodworm….Luckily we had the money, but I’d be very cautious buying a property that undoubtedly will have other issues due to poor routine maintenance. Proceed with caution if you’re already stretched at this budget - old houses can be huge money pits.

Because they only get paid when a sale happens!

We are. It’s actually ours that’s was for sale, so hopefully it will be ok?

I would be concerned that £10k isn’t enough to fix the damp completely. Damp works are expensive and often aren’t just the work to fix the damp but also putting the room back to livable condition after - ie plastering (possible skimming and bonding/ plasterboard), redecorating, new skirting/ woodwork, possible new floors if you have to take that up

Thanks for all the advice. All very useful suggestions.

Yes we are stretching ourselves to buy as we need more space for our kids. Our savings are going towards the ridiculous cost of moving (stamp duty, estate agents, solicitors) which will be c.£35k.

No the damaged gutters and damp were not obvious during our viewings. The very point of surveys is for an expert to identify issues and tell you about them. We didn’t expect so many problems, and faced with so many unexpected costs, we thought £10k off the agreed price was reasonable and based on 2 surveyors’ costings.

It would be a shame to lose the house, but I don’t think I’d be devastated really.

They're entitled to decline to accept a reduced offer. If they're in no rush to sell, they can hold on until another buyer comes along if necessary. Maybe they were aware that the house needed work when it was valued anyway. So it depends how much you like the house and how quickly you want to move.

Probably £900k max for a high spec 3 bed house.

If it's probate, they might be happy to wait until after Christmas, thinking they'll get closer to what they wanted in the spring. They might not even want to rush before Christmas. Years ago, a seller in a similar situation wouldn't budge on a price (the same as other houses for sale on the same street, but in disrepair and smaller), so you can't just expect they'll be flexible.
Just depends how much you want it. If there's others you like as much in your price range, fine. If it's the only one near the school you want/next to the wood or whatever reason, I'd be careful, in case you regret it.

Same here.
This all sound like minor and typical issues for an old house. I wouldn't be dropping the price.

Why would a house wired in the eighties need a full rewire? My electrician fitted a new consumer unit, upgraded the bonding and put on new sockets. Fully tested.

I buy and sell houses occasionally. I’d see this as a typical buyer’s try-on. Make a deal, get a survey which finds nothing hidden, then muck about for a few grand off. Naa. I’d let the buyer walk away, and shoulder all their costs. Carry on!

The other way round I’d definitely try this game too, but if the seller says no, I’d respect that and pay the price originally agreed.

Trying to get into the mind of the other party is fraught with danger. It's a probate so they may be in no rush. Also your buyer will not wait for forever - if you don't proceed with this purchase and it takes a while to find something else your buyer may walk and a new buyer might offer less, if you find one at all in this market. If you stick with your buyer who wants to proceed (and if not now maybe they will soon) then you might end up needing to sell and rent which will cost more than 15k. I wouldn't see the sellers of the house you're interested in carrying all the risk here at all - if anything I would say the risk tips a little more on your side.

The market is shocking and they are foolish not to negotiate in this climate about significant repairs. I was in a similar situation and said if the vendor wouldn't meet me halfway on repairing significant faults, I would walk away. They said they were putting the house back on the market. The next day their estate agent rang to say they'd changed their minds. If you don't have the money to pay for the work needed, you don't really have a choice in any case.

Didn't you notice the age of the boiler when you looked round? It was on you to check that. Damp and rotting woodwork are usually really obvious too, I'd have expected that it was an old property and the condition was quite obvious on viewing.

The electrics in my house are easily 40 years old and are absolutely fine, are you sure it needs rewiring?

op its a probaye sale there could be several people to agree on the price and theyve said no
you could ask again but dont be surprised if they reject it again

when my df was selling his house the buyer came back right at the last minuite and said she wanted it 10k less because of the raduators-he sid no and she was so shocked her bluff didnt work

From the time it's languished unsold it seems the astute buyers don't want it, and I don't blame them given that the lack of maintenance already noted could suggest much more

It really depends on how the original asking price compared to other, better properties, and OP hasn't said - but unless the price really did reflect it's condition I'd walk away

I think capital gains on houses is not a 2025 problem...!

If we don’t buy this house we will move in with family to keep the rest of the chain intact.

If I were you, I’d leave your offer on the table, request a viewing and go round and have a really good look at everything and a good feel of the walls, inspect the plaster carefully, etc. Take a builder if possible, and take binoculars. If a damp problem really wasn’t visible then I question how bad it can be - have a good look at the gutters, flashings etc. what’s the state of the windows and ventilation etc. electrics might be fine as pp have said. You don’t sound confident in your own assessment of the situation and imo thats a potential problem with an older house.

Ultimately the vendor doesn’t have to do anything but you need to be clear in your own mind what you actually want - this house with some financial risk, this house only if you can get the £10k off, or just a house that’s big enough and financially manageable.

I think the boiler and electrics are what they are and the vendor shouldn’t have to renegotiate because of those.
However the gutters needing replacing due to causing damp, in my opinion they should either get them fixed or renegotiate but as you know they don’t HAVE to. If you can’t proceed anyway at the current price with these works needing doing them it can’t hurt to state your position. Do you know how many people are selling the house? Obviously the more people it is being divided by the less of an impact renegotiating will make to them.

At the end of the day, its their house. They do not have to sell it you if they aren't happy with the price. Sure they might not have another buyer, but unless they are forced seller they might do better waiting til markets improve anyway.

I’m in an old house, we did replace the old fuse box but haven’t rewired. Gutters can often be fixed and patched with some DIY, you might not need the whole thing replaced. We’ve done lots of remedial gutter work ourselves.

I do wonder, meant kindly, if this is just going to be too much of a stretch for you. A large mortgage and no savings isn’t a great place to be even in an immaculate new house. Cars break, people fall ill, new boilers break, trees fall down on fences etc. Without a buffer it sounds a bit risky, I’m sorry to say.

How can you say the sellers are being foolish when you have no idea what the house is like or what it's worth, nor their circumstances? It may be a fair price for that type of property in that condition in that location and the sellers might be in no rush to sell.

So you said that a top spec house would be worth 900k, so you are still getting a good deal. Houses don’t need new boilers and electrics. Just because you chose to spend money on that doesn’t mean other people feel the same need. In the scheme of it, 10k is neither here nor there.