Renegotiate sale agreed price after survey

lemon1984

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Does anyone have any advice on renegotiating the house price after having your survey completed?

Our surveyor just informed us that there are a few issues, nothing structural, but will have to be fixed to make it livible.

For example, the heating system doesn't even work and will need a new gas boiler. We would probably have to do that almost straight away after moving in - before winter comes along. There are also a few issues with the bathroom which was advertised as newly renovated.

Everyone keeps telling us that we need to try to get money off in light of the issues. I really dont think we will be able to as there were other bidders and we only bid 4k more than the underbidder before they dropped out.

If anything, I feel like we might be able to get maybe a max of 4k, if even. Anything more than that, why wouldn't they just go back to the underbidder? Even 4k I feel like we wouldn't get off because of how the market is. We are buying a second hand house so some issues should be expected I think. Though, the bathroom is not just renovated considering our surveyor told us the toilet doesnt even work.

Do you think we should even bother trying to get the 4k off or is it even worth our time? I don't want to lose the house over it because ultimately the issues can be fixed.
 
Supply and demand will determine if you get anywhere but certainly try to get something of a discount. No guarantees you'll get anywhere though.
 
Supply and demand will determine if you get anywhere but certainly try to get something of a discount. No guarantees you'll get anywhere though.

Thanks. Our area is pretty competitive. Bidding wars on every house we have looked at. Though it seems to have slowed a bit the last two months. I suppose we could give it a go but we didnt want to rock the boat and end up with no house.
 
Does anyone have any advice on renegotiating the house price after having your survey completed?

Our surveyor just informed us that there are a few issues, nothing structural, but will have to be fixed to make it livible.

For example, the heating system doesn't even work and will need a new gas boiler. We would probably have to do that almost straight away after moving in - before winter comes along. There are also a few issues with the bathroom which was advertised as newly renovated.

Everyone keeps telling us that we need to try to get money off in light of the issues. I really dont think we will be able to as there were other bidders and we only bid 4k more than the underbidder before they dropped out.

If anything, I feel like we might be able to get maybe a max of 4k, if even. Anything more than that, why wouldn't they just go back to the underbidder? Even 4k I feel like we wouldn't get off because of how the market is. We are buying a second hand house so some issues should be expected I think. Though, the bathroom is not just renovated considering our surveyor told us the toilet doesnt even work.

Do you think we should even bother trying to get the 4k off or is it even worth our time? I don't want to lose the house over it because ultimately the issues can be fixed.

Good luck with that in a red hot market
 
I was told I'll need a new boiler too by my surveyor along with a few other issues. For me the fact the house was structurally sound overall was the main thing. I didn't even approach the seller about the other issues. It's a jungle out there at the moment imho and if you think you'll be happy there would you want to lose it for the sake of the cost of a boiler and a new toilet? if the renovation issue is niggling you could you or your solicitor just query the renovation based on the feedback from the surveyor.
 
Houses needing new boilers isn't too out of the ordinary, the majority of probate sales I've viewed over the last while would have needed a new boiler. The older the house the more you usually have to factor in on repairs.

Some potential buyers will know enough about houses to already be aware of this, and have it factored into their bids. The under-bidder in your case may or may not be aware of the issue, so you can ask for a reduction, but go too far and the vendor may go to the next highest bid.
 
It's been a couple of decades since I last bought and sold property but I was always of the view that if buying new or refurbished property
that the property was in a new or as good as condition and that everything in the property would be fully working
But if buying second hand, you bought the property as seen/sold subject to a structural survey and it would not be uncommon for certain things inside the property to be broken or not working properly

I bumped into a neighbour of mine last year who had just sold his deceased mothers house and he informed me that the buyers of the property had sent him a request for 52 things they wanted repaired or changed or removed from the property before they would complete the sale
These included repairing a cracked window, fix the damp problem (which there wasn't) and repaint the area, remove a tree from the garden and relay the lawn. Needless to say he told them where to go, they hymned and hawed for a while but eventually bought the property

With regards to the OPs question you can ask, no harm in asking the worst that can happen is they say no!
 
Thanks guys. Exactly what we dont want to happen is the seller to pull out.
It isnt just a broken toilet and heating system. The "refurbished bathroom" also didnt have its bath replaced so we knew that would have to be replaced anyway. However it turns out it was for a reason. The floor under the bath is rotton and needs to be pulled up so thats probably why he didnt fix it to begin with.
Most houses we viewed have had old boilers that would need to be replaced within a year or two. This one actually just doesnt work before even buying.
 
The floor under the bath is rotton
An upstairs bathroom?

What was the surveyor's overall recommendation? The reports tend to be written to protect them, but there's usually a recommendation at the end.

I'd be getting a rough estimate of the costs of things that have to be done, but you didn't expect, and decide if you want to go through with it or not. If you negotiate, be prepared for the seller to pull out.

I wouldn't use the boiler to negotiate - the BER certificate you had access to before bidding would have mentioned that it should be replaced if it's more than 10 years old.
 
An upstairs bathroom?

What was the surveyor's overall recommendation? The reports tend to be written to protect them, but there's usually a recommendation at the end.

I'd be getting a rough estimate of the costs of things that have to be done, but you didn't expect, and decide if you want to go through with it or not. If you negotiate, be prepared for the seller to pull out.

I wouldn't use the boiler to negotiate - the BER certificate you had access to before bidding would have mentioned that it should be replaced if it's more than 10 years old.
Yes the upstairs. His reccomendation was not to use it till the bath and floor were replaced. We expected to replace the bath but not the floor. Id still be happy enough to go ahead and just get it fixed because all other houses we looked at had much worse. We are trying to get prices atm.

From the sounds of it we might not try to get money off. It was something everyone else was telling us we had to try do but we never thought would work because the underbidders were only 4k below.
 
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No. The worst that can happen is that they use this as an excuse for pulling out of the sale.

Brendan
Obviously a seller or a buyer can pull out of a sale at any time for any reason but for "asking" would be a pretty lame reason "demanding" on the other hand....
 
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