Morning all, trying to buy a house at the mo. First time and all that. Anyways, we’ve just had our survey back and I don’t know what the deal is with negotiating on price post survey. The points thrown up included rebuilding a mini conservatory/lean to a bit of repointing to chimneys etc, lowering ground levels around the property and some testing of drains etc…

Is it bad form to get a quote for all the work needing doing and then try and lower the price by half of the cost or something? Worth pointing out we are paying £7k over the asking price…

Definitely try to negotiate but in this market they may feel they don’t need to so just have to see what you can do and make sure you’re happy paying what you need to in order to get it.

Get a few quotes for the work that needs doing and then subtract that from your offer, seems fair as you’ve offered more than they wanted.
Remember if the money is mortgaged over 25 years that £7000 will equate to about £14000.

Getting quotes is perfectly normal. A bit of informed knowledge will let you know whether they are genuine issues and the implications of having to own a house with them.

Depending on the vendor they may refuse to budge unless the survey says that the work needs doing to fetch the value being paid.

Thanks guys – useful. In your experience can the surveyors normally put an approximate cost on repairs needed?

You will have to bear in mind that the mortgage lenders probably won’t lend you the full amount if the valuation (due to repairs being necessary) is lower than you are borrowing.

Years ago when I had similar (roof needed back-pointing) I had a retention put in place and they released it once they saw the receipt for the work ‘done’. Thanks Uncle Richard 😉

All surveys will give you the fear.fact.
How much do you want the house?Presumably you offered high for a reason….
You can get quotes in but the seller may not agree to reduce the price.You may irritate them enough not to take your offer.If all that is wrong with it is a bit of chimney pointing,drain checking and a bit of concrete/flags higher than the airbrick(big angle grinder and a load of gravel 😀 ),
then I would breath a sigh of relief.
Good luck with it.

In your experience can the surveyors normally put an approximate cost on repairs needed?

The costing I received on my last survey was the cost to rebuild the whole house from scratch….

Did the valuation value the property at the price you agreed, with these points just for note?
If yes then you have little grounds to negioate a lower price. BUT if you want to make an issue out of them then you can of course, the seller can only tell you to do one. If you make clear that you’re not prepared to proceed unless these issues are resolved or the price lowered then the seller will have to consider if he gets another buyer another valuation will likely throw up the same points so he should accomodate you.

Some people will be reluctant to go to the time and effort of giving you a quote for work on a house that isn’t even yours yet. If this is the case try to get a ball-park estimate from them.

If I was the seller I’d tell you to jog on

Guess depends on how keen they are to sell, how long has it been on the market

my guess is if you offered over then there is competition for the house. if I was the seller I’d be telling you to jog on…

I bought last year post survey got quotes for the work. Sent copies to agent so they legally have to tell any other interested buyers. We got 15 grand more off agreed price. Due to damp survey

Any house thats a good few years old will have a list as long as your arm of imperfections, The trick is to work out whether they are significant/material or not.

Reading a surveyors report as a layman will have you thinking the house will imminently fall down, when in reality theyre normally always typical of a house of that age and most likely not significant.

Can you get someone knowledgable to read the report and interpret it?

You can try and reduce your offer, but dont be surprised if the seller doesnt agree.

Thanks all – really helpful. Interested in why folk get a survey if the general expectation is that you can’t negotiate on price. Is it just to check out that there is nothing REALLY wrong with it?

It’s been on the market for a while because they’ve had two sales fall through. But there was as lot of interest each time it went on – hence the reason we ended up offering over the asking price (only 2% over though…)

I guess my main concern is that we don’t want to spank a load of money (we’re pretty maxed out) on a house and then have to spend another £10-£20k doing it up.

Interested in why folk get a survey

So they can walk away with a loss of £1k rather than a shonky £xxx,xxx house!

People do negotiate on the back of surveys. It just depends what the market is like in the area you’re looking at buying as to how successful that is.

Get some quotes and enter into a dialog. They may be keen for a 3rd sale to not fall through.

When we sold our house there was quite a bit of work that needed doing. The buyers were maxed out on their credit so knocking a bit off the price wouldn’t have helped as the mortgage company would have held back the retention.

So we agreed a list of work that I should get done to satisfy the lender and I got it done.

Everybody’s happy then.

Oh, and

Interested in why folk get a survey if the general expectation is that you can’t negotiate on price. Is it just to check out that there is nothing REALLY wrong with it?

you can use it to negotiate on price, but in the main its there to stop you buying something that has some major issues ( tens of thousands of pounds worth) that you wouldnt have spotted as a layman.

when we bought our 80 year old house, the survey pointed out all sorts of things that you wouldnt expect (and would want fixing) in a brand new house, but for an 80 year old house, are pretty much the norm and to be expected, and therefore already accounted for in the asking price.

What happens if the mortgage company put a retention on though? Unless you have the funds available to fill the gap in mortgage do you have to get the work done before moving in?

Being new to this myself i’m still unsure, but it seems a very risky outlay since the property purchase could still fall through before exchanging/completion.
Friends needed £10k work doing on the house they’ve bought & paid for it to be done before moving in.

As others have said, a good survey report is there to point out stuff that COULD be an issue. Remember, the surveyor’s responsibility is to cover his ar5e, so it’s normally in his interest to detail everything he can.

Some people think it’s better to have a bunch of tradesmen go in and give their opinion., eg plumber, sparky, builder etc. I’d only consider this if I knew them well enough to trust their judgement and not just be trying to upsell me £1000s of work that doesn’t need doing.

At the end of the day, you can ask to negotiate (if you have justification), but the vendor may well tell you to do one (especially if they have another buyer lined up).

What happens if the mortgage company put a retention on though?

The buyer needs to stump up the outstanding amount with a view to getting the work done (post sale) and subsequently recovering the retention from the lender.

Only other option is for the vendor to take the hit.

Why are you paying 7k over the asking price?!

If you love the house and really want it, you’re kind of over a barrel. I would follow the advice above and get a couple of decent contractors to quote for the work. You’ll have a better idea ultimately how much over the asking price you’re going to pay if you go ahead without negotiating the price to compensate.

I guess my main concern is that we don’t want to spank a load of money (we’re pretty maxed out) on a house and then have to spend another £10-£20k doing it up.

It’s the wrong house for you then and/or paying more than you can afford.

Well depends really, I bought a house where a load of stuff came up on the survey. But it was habitable and the only way for me to buy into the area so I waited a few years to save up the cash and then had it as I wanted it.

1. I think you can get insurance to cover the costs if it falls though. Not done it myself, and don’t know any details, but might be worth looking into.

2. Many surveys done purely to satisfy the mortgage company, rather than the purchaser. If survey says house about to fall into a hole etc.

3. Why did the 1st two sales fail to go ahead? Did they try to negotiate on price? Is the vendor nasty and came back and asked for more money? Did they just change their mind? Difficult, but worth trying to find out.

4. FWIW, from what you say at the top about the survey report, none of that would put me off. Doesn’t sound like anything you would need to have done before living there.

The points thrown up included rebuilding a mini conservatory/lean to a bit of repointing to chimneys etc, lowering ground levels around the property and some testing of drains etc…

Lean-to: House was valued to sell with it being in that condition – if it had already been rebuilt the asking price probably would have been higher.
Pointing: wear and tear (surveyor justifying his fee)
Drains: As above and there may be nothing wrong at all.

In your favour is the fact that you’re not involved in a chain.
In the vendors favour is the fact that there’s loads of buyers out there – if I were them I’d suggest you stick your reduced offer and move on to the next buyer

Edit: Ground levels – if they’re above the DPC it’s not a good thing and should be lowered. Not something you can negotiate on though really unless surveyor has found damp – even then it’s up to you.

I realise you want to save money, but you need to remember that houses do wear and stuff needs fixing – the chances of moving into a house and it being 100% are fairly slim…. and that includes new houses!
You’re at the start of your property ‘journey’, if you like the house just get on with it.

Fine to have a go at lowering the price, but IMO your position isn’t that strong unless the work needed is fairly significant and urgent.

Basically the problems need to be bad enough make you walk away unless fixed at the point of sale, and the vendor needs to see that as a real possibility (and not have a long line of others wanting the property).

Repointing chimneys and testing drains don’t really come into that category, and unless there is rampant damp, and the lean-to is vital living space and about to collapse, neither do they.

Thanks guys. Really helpful.

Def don’t want to piss them off – they seem like nice folk and we like the house. Hence paying £7k over Hora…

Seems like pretty much everyone I have asked thinks we can move in without doing the work and that the surveyors are just trying to justify their fee re the pointing etc. We might make a bit of noise about the lean to but in a fairly delicate way…Maybe direct to them instead of through solicitors…

They’ve got some kayaks they were trying to sell us for £500 which we turned down. But maybe we just ask them to chuck them in for free and the job’s a good’un 😉

Im selling a 1988 roadbike for £195. I do things for charity, my riding friends like me and the bike is gorgeous. To secure the bike would you pay £2, 000?

🙂 please.

Then post-agreement ask for £700 off as the frame has a scratch?

Why would a first time buyer offer 7k over the asking price? In two years time when the market slumps again- have you heard of negative equity if you need to sell?

Out of interest how did you end up offering over the asking price, was there some sort of bidding war? If there was a genuine other party bidding against you, then your chances of money off are virtually zero. Vendor will tell you to move on as other buyers are interested.

Hora – I really don’t think you can compare buying a house you like, in an area you like to buying an old bike.

And anyway he’s paying 2% over the asking price (which is just a made up number anyway) which would equate to someone offering you £198.90 for your bike.

I guess my main concern is that we don’t want to spank a load of money (we’re pretty maxed out) on a house and then have to spend another £10-£20k doing it up.

Unless you’re buying a new build you will almost certainly be spending £10-20k doing it up – that’s what have to do to houses. Contrary to popular belief they are a depreciating asset which need on going maintenance to retain their value. As a new house owner you don’t yet know what you might have to do over the next few years – replace boiler, windows, kitchen, bathroom, carpets, etc…

Welcome to the pleasure of property ownership – Good luck!

Sharkbait you missed my point massively.

They’ve got some kayaks they were trying to sell us

I would get a damp survey too while you’re at it.

But seriously…Check out Property Bee, The Property Search Tool and Property Snake to investigate the real value of houses in that area and find somebody independent and honest who will tell you what the house will be worth after you’ve had the work done.

Beware of letting your heart rule your head. They might seem like nice folk…

“Beware of letting your heart rule your head” – My rule is never to fall in love with a house till you have the keys in your hands, even better not to fall in love till you’ve paid the mortgage off…

Btw the asking price is not the market value.

Dont take this info from the estate agents or the spiel.

We offered 10k under. One year before the people over the road paid 40k more…

Market value is what someone will pay. What the asking price is has nothing to do with it.

Who’s to say the house wasn’t under priced by 7K to start with?

What he’s paying (and they’ve accepted) then he’s paying market value.

The fact that the market may be artificially stoked / manipulated is a different matter.

Quite right Pieface and returning to the subject, there has been some sound advice on here, (although wondered if Hora has been on the Waccy baccy) which can be summed up as follows:

Its not an exact science!