Did you successfully re-negotiate your offer after getting the survey done and how did you go about it??

[FanjolinaJolie]

Just had survey back today and there are multiple 'red' areas which have been catagorised as the most serious/needing urgent repair or attention.

Namely the roof structure and slates, chimney stack, wiring and boiler - all big ticket items and we are really worried about the cost.

What would you do next? DO we go back to the agent and show them the report and ask for quotes for repair, or is the onus on us to get all the quotes done. The house is currnently tenanted so there's the additional pain of having to arrange access for all the workmen etc.

It's such a pain, but if it wasn't us it would be the next vendor bringing up the same issues when they get their survey done.

We got quotes of what it would cost to do the work and then took those and the survey to the estate agent with a reduced offer. We made it clear that unless the price reflected the work that needed to be done, we were going to walk away. Good luck.

We are in exactly the same position. And our revised offer to reflect £3k worth of work that needs doing has been rejected outright with no half-way house or anything! We now have to consider whether to take it on the chin, or whether to walk away and rent

The house will have been valued based on it's current condition, so it depends how much the vendors want to sell, and how much you want that house as to where you end up agreeing.

If you want to get quotes then you're going to have to take responsibility for gathering them I would think.

Is the wiring and central heating actually dangerous? Or is it a case of "these could do with being updated in the next few years"? If it's the latter then I wouldn't expect the vendor to budge to be honest.

The wiring was detailed as old and faulty, which I was surprised at as it's a student property I thought they had to be inspected for the safety of the electrics.

The boiler was decribed as old and needing replacing, but this wouldn't be urgent/dangerous in itself.

Blameitonthebogey - what happened in your case?

We were in a fabulous position; no chain, mortgage in place, vendors needed to sell as they were leaving the country. We played hardball and threatened to walk away if they didn't accept a reduced offer (we weren't bluffing). They dithered for a few days, said no, realised we weren't bluffing and then said yes.

We managed without getting a quote, but I do think we were v lucky. The survey said that the roof needed attention, and I estimated it would be £10k (I can;t remember how I came to this figure). The vendor was in Brazil and agreed to knock £10k off the agreed price. We did really want the flat and so were worried about 'haggling' over a price we were v happy with, but a friend very rightly pointed out that if you don't ask ....

Years before this, when property market was booming, we sold a house. The buyers claimed that the survey came back pointing out lots of things wrong and they kept coming back to the house with various builders to do quotes. We were in China at the time so the estate agents handled it beautifully: they asked to look at the survey and saw that lots of the things were cosmetic. We took the estate agent's advice to put the house back on the market and the buyers literally begged us to take it off the market immediately. But, again we were very lucky as buyers were being gazumped all the time in those days.

I'd say that you're best to tell vendors exactly what survey says and then perhaps offer to go halves on perhaps repair of roof and to make safe the electrics? I'd say that the old, but perfectly fine boiler isn't an issue for renegotiating the price.

Good luck