I'm currently selling my house and the buyers' building survey has come back saying we need a new roof. Everyone's advise was to get our own survey done, so we contacted a builder (trusted chap, done lots of work for us over the years) for his opinion. He said we absolutely don't need a new roof and is willling to put something in writing for the buyer, but they won't accept this. They are now demanding that we drop the price for work we simply don't agree needs doing. What should we do now?

Seek a new buyer. These people (judging by your other posts) are going to be 'difficult' all the way.

I'll lay money on you having jumped through all their hoops only for them to demand you take a drop with only days to go before completion :(

ask to see the report or even ring the surveryor as they are usually pretty happy to explain their points.

If you look at it from their point of view they have probably read that (as in all surveys) wear and tear etc. and the potential need to replace some or improve in future - a roof is a big thing for some people so just check exactly what the concern is. As many exaggerate a little (ok alot!!) with such issues.

Stay firm though and get all the facts from the surveyor and then speak to them.

Helpful though your builder may be, he is not a surveyor.

The surveyor will carry professional indemnity insurance and have training and is unlikely to make such a glaring mistake.

You can get your own proper survey done but personally - I would steer clear of the builders 'advice'!

We sold to a 'difficult' buyer last year.

It was ultimately worth the stress but he demanded one thing after another.

Basically he used the survey to take me to the cleaners financially eg 10k off for a few minor electrical points.
This was all done after we had negotiated on price too.

I would ask exactly how much they want off.
If its minor then let them have it as long as exchange of contracts follows next day.

If they **** £££££££££££££ or still wont exchange then ask yourself how much you want to sell to them.
If they're not actually proceedable then Id stuff 'em.

Naturally youve done well to find a buyer in todays market but dont let them totally take the mickey.

If it were me and Id accepted an offer close to asking I would prob consider a few thousand as a sweetener as long as thats it and they do business stat.

Naturally we are all assuming the survey is legit :) and youre not being scammed.

cheers

d

Ask how much reduction they are looking for, then check how much the repairs would cost you. Try and negotiate from that. Also, ask to see the survey - does it say it definitely needs a new roof, or just that its something to note? Theres a big difference!

The survey on my house said I definitely needed a new roof. In fact it could have been repaired quite satisfactorily for a couple of hundred quid! In the end, we agreed a reduction based on repair costs. No doubt they will also comment on your electrical wiring - I have been told by a surveyor that there's not many houses with wiring over 15 years old that wouldn't come up in a report, something to do with change in regulations.

The surveyor, as a professional, will not risk his job by putting down you need a new roof for a joke.

How exactly is it worded? Something along the lines of envisage the need to replace roof covering in the next 12 months? Or something like that?

Now, you can argue that if you have the roof replaced, (asuming its a very old roof with no underfelt [sarking felt]) that there is an element of renewal, and the buyer is getting something better in return, so you could negotiate a 70/30 or similar contribution to the cost.

Was the roof covering found to need replacement, or the actual roof structure, or maybe both?

A quick call to the surveyor will tell you what you need to know, but then bear in mind the buyer is the surveyors client, not you.
He will cover everything possible as naturally thats his job, plus he doesnt want his professional reputation ruined.

If you can get your own surveyor to rival what the buyers surveyor says about the roof, thats the way forward. Nobody in their right mind will believe your builder.

Might the fact that the survey said you needed a new roof be down to with this (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36044)? If the loft conversion hasn't been done right, there might be a good chance that the roof might very weel need replacing to make it of sound structure.

Surely any loft conversion would have had plans, permission and consent before go ahead. The fact these are not present and now a survey insists a new roof is required tells me something might be wrong.

Don't take my word for it, but to be on the safe side... get it looked at professionaly.

Well spotted DaB.

If the loft has been converted into a living space (ie. not just for storage) then it may be the case that it has a structural fault, especially if there is no paperwork with it. when you bought the house did you have a survey done, as this would have highlighted the loft conversion, and your solicitors should have checked for necessary consents, or the structural calcs etc. Sometimes the file can contain the details of the builder / planner aswell.

Thanks everyone!

The point about getting a report from our own builder was down to the fact that the buyer refused to show us the survey! Neither would they show us a copy of the builders quote, though they claimed over £10000 of repairs needed to be done and were demanding 1/2 of this of the asking price. We would have been amienable to reasonable compromise - but does this sound dodgy or what!!

We have shown them the door. good ridance!

Originally posted by katiebell
Thanks everyone!

The point about getting a report from our own builder was down to the fact that the buyer refused to show us the survey! Neither would they show us a copy of the builders quote, though they claimed over £10000 of repairs needed to be done and were demanding 1/2 of this of the asking price. We would have been amienable to reasonable compromise - but does this sound dodgy or what!!

We have shown them the door. good ridance!

They are not at liberty to show you the surveyors report, but I would have thought that they would show the builders quote which seems fair to me. Unless you are replacing the roof on a 8 bed mansion, I think £10k is hefty!

Personally I would have done the same, shown them the door.

Originally posted by 1Man&hisBMW
They are not at liberty to show you the surveyors report, but .....

Did you mean this or did you mean "they are not obliged to show you the report".

I can't see any reason why a buyer can't show the vendor or indeed anyone else they feel like, the report, after all they paid for it.

If someone is suggesting a report says you need a new roof and they have a quote for it to be fixed, then ask to see both bits of information. If they won't show it then they are probably at best exaggerating.

I have been in a position where I got to the very last stages of a house purchase and found that it needed an estimated £23,000 of work including things such as removing unsafe outbuildings and rebuilding a wall the surveyor said was unsafe. This didn't bother me too much until we then had problems with a) getting the money released b) the insurer insisting it was done within the first 28 days. I was happy to share this information with the vendor who argued about all of it but this didn't help me and it wasn't really about money, it was about being able to do the deal at all. In the end we pulled out because we didn't want the trouble rather than because of the price.

Originally posted by KenH
Did you mean this or did you mean "they are not obliged to show you the report".

Well the surveyor is not at liberty to show you the report, if you are not the 'client', and they nearly always recommend that the report is not shown to the vendor (or their agents), as they are not the client. They are usually happy though to allow the extracts from the report to be shown to the vendors, where problems have been highlighted. I would say that solicitors also take a similar view on the report, which is why every potential buyer has to have their own survey done.