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 move, with no other offers they don"t really have much room to manoeuver.

Why is everyone (except a couple of you - thank you!) so mean on this thread? Seriously, wow.

I agree, everyone is a bit snappy!
All you can do is decide what is the max youre prepared to do and can afford.
Ie, get a professional quote. Decide if you actually need the garage. Decide how long you could save to replace garage. Decide what's the maximum youre prepared to spend to buy the house. Then tell your buyer the absolute truth, offer what youre comfortable with, and cross your fingers this works for them.
I would think offering asking price after home on sale for 6m would give you a decent amount of wiggle room.
Good luck.

I'm not sure when there was a shift to renegotiating the price after the survey? It seems like a really sly and underhand way to attempt to conduct a sale? You are now probably close to the end of the buying progress and are essentially threatening to pull out if you don't get your way? Losing the vendor (and yourself) thousands?

You viewed the property, I assume you could see the garage was in a poor state of repair and should have factored that into your offer price.

If you do not move forward with the sale, be aware that most houses of XX age will highlight a number of scary sounding issues so you are in for a bumpy ride.

Hopefully the law is changed in the future to prevent buyers like you costing vendors thousands. It's a really unfair system.

I could be wrong but I assume it was a post war prefab garaggle so pretty old? If this is free he case then it is obviously nearing the end of its life and will need replacing soon and so asking for money off after a survey is cheeky because the state of the garage was pretty obvious when you made the original offer.
Maybe I am wrong and the garage looks immaculate and could only be known to be failing by a professional structural surveyor? Or maybe it's someelthing in between these two?

People aren't being mean, they are just trying to explain that negociating money off post survey is usually only for things that weren't visible before the survey like spray foam in the loft or damp that has been covered up or a broken boiler. Usually a crappy garage which is on its way out is pretty obvious and nearly all prefab garages have asbestos roofs.

Why would you not negotiate price if the survey comes back with relevant information?? There might be a question about what’s reasonable to expect a seller to reduce by (and I’d agree that a shoddy garage might be fairly obvious before you offer), but in general there’s nothing wrong with negotiating once you have been given significant information about the house you are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on.

I agree that doing it near the end of the process is bad but we’ve alway booked the survey in asap.

The problem is, most people are dependant on having a bank issued survey conducted (as part of their mortgage app), so the surveys for most sales are being done towards the end of the buying process. At which point the vendor (and seller) have already potentially spent thousands on fees.

Entirely different if the survey is done upfront, but for most sales, that's not the case.

Most cases of lower prices being offered are in the cases of FTB, who panic after seeing a survey which highlights fairly obvious issues. Issues which a more seasoned house buyers might not even address for the duration of their time in the home (sash bearings not working etc).

It's an unfair process.

Get a builder to check what work would really be needed and how much it would cost. Then renegotiate

Surveys on older properties are almost always arse covering exercises by the surveyor. You need to follow it up with advice from trades.

Surely asking for money off is better than just pulling out?

And the only obvious damage to the garage was a crack in the lintel (though I didn't even notice this the first time I viewed the place). I didn't realise this constituted a dangerous structural defect (which is what the surveyor told us). I doubt anyone else (including vendors) knew it was a dangerous structural defect either.

There a loads of other issues with the house we're just going to deal with ourselves. This is just a big expensive problem we didn't anticipate. Noone realised it would be an issue before the survey. And isn't that why people have surveys? (I mean, the house-selling system in this country does seem mad - why do not have surveys BEFORE initial offers??)

I thought perhaps asking for reductions in light of a survey was fairly normal and common (I just wondered how much of a reduction was reasonable) - but given how angry people seem maybe it's not normal!!

@Slave2PRT What a weird comment. Offers are always ‘subject to survey’ in recognition of post survey being the only point when a buyer can proceed with confidence about what they are buying.

Agree there is no point in reducing an offer for stuff that is obvious from a visit. The state of the garage may not have been that obvious.

Anyway. It’s usual to meet in the middle. Depending on the market and a million other factors. It’s a buyer's market so I would probably reduce offer by £15k. You may find you’re happy to live with the garage as it is for a while.

Also agree with OP. Why can’t we normalise sellers packs with surveys completed? I guess because of the legal nightmares this might pose with surveyors being employed by those who DON’T want defects highlighted.

When I bought my house some buyers had just pulled out so I was able to purchase their searches and survey. They only gave me a 10% discount which seemed odd as the info was effectively worthless to them. But it did save time and a bit of money.

Exactly. Having a vendor pack upfront would reduce all the associated risks.

Reform is needed. I know supply and demand are key, but having estate agents advising vendors to advertise their properties at unrealistically high prices (which they just won't sell at). Or if a buyer does come along, they find the banks will only lend XX amount as they have downvalued the sale price, meaning only cash buyers or buyers with huge deposits can proceed and make up the difference.

It's a really unfair system (for all), hopefully OP can see people are frustrated at this, rather than potential buyers who are rightly doing what they are legally allowed to.

So why is it so difficult to shift the bank or private valuation if a cash buyer to the start of the process?

Smart cash buyers don"t "make up the difference" they seek out sellers who understand market reality.

So it’s only dangerous when being dismantled, if not done sensibly? We bought a house with exactly this, but we knew the condition/type of garage was factored in (because it was obvious). This was 12 years ago, but the roof was removed by a company who issued the correct certification to us and the council (around £600). When he initially looked to confirm presence of asbestos, he recommended someone who would dismantle and remove the frame and panels (minimal cost as he would reuse) after the roof was gone. That man recommended someone to break up the concrete base and dispose (this was necessary since it was built right up to the house but there was a small gap between the garage and the house - over the years leaves had filled the gap and there was the danger of damp coming through the side walls). It was all very efficient and we’d already applied for planning to have something more in-keeping in its place. It also gave us the chance to have anything done round the back while there was a big gap! So do go back to the vendors if you like but I think the amount you’re thinking of is way out.

I am a surveyor. It’s common for surveys to pick up things like this. Highly unlikely that the vendors will reduce the price for issues with the garage. An asbestos roof is common and not usually an issue.

If I were selling, I’d tell you no discount. Withdraw if you’re not happy.

It would be dangerous to open the garage door surveyor said (in case concrete lintel falls on your head!) But this is reassuring - maybe I'm freaking out too much about how much it will cost to fix!

Really? Even though we can't actually use the garage? (Because it would be dangerous to open the door)

Thanks for your comment! Useful to know!

One thing that may not have come across from my post is, we did all this over a period of years. So saved for it (I know that’s not always possible!) For me, the biggest plus was having the extra-wide plot even if the garage was rubbish! What we’d imagined having changed over time anyway but the potential was always there.

This is correct.

i purchased a Victorian house with an outhouse in the garden with an asbestos roof (which wasn’t structurally sound, and we didn’t negotiate money off).

You can easily remove this yourself for no / minimal cost.

Buy a full suit & mask off Amazon. Remove the asbestos and cover / tape it up in large plastic sheets. Here in London - you can go into your councils website to book a removal & they will remove it free of charge & dispose of it.

@BastetBaby MNs is really odd on property threads that involving reducing your offer. Your plan is sensible & what I would do. It’s a buyer market, the house has been on a while and asbestos does put buyers off.

I thought perhaps asking for reductions in light of a survey was fairly normal and common (I just wondered how much of a reduction was reasonable) - but given how angry people seem maybe it's not normal!!

@BastetBaby It's a totally normal thing to do AFAIC. I would seriously offer aa reduction of the price of a new garage. My DD and her partner bought a victorian mid terrace, the survey uncovered really quite a few problems. Damp in certain places, roof problem and more.
They went back with a reduced offer, take it or leave it. The sellers were desperate to move and took it and actually they got a good deal given some other houses that came on the market in the same road after.
Go for it OP !

I would expect the buyers to confirm asbestos before I considered reducing the price tbh.

I mentioned upthread that our buyers’ survey said the garage roof was “likely” asbestos, but actually it wasn’t.