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 🙏

Those seem to me like pretty serious defects to me OP, and I think you’re being generous by only dropping what you’re offering by £10,000. But they are of course within their rights to say no. It all depends on how much you want the house, and your own situation. You have to be your own judge of those really.

Did the survey give an opinion on what the property is worth? When I was selling my mum’s house for her, the survey identified a few defects and the buyers tried to knock 6k off. I asked for a copy of the survey and it said the house was good value at the asking price! So we said no.

The estate agents priced £750 likely with these things in mind - the discount you already have reflects the sellers flexibility. You can ask but I think they are night to say no , as they have already discounted for you. These things are part of buying a big and aged house u less you pay a premium you take on some work.

Those astute buyers that are happy to swallow the unforeseen costs of damp issues arising at the survey stage. There’s a tidal wave of them out there just hoping to take on some extra unforeseen costs!

It's what you expect from an old house. Knowing what I know now, having bought and renovated quite a few properties in my time, I would ALWAYS factor in a full rewire as a minimum, and new gutters are no big deal. Maybe some of their earlier viewers are now in a position to proceed, so don't be too confident you are the only people in the game.

Genuine question from someone who is in absolutely no position to buy or sell a house, and therefore has no skin in the game: what would the purpose of a survey be if not to identify previously overlooked issues and adjust the amount offered accordingly?

In the past I had someone try to drop the price not linked to the survey but linked to remaining in rented for an extra few weeks. I had given them a good deal and they should have known it. I told the woman in the couple I would give her the weekend to talk to her stubborn boyfriend. He did not change his mind. I placed it back on the market at an increased price and accepted a full asking price offer within a few days. The market was different then. Having looked at what is on the market, if you don’t think it is worth the previously agreed price, then walk away. What does the Homebuyers Report say about the price?

Let me guess? The house EPC is also shit (therefore will cost a fortune to heat)? The damp caused by the guttering is an ongoing problem that had been painted over conveniently for your viewing? How are the windows? State of the kitchen?

If it's a probate sale then they're probably not in a massive rush, it's not like they're also buying somewhere they're desperate to hold onto.

Guttering that is causing damp definitely sounds like something that is worth negotiating on. Maybe not for the full amount, but perhaps half as a compromise. Having said that, you have already knocked off quite a bit from asking price.

Electrics and boiler definitely do not seem like something to negotiate on, certainly not on age alone. From their perspective both are working fine so why should there be a price reduction? When you buy a house, especially an old one, you don't expect everything to be brand new and you should expect some wear and tear.

Is it £10k of work? We rewired our 5 bed detached and replaced circuit boards before moving recently and it was 3.5. Guttering isn’t expensive. I think anything over £5k reduction is a bit cheeky, tbh.

Ultimately, depends how much you want it.

It’s a buyers market. In your shoes, and if you really feel these issues are material and have not been considered in your offer, then you could say that you are lowering your offer by £5k [or the full £10k] and that this is the final offer, but you will leave it on the table for 3m while you explore other properties. Then you play chicken and see if they come back. We’ve just done this on a place we are buying and they folded within 48hours. We were prepared to lose it though and had not done a survey (ie incurred costs) yet.

Because if they walk away from this offer they may not have another for 6 months and it may be less. Buyers stop looking over Christmas and will start again in the spring. Meanwhile they’re paying insurance, standing charges etc.

This time next year do you want to be in that house or do you want to be where you are with the extra 10k you didn’t spend?

‘push back’ 🙄

Estate Agents work for themselves.
Never depend on anything they say or write. Caveat Emptor
It’s all on you

It doesn’t matter if you are a “good buyer” or not - they want what they think their property is worth, particularly as they’re not living there/part of a chain. They may have, or believe they have, factored the repairs in. If they are as urgent as you say, I doubt there would not have been signs of them, even on a brief walk around.

Was your original offer 735k, Op? I only ask as I would’ve gone lower naturally. That gives you wiggle room for stuff like this!

There’s no harm in asking. But just as you say you can’t afford their price plus repairs, they may well not be able to afford to drop their price. And you may think they’re crazy but who knows what other offers they’ll accept? My sister’s neighbour has been trying for 3 years to sell her house, won’t drop her price, now has just sold it within a month of the buyer seeing the house. She couldn’tvafford to drop her price, and it came good for her in the end.

Properties are only worth want buyers are prepared to pay for them.

It would take a very long time for insurance and standing charges to amount to £10k though.

The sellers will know that more people start looking in spring again and as it’s a probate sale may be happy to wait.

Manipulative

It’s unlikely to sell again immediately so no harm in walking away and seeing if they reduce the price when they realise you are serious. You take the risk they won’t want to sell to you again though, just for the principle of it.

How much will you have lost in survey fees etc if you walk away?

You have to walk away

and really you should consider the cost of the electrics as well as any damp when making your offer

it may come back to you or it may not but if you can’t afford it you can’t afford it

I think many sellers are delusional at present and don’t realise it's a very different market now to the heady covid highs.
Still, your only recourse if they won't budge is to walk away from the sale. I'd be tempted to - labour and materials are extortionate now.

Gently, this. Do you have a contingency fund for anything the surveyor missed, or anything that develops in the next 12-18mths?

Personally I don’t think you have much choice or leverage here. The seller said no, you can’t force them to accept and ultimately if you disagree then the sale can/will fall through.

maybe you should look at other similar properties and see where this house sits in comparison to others