Survey thrown up structural issues – renegotiate

PropertyHunt

Recently went sale agreed on a property which looked very promising.

However, the structural survey has thrown up plenty of issues, which will almost certainly require a lot of work/cash.

We have since found a house that costs circa 80% of the cost of the ‘dream’ house, but without anything as much work to do. About a mile away, not as desirable a home as the ‘dream’ house, but likely easier to move in to.

Has anyone been in our shoes with major issues found?

What are out options?

Would a seller potentially reduce asking price given issues, or does purchaser have to typically pony up.

Prices are not rising locally, and we are not under pressure to leave current abode etc.

Any experiences of similar?

Dolbhad

If you don’t ask for a price change, you won’t get so if you have a price from engineer, it is worth going back to auctioneer. However the seller doesn’t have to reduce and I’ve heard that unless the issue is drains testing or something substantial, it’s hard to get reduce the price. It’s still a sellers market. If seller says no, you’d have to weigh up the costs of the work, how soon do they need to be done and if you have the funds to them vs what does the dream house have that the other house doesn’t.

The_Conductor

It depends entirely on the sellers motivation for selling, the property market in the given location- and a measure of desperation of the seller.
It also depends on what the survey has thrown up- e.g. surveyors will always find a list of things for you, its what you're paying them for- but how many of the items on the list are red-line items that can't be dealt with overtime, and how many are critical issues affecting the suitability of the residence for living in.

You could try to bargain with the seller on the basis of the survey- however, they are within their rights to tell you to take a hike, refuse to negotiate further with you, and sell it to someone even at a lower price, just because they're annoyed with you (it happens).

Unless there were absolutely critical things on the survey list- and if I really liked the house, I'd bring it to the attention of the seller and see if they are amenable to renegotiate the price- however, I'd play it softly softly.

One thing to consider is that while you or I may know that the property market has slowed to a crawl- that salient fact has not yet entered the minds of a great many of prospective sellers. Your seller may imagine that he/she will simply find someone else without issue, who is willing to overlook whatever it was your survey uncovered- and tell you to take a hike on this basis.

Buying and selling property does not encourage rational thinking on the parts of buyers and sellers- you need to get into the mindset of the seller, in this instance, and try to understand the position they are in and just how likely they are to negotiate with you.

One of my brothers recently sold an apartment in Dublin. It had nothing seriously wrong with it. The prospective buyer was humming and hawing over it- for almost 4 months. Eventually my brother told them to take a hike. He sold it to someone else entirely for 12k less, fairly quickly, without issue, and was happy to do so, as the buyer who kept coming up with stuff really did his head in.

Get into the mind of the buyer and figure is there any give- and if not, figure is it worth going ahead to you, based on the survey (and cognisant of the fact that you are paying the surveyor to find issues, he/she *is* going to find issues, there is not a house in the country that a surveyor will not find issues with..........)

Gumbo

PropertyHunt wrote: »

Recently went sale agreed on a property which looked very promising.

However, the structural survey has thrown up plenty of issues, which will almost certainly require a lot of work/cash.

We have since found a house that costs circa 80% of the cost of the ‘dream’ house, but without anything as much work to do. About a mile away, not as desirable a home as the ‘dream’ house, but likely easier to move in to.

Has anyone been in our shoes with major issues found?

What are out options?

Would a seller potentially reduce asking price given issues, or does purchaser have to typically pony up.

Prices are not rising locally, and we are not under pressure to leave current abode etc.

Any experiences of similar?

What are the structural issues?

SozBbz

No one really can answer this for you OP, because buying property is not one size fits all.

We were sale agreed and our surveyor and later a specialist in the particular area both came to certain conclusions about one area of the house needing major work. Estimates anywhere from €10-20k for the work to be done, depending on desired finish.

We did manage to renegotiate a small reduction (split the difference with the vendor basically), but in my view the price we'd gone sale agreed on was slightly generous (other bidder) as well as the fact that the market for properties in that price bracket has probably stalled.

We had to haggle hard, but we made the following points;

- if he went back to the market, any new buyers surveyor would likely highlight the same issue
- we're chain free and ready to go once we got over this hump
- the time it would take to go back to the market
- we had expert reports (both surveyor and a more specific subject matter expert) to state that the work would need to commence straight away. This wasn't just a spurious tactic to renegotiate the price.

As others have said, if you don't ask, then you certainly won't get. How successful you'll be will be down to the vendors attitude, circumstances and pragmatism.

My attitude to buying is not to settle. Regarding the plan B house, would you be satisfied with it in a year? 5 years? 10 years? Are you likely to out grow it sooner than the house you're sale agreed on? If you go for house B, will you always think of the sale agreed house as the one that got away?

As regards choosing between the properties, I'd say be pragmatic if you really feel House A is too expensive now that you know the extent of the issues, however don't just settle for House B by default if you'd never be truly happy with it. Don't just go for something short term.

ted1

PropertyHunt wrote: »

Recently went sale agreed on a property which looked very promising.

However, the structural survey has thrown up plenty of issues, which will almost certainly require a lot of work/cash.

We have since found a house that costs circa 80% of the cost of the ‘dream’ house, but without anything as much work to do. About a mile away, not as desirable a home as the ‘dream’ house, but likely easier to move in to.

Has anyone been in our shoes with major issues found?

What are out options?

Would a seller potentially reduce asking price given issues, or does purchaser have to typically pony up.

Prices are not rising locally, and we are not under pressure to leave current abode etc.

Any experiences of similar?

Location, location, location.
Surveys often find things that don’t need doing.
What did it show up. If you had the cash in your hand would you do the job or say, actually it’s grand I can live with it that way.

PropertyHunt

Hi all,
Thanks for the input.
Both structural issues are not issues that would mean you couldn’t move into the house until they were sorted. Fairly major, I have no idea how much to fix.
I have no construction experience/knowledge, and I could see tradespeople running rings around me!
I’ll likely be telling vendor we need issues rectified, and if they have issues with that, grand, we’ll just stay where we are, as prices are not rising, and look for similar house in same estate.
We are actually viewing the plan b house later in the week.
The galling thing about the structural issue property, is we genuinely didn’t think there’d be issues, it was only built in late 80’s, not 1960’s.
SozBbz The practical steps you outlined are something I’ll reflect on. Especially the line about settling. We might just wait for a property to come up in the same estate as dream house.
Dolbhad Will definitely ask for price reduction if we proceed. Not too sure if it’s a sellers market. Any of properties we view, there’s one or two others max.
The_Conductor The irrational nature of us all, buyers and sellers is something I’m aware of. Guilty as the next person.
It’s all very head wrecking, when you find there are issues with a dream house, that didn’t appear to have problems.
Anyhow, first world probs.
Surprised estate agent didn’t flag issues in advance, if we walk, they’ll wasted a lot of the vendors time too, and Brexit isn’t a million miles away…

godtabh

PropertyHunt wrote: »

Hi all,
Thanks for the input.
Both structural issues are not issues that would mean you couldn’t move into the house until they were sorted. Fairly major, I have no idea how much to fix.
I have no construction experience/knowledge, and I could see tradespeople running rings around me!
I’ll likely be telling vendor we need issues rectified, and if they have issues with that, grand, we’ll just stay where we are, as prices are not rising, and look for similar house in same estate.
We are actually viewing the plan b house later in the week.
The galling thing about the structural issue property, is we genuinely didn’t think there’d be issues, it was only built in late 80’s, not 1960’s.
SozBbz The practical steps you outlined are something I’ll reflect on. Especially the line about settling. We might just wait for a property to come up in the same estate as dream house.
Dolbhad Will definitely ask for price reduction if we proceed. Not too sure if it’s a sellers market. Any of properties we view, there’s one or two others max.
The_Conductor The irrational nature of us all, buyers and sellers is something I’m aware of. Guilty as the next person.
It’s all very head wrecking, when you find there are issues with a dream house, that didn’t appear to have problems.
Anyhow, first world probs.
Surprised estate agent didn’t flag issues in advance, if we walk, they’ll wasted a lot of the vendors time too, and Brexit isn’t a million miles away…

Based on what you said above I would say the vendor will say thanks but no thanks and move on. As has been suggested as for a price reduction (better chance compared to asking for the work to be done) or move on.

We found asbestos in ours. Asked for it to be removed. Told to PFO. Ended up negotiating a reduce purchase price having priced the cost of works which we did once we had the keys.

ted1

godtabh wrote: »

Based on what you said above I would say the vendor will say thanks but no thanks and move on. As has been suggested as for a price reduction (better chance compared to asking for the work to be done) or move on.

We found asbestos in ours. Asked for it to be removed. Told to PFO. Ended up negotiating a reduce purchase price having priced the cost of works which we did once we had the keys.

Asbestos to perfectly fine as long you dont drill or cut it. It’s also found in many buildings of a certain age. I would have giving you a PFO, sellers were mad to give a discount.

SozBbz

ted1 wrote: »

Asbestos to perfectly fine as long you dont drill or cut it. It’s also found in many buildings of a certain age. I would have giving you a PFO, sellers were mad to give a discount.

Its not about that though. If i was a vendor i'd simply weigh up the cost/benefit of all options. If Ithought it was going to cost me more to go back to the market, or if I was in a chain and needed to get the sale through and the discount wasnt major, I can see why they might have given in.

Also, am currently buying a house with a roof full of asbestos - its not as big a deal as people think, you just have to use legitimate trades people who will dispose of it responsibly if you plan to remove it.

Gumbo

PropertyHunt wrote: »

Hi all,
Thanks for the input.
Both structural issues are not issues that would mean you couldn’t move into the house until they were sorted. Fairly major, I have no idea how much to fix.
I have no construction experience/knowledge, and I could see tradespeople running rings around me!
I’ll likely be telling vendor we need issues rectified, and if they have issues with that, grand, we’ll just stay where we are, as prices are not rising, and look for similar house in same estate.
We are actually viewing the plan b house later in the week.
The galling thing about the structural issue property, is we genuinely didn’t think there’d be issues, it was only built in late 80’s, not 1960’s.
SozBbz The practical steps you outlined are something I’ll reflect on. Especially the line about settling. We might just wait for a property to come up in the same estate as dream house.
Dolbhad Will definitely ask for price reduction if we proceed. Not too sure if it’s a sellers market. Any of properties we view, there’s one or two others max.
The_Conductor The irrational nature of us all, buyers and sellers is something I’m aware of. Guilty as the next person.
It’s all very head wrecking, when you find there are issues with a dream house, that didn’t appear to have problems.
Anyhow, first world probs.
Surprised estate agent didn’t flag issues in advance, if we walk, they’ll wasted a lot of the vendors time too, and Brexit isn’t a million miles away…

I’ll ask once more before giving advice. What are the structural issues you mention but won’t explain?