Buyer renegotiating after survey

[Decaf83]

Our buyer wants to renegotiate the purchase price after the results of the survey.
It came back with the roof has reached the end of its life and needs relining.

We’re not sure what to do, it doesn’t leak, a bit of felt is hanging down, and whilst we have no problems/leaks with it, the surveyor has said it needs re roofing.

What should we do? If we say no and the buyer pulls out, we’ll no doubt get the same on another survey.

Then negotiation seems to be the way forward if you want to keep the sale.

You’re correct in saying that the issue will still be there if you refuse to negotiate and have to relist.

As annoying as it is, because the roof could have years still in it, negotiate because that is the way to keep your buyer.

The next buyer’s survey may say the same, so probably better to negotiate now

Negotiate, but clearly state it’s not leaking etc so you don’t want to replace the roof lining- we had a buyer do this when the survey came back on our old house. It had aging bits, some we repaired and other bits we said no as it was basically future proofing an old house- main one was a rendering- old style rendering so more likely to crack. They wanted us to knock the cost of re-rendering off even though there was no clear damage or damp etc.

we pulled out of our sale because of this (vendor refusing to negociate)

did your survey have a valuation?

was the advert mentioning the roof needing renovation (were you aware of need to work when you offered?)

I think this is what we’re going to have to do. I really don’t want to lose the purchase of our new house.

We are in this position... our buyer wants a 12.500 reduction.

I think every survey we ever had done on the purchase (and sale) of properties in the UK highlighted that the roof had reached or was nearing the end of its life, and not one of them needed any work at all during our ownership. Indeed, I know that 2 of them (one slate, one clay tiles) are still perfectly watertight 20 plus years after the survey, because I still own them. IME surveys are rarely that useful on older properties as everything is caveated with the recommendation that further investigations are carried out.

In a sellers market you can do what I always did on the sale of previous ones, which is to just say the price reflected the house in the condition they saw it and not budge. But I suspect with the state of the economy and housing market, and likely downward trajectory for both in the short term, the pragmatic approach is to negotiate a few £000 off the price to keep the sale on track. Good luck

Option 1 - you have the work done. Then the cost of it is within your control.
Option 2 - three quotes, take the average cost and reduce by that much. Add to the agreement that the work must be done within 12-18 months or they refund you the costs.
Option 3 - Option 2 but 50% of the cost taken off the sale with no obligation to do the work built in.

£12k! Is that the total cost of the new roof or have you split it 50-50?

You could always book a decent roofer in to come and confirm it needs doing and provide a quote. If it’s just the felt (ie the tiles and battens are OK) then it shouldn’t be stupid money, unless you’re in a large house.

I just had an entire roof done (tiles, battens, felt etc) and it was just under 7.5K for a very standard three bed semi (W. Mids).

At least with a quote in hand you’re better prepped to argue the discount your buyer is now pushing for.