Negotiating money off due to issues from survey

[BastetBaby]

We're in the process of buying a Victorian terraced house. Our survey highlighted a whole bunch of issues!

Some of these (e.g. dodgy drainpipes and leaky roof) we're willing to accept and fix ourselves. But the biggest problem is that the garage needs demolishing and replacing (it is structurally unsound and, frankly, dangerous) and has an asbestos roof. The garage was a key selling point.

My question is: how much would be reasonable to ask off the sale price? (Which is £600000)

I estimate replacing the garage (including asbestos removal and demolition) would come to £20000-£30000.

Good question! No. It said it needed to be repaired before it could be used. But realistically repair is not possible (my in laws are engineers and noticed the same problem when we all visited the house and said repair wouldn't be feasible). I suppose we might need to prove that repair is not possible...

Well you could try knocking off £30,000 to rebuild the garage, but you might lose the house. It's always a case of how much you really want the house and whether you can afford to do the work or is it really a deal breaker. Split the difference and ask for £15k off?

Does the estate agent know if they might be willing to go down by £30k or if that's a reasonable starting point or if they will just back out? Would you really rebuild the garage or just leave the area as parking? Does the garage actually look dangerous, crumbling brickwork or sagging roof or is it just old and tired?

I highly doubt it says that, it might ADVISE further testing but it does not say that. RICS Surveys do not do structural engineering, you need a special engineer report that is a separate cost of over £1k.

You say your IL as engineers and noticed on a look around, that has zero standing. One) they have a vested interest in saying that and two) without an actual report your not held to anything, you could claim any wild nonsense.

If they are willing to put their career and companies name on the line to write up a engineering report verify your claim then you could try (but as a seller I would be really weary of 'my dads company says it needs demolishing so knock £30k off').

They also cannot confirm the presence of asbestos, thats an entirely separate specialist test too. ALL surveys will say pre-2000s houses are at risk of asbestos. Its just a fact of older house. Yes old garage roofs do have a higher risk but a RICS survey can not confirm that, they are only looking at stuff not testing.

Loads of old garages have asbestos roofing. It looks like grey corrugated iron but thicker. It’s NOT enormously expensive to remove and dispose of but must be done correctly. If your in laws have done this kind of work before they know that. What’s wrong with the rest of it? Presumably if you could see it needed work before survey you offered with that budgeted in?

What did the survey actually say needed repair to the garage, in what way is it structurally unsound. I'd be more concerned about a leaking roof in this weather, has the roof been covered up to stop rain getting in and causing damage. Was it advertised as needing work..

I agree with PPs about your in laws’ opinions not meaning much to the seller.

And I assume the survey just said “potential” or “likely” asbestos, since they didn’t actually test for it? When we sold, our buyers tried to get money off because their survey advised that our garage roof “might” have asbestos - it didn’t, and we had the certificate from the removal, so the surveyor had just looked and thought it was a possibility so had to write it down, rather than not mention it and have it turn up later.

They may also have factored in the visibly poor condition garage to the asking price already.

That said, if you no longer want to pay what you offered, then don’t. It’s not unreasonable to not want to pay what someone else is asking. And then it’s up to them to accept what they’re willing to accept.

So you’re saying long that the state of the garage was obvious when you viewed it? Then surely you factored in the cost of replacement when you offered. Now, if it looked fine and the particulars indicated it was fine, then that’s a whole other matter.

As a seller I would only consider a discount if there was a completely unexpected issue. If a potential buyer pushed it they’d find themselves needing to find a different property.

There is no answer because there is no set standard of "reasonable" and no one can know the mind of your seller.

Some sellers will give discounts. Some expect buyers to pony up huge amounts for complete wrecks.

The whole point of having a survey is to discover information about the house.

This information may well make it worth less to you. So you have a choice.

Either it is worth the money you originally agreed pre survey or it isn't.

If it isn't you can adjust your offer by an appropriate amount if you wish. Or you can stick with your original value.

But no one on here can predict how your seller is going to react to this. No matter how "reasonable" they think you are being.

What repairs did the survey suggest, it could be anything from a broken door to a missing wall.

Surveyors are always overly cautious to cover their asses. And what your inlaws think is irrelevant, ditto any values which get bandied about on here. If you want to get taken seriously by the vendor then you need to be transparent with them: the survey has flagged a potential issue, we want to get this thoroughly invetigated. Then get two reputable tradespeople to give formal quotes which you can use as the basis of what you ask for a reduction on.

Yeah you can't try and reduce by the amount to raze it to the ground a build a whole new one. It doesn't say that is necessary. It just says it needs repairing.

You’ve paid for a survey
which says the roof needs to be repaired not demolished

but you think you’ll plough in there and start using the word “demolish” because your In laws (hardly objective) disagree with the professional you engaged?

Gokd luck OP (and good luck to the vendors if this is any indication of what the sales process is going to be like with you as their buyer)

There are no absolutes in buying and selling houses. The price is simply to be negotiated between buyers and sellers

You can of course as for a reduction. They can accept, decline or suggest an alternative.

It will depend on the circumstances, how keen each of you are to move and who blinks first in the negotiation.

good luck.

If the garage obviously needed repair when you looked around then the sale price will have factored that in. The same house with a brand new garage would be more expensive. If it were my house I would laugh and put it back on the market.

How many other offers did they get?

It depends what you are trying to sell and where, and the demand for the type of house and area, many sellers won`t be laughing about losing buyers in this market, in many cases it might be better to take the hit just to sell?

https://www.yopa.co.uk/blog/new-build-sales-fall-by-62-but-mortgage-innovations-are-improving-accessibility-for-buyers/

It also depends on whether the price you offered and the seller accepted is a significant or negligible reduction from the asking price.

If it was advertised for £650K and they’ve accepted £600K, then I would think they’re not going to negotiate further. If the difference was £5K maybe. If it’s been on the market for ages, without other offers, that would probably make a difference. If they had other offers or it’s newish to the market, they may tell you to go away.

I think you'll need a professional quote/estimate to support the amount of money you are asking the sellers to take off the price. So they know its not just a figure you've plucked out of the air.

If the survey doesn't say the garage actually needs demolishing, then you will need additional professional evidence to support the idea of demolishing it if you want a price reduction that reflects the entire demolition cost.

Also agree with PP it will also depend on other factors like how long the property was on the market for, whether the sellers are in a hurry to shift it, how much other interest they had and how much lower your offer was than the asking price.

The sellers will have priced it at what they think its worth.

That factors in that the garage is (insert profanity of choice)

Clearly if a survey picked up something unexpected eg built on an old uncapped mineshaft thats another issue but I think you might have to take it as it is or find somewhere else

Property on market for 6months+ at least. We offered asking price. No other offers. Previous sale fell through. Likely no-one knew about garage before our survey. Garage was pushed as a key selling point as they are very sought after in the area we're buying in. It's a prefab garage so once you've removed damaged roof, lintel and steel frame the test of the garage will fall down.

I think we'll get quotes, ask for money off and walk away if they say no. We cant really afford it otherwise as we hadn't budgeted for a new garage!