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1st time house buyer, potentially serious structural issues found... anyone have advice re negotiating price reduction / if I should pull out? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hey all.

Finally in my 40s I'm fortunate enough (with a lot of family help & a mortgage) to be buying a home. It's end-of-terrace; just spoke to the surveyor today after he's done most of the inspection and he's found a lot of structural problems.

Feeling a bit defeated, it's taken so long to get to this stage of having an offer accepted, and being close to exchanging contracts. It's an old house so while I wasn't expecting it to be fault-free, I'm quite disappointed and I guess looking for some advice / reassurance.

Not got the report in text yet but he mentioned potential subsidence; rising damp; cracked walls; problem with the chimney stack; window frames; and others. Said it's all stuff that can be fixed, but potentially expensive. My plan is to wait for the text report next week, then contact the estate agent and attempt to negotiate a price reduction in line with the cost of the repairs, which imo will run into at least £15k. Considering it's on the market for £85k, and the owner wouldn't even put the electric on for viewing because she didn't want to pay £1 a day standing charge, I'm anticipating some pushback.

But, should I even bother? Is this 'sunk cost fallacy' at play? I certainly feel like if they're not prepared to negotiate re repairs then I have to walk away as I could buy a well-maintained property round here for the total cost of around £100k!

Any advice much appreciated.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We need more information. Structural issues can be small or very big. Remember, the person doing an inspection has to over report everything possible because if they don't , and something major happens after the sale, they can be sued. For me, I would take a look at how serious the issues are and decide if working on them is worth the time/effort/investment. I wouldn't buy a car that had the front end crushed in an accident because, even after the repair, the final product is not something I would want to drive or have to deal with.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I guess I can do an update once I have the report in writing. Someone has made the point that the surveyor will 'over-survey' to cover their arse, but for sure I'm very much leaning into the possibility that this purchase isn't viable. Thanks.