Price reduction on agreed sale

[ThatWorthyTurtle]

My buyer has asked for significant price reduction on the back of a survey.

3 of the things to fix cost around £900 which I will pay.

The other 2 things are potential of asbestos and a minor issue.

Advice please. I dont want to lose the sale but I can't afford 25k price reduction.

Thanks in advance.

Tell them you're putting house back on the market tomorrow. Call their bluff. Ask for a copy of the survey so you can get your own surveyor to look at it.

Gazundering is rife.

Can ypu get an asbestos survey or something that gives you some insight as to the work/costs? Then you negotiate with your buyers

i probably would walk away as a buyer to be honest. Novody wants the hassle of asbestos

But it’s a buyers market. You can make threats but they will probably choose to walk away

presamably; the op doesn’t want to lose their onward purchase

Thanks for your advice. I don't think I want to call their bluff to jeopardise my onwards purchase. 😕
I have seen parts of the survey and it looks like the buyer just put the survey into co pilot (or the like) and it said £25k!

Yes I agree, if you have a buyer in process at the moment you are quite fortunate. What value of home are we talking about ? A 25k reduction would be significant on a home agreed at 200k - but really not on a 500k property (its then only a 5% revision, which the property is likley to loose in the short term anyway the way things are going).

Thanks for responding. The survey just said potentially asbestos because of the age of the house. He mentioned many places it could potentially be, but that would require major renovations. All the houses that have sold in the last few years on my street have mentioned this in surveys and some people are not worried. Its only a problem if disturbed.

yeah we got 'potential asbestos' on our survey too. 100% the stuff on the garage is asbestos, and probably the artex ceiling, but they're not big deals. We'll get the garage piece removed and plaster over the ceilings. I think these are very common issues in houses redecorated/renovated in the 70s or so.

What does the estate agent advise . 25k is a huge reduction on an agreed price . Did you know about asbestos or is this just a maybe . I wouldn't be willing but they may lose you your onward purchase.
It's manoveours like this that make selling houses on UK so shit .

Its 25k. They've had 25k off the asking price. Problem is I won't be able to buy the onward house if I reduce mine by 25k. The survey should before as suggested.
Thank you

Thats my opinion too. But FTBs are always more cautious I guess.

The estate agent thinks it's madness and a bit cheeky. They recommended getting independent quotes, which I've done.
The report says the asbestos is 'potential".

How much is £25k in % is what I think a pp was asking. If the market drops more you might end up having to accept a similar price drop in a few months once the winter starts to set in.

What was the quote on dealing with the potential asbestos ? Thats a tough one to estimate. 25k could be feasible?

What percentage of the agreed price is the 25k @ThatWorthyTurtle ?

When we were selling in 2024 we accepted an offer 25k below asking price. Our buyers (not FTB) had a full structural on our 400 year old house and said they'd not try to negotiate anything further off, regardless of what the survey said.

Then - 11th hour - they had a septic tank survey done which came back saying it would cost 20k to replace in a different location (as ours was non-compliant/old). We offered to split the difference so took a further 10k off. This was on a 400k+ house.

It sucked a bit, but we were extremely keen to move and knew with a niche property - albeit beautifully renovated - it might take a long time to find another buyer. To mitigate the 'loss' we told the vendors of our onward purchase (a probate house) we wanted 10k off or we'd walk and they agreed.

I think this is a classic case of FTB being spooked by a survey.

If a 25k reduction would lose your onward purchase then say so. That's not calling their bluff, it's saying the chain will collapse if you accept it which is the truth.

Your agent should be doing the hard work here in trying to reassure them that this is a common thing in hundreds of houses around the country and is not as scary as it sounds.

You can also get DIY test kits online and send of samples yourself, much cheaper than a survey and very quick.

You can get an asbestos survey done on the artex. Costs around £100 is very quick and if negative will at least refute that aspect of the survey.

I agree with getting your own survey of the potential asbestos done and how much it would cost to remove if it’s there.

It really is a buyers market now and your buyer doesn’t care that you won’t be able to buy your onward purchase if you drop the price more than you already have, but if they realise that the chain would collapse and they would lose the house, they may want to negotiate. Your agent needs to be putting in the work to reassure them.

The surveyor will often recommend the amount to ask for reduction. Depending on the type of survey it may also tell you the recommended value of the house. In this climate it is often less than the estate agent and the asking price. Going back to the buyer and saying 'i don't believe your independent professional surveyor and I want my own' will destroy the relationship.
For example our survey report and mortgage said the house has been overvalued by 100k. It said the windows need urgently repairing. The sellers said they didn't 'believe' the surveyor even when given the excerpts from the survey. honestly if it wasn't for my husband insisting we pay just to get it done I would have walked away. They wouldn't get the same price again and they have been absolute dicks. Consider whether you would be willing to meet them halfway. Also ask if they want to get quotes and then you have an exact figure to go on and spilt.

Has the mortgage survey come back with the lending amount that they need? If so tell them that all the houses of similar age are likely to have 'potential', send them website links that say it's not dangerous unless, yada yada. Give them the £900 and say that's it.
That's what I'd do. If they pull out then that's down to them. Good luck.

That’s a crazy reduction for potential asbestos! We have exactly the same in our new home (pending) and the survey just said ‘seek futher advice’ but not an issue unless disturbed. It would be a hard no for me in your position. A well written email to agent and solicitors, all houses over certain age have ‘potential’ asbestos, not an issue unless disturbed etc etc. That’s a gross overreaction from them and a very pushy move

The house survey on the 1970s house I sold flagged 'potential asbestos'. My buyers had an asbestos survey done. (Believe they sent £800 on it.) To this day I have no idea what the survey came up with as they still brought the house. I wouldn't be taking £25k on the basis of 'potential asbestos'. I was quite sceptical of the survey as the guy wore no face mask whilst taking samples (they used a national company).

If 25k means you can't afford the next house then you have to say you need to put yours back on the market - you're not trying to play them or call a bluff, it simply doesn't work for the chain.

If the asbestos is just a water tank in the loft then it just gets wrapped and left alone, there are thousands of those. If it's more serious then you should get your own quote so you can negotiate with all the facts, and if it falls through you have the quote ready for the next buyer.

They should not be asking for £25k to be knocked off without having the works priced up. Asbestos testing isn’t expensive, I would offer to have those parts mentioned in the survey tested.

There is no point reducing if you lose your onward purchase. To be honest, I’d be concerned that these buyers aren’t reliable and may well find another issue down the line or try to reduce again at exchange.

How long did it take you to get the buyer when you put your house on initially?

I bought and sold last year and we had a terrible time . Some people advising seem to have no clue about the state of the market

a buyer cant pluck a figure out of nowhere and ask for a reduction but if they’re bottom or chain, they do hold a lot of power

you can try and establish the costs of work that needs doing and try to negotiate with them. Perhaps offer to knock 50% of the costs off. So if the asbestos stuff costs £10k then you reduce the cost by £5k?

you can also try to renegotiate with your buyer so they drop to keep the chain intact

house prices have fallen and are falling further

its a crap time to sell but great for first time buyers

my advice is to arm yourself with facts

get quotes. Get independent survey

if you lose this buyer, you could end up with the same problem a few months down the line but can at least provide potential buyers with all the information