structural survey essential repairs?

M

messyleo

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got my survey back today and it listed some essential repairs that came to about €4000 which included stuff like overhauling gutterling and clearing vegetation on the chimney, but the house is in good structural order. there were also some recommended but optional fixes as well. i have a meeting with my solicitor on wednesday to sign the contract as i thought the survey looked ok and expected there to be a few problems with every house, however somebody suggested i try to ask the vendor to pay for half the cost by reducing the price by 2k or so (the cost of the house is approx €600k). should i ring the estate agent about this or mention it to my solicitor when i go to sign teh contract (or will it be too late at this stage?) i really still want to buy the house so i'm worried by doing asking for a price reduction the vendor may cancel the sale, and dont want to lose the house over €2k.

any advice appreciated
thanks a lot
 
GG i have just purchased and the SSurvey was scarey and i nearly pulled out.after consulting with my builder we addressed the problems with ease.sometimes the surveyor reports are very off putting and canbe OTT but they must cover themselves.

guttering canbe fixed with ease and with the right person with alot less money than you think.and the same canbe said for the chimney etc.this is rip off republic and don't forget that but there are very cheap,good craftsmen out there if you look hard enough.
 
Structural surveyors are engaged to provide a service. If there are essential repairs to be carried out then they must point this out. It's not a case of them simply covering themselves. This is precisely what the potential buyer engages them to do. Neither do they do this to put people off buying. We've heard of lots of cases of people moaning that their surveyors did not point out some (often trivial/cosmetic) issue. Now it seems that we have some people complaining that they do point out significant issues that may need attention. Damned if they do, damned if they don't in some cases.

I am not a surveyor by the way.
 
I would suggest that you give a written undertaking to your solicitor that will state that you intend to carry out all necessary repairs to the property as per survey. Your bank or building society are not going to be too worried about grass in the gutters etc. They are more concerned where there is a structural problem, subsidence etc.
I would not look for a reduction in the purchase price. Was the survey, carried out by your own surveyor or was it the financial institutions surveyor? Sometimes the financial institutions surveyor needs to list items on the valuation report to justify his existence.
 

so what happens if they miss something and it turns out to be big money to amend???? whos liable after you forking out for the survey..........it would be the surveyor as its their job to survey the premises so in fact they must coverr everything to coverr themselves!
 
In answer to your original question, 2K is less than 0.5% of the purchase price. It sounds like the survey did not come up with anything major as this would cost a lot more to fix.

If you bid against someone else to get the house, the seller could very
easily go back and ask them if they are willling to pay 600K.
 
thanks guys that's what i thought, as it happens it was my own survey rather than for the bank
 
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