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Is the price you've previously agreed to pay £18k less than the original asking price?
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What percentage of the total agreed purchase price is the additional works that you think need doing?
If it's like 2-5% then yeah the seller can tell you do to one without feeling like a total idiot.
If it's like 10-15% then yeah you'd have a case to keep arguing.
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You could say that your original offer was based on the market and similar properties (with examples) and you were unaware of these issues. They might say they’ve lived with it as it is and kept up maintenance/etc, what do you expect, it’s an old house.
It will help your case if any of it came back as dangerous or urgent - you could also split the list of works and drop parts with a lower priority to display pragmatism. After that you’re down to emotional pleading/threats to drop out. -
The estate agents got some damp specialists in
Hmm...
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I bought a house at the top of the market which needed money spending on it back in 2006. Needless to say I regretted that decision for the following 10 years. You're in a far stronger position than the seller right now. If you really want it that bad i'd tell them its 18k off the original offer price or no deal.
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Diamond_Supercool
Howard
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@tbc
Our survey came back a couple of weeks ago with a few things that need attention in the house we want to buy - as I posted about. Rewiring, new consumer unit, some small roofing repairs, some damp.
The estate agents got some damp specialists in, we got an electrician, and their quotes for "necessary works" totalled £18,000.
We asked for a reduction of the purchase price to take that into account - we genuinely can't afford to pay for that additional work, because we'd already had to set aside money for the work we could see needed doing - redecorating, new boiler, etc.
They have come back and said no: "Although they appreciate the fact that the wiring is old and requires updating, they feel that having already dropped a fair sum from the initial guide price."
What should we do now? Try to get at least some money off and put off the electrical stuff, and do that as and when? Hold firm and try to force it? It's not really a seller's market.
It's quite annoying because it's a nice place but we don't want to end up regretting buying it.