Well, our survey came back 2 grand under the asking price, and had a load of 'serious' items flagged up, including damp issues on one wall, and cavity wall ties needing investigation.
In the spirit of putting my money where my mouth is, my email to the estate agent looked like this :
As you can imagine, we don't quite fancy purchasing a financial time bomb, so we'd like to leave the recommendations of the home buyers report by our surveyor, back with your vendor. If the vendor can have the items referred to in section E4 examined and signed off as not requiring further investigation, we will be happy to proceed based on a revised offer of £xxx,000. In this instance we would be willing to ignore, as a gesture of goodwill, the other remaining severity items that have been highlighted in the report, relating to some cracked render around the chimney absence of various gas and electricity safety certification.
In the event that further, more extensive works are required, we will need to have this work quoted for (we would require multiple quotes for comparison) and would be willing to work with the vendor in this instance to have the value of that work deducted from the revised value advised by our surveyor, to form a new offer price. As we know the vendor is keen to move and complete on their own house purchase, we would be willing to bear the inconvenience of having works completed, provided the cost of these works was reflected in a final agreed price.
Let's see if that works
This is a tricky situation for all concerned...
Surveyors will never find a faultless house. It just never happens. Nor will it ever. They also virtually never value the property at the offer price unless there is something seriously wrong (i.e. quick sale due to bereavement etc).
Case in point, our house. We had our electrics rewired 9yrs ago, and a snazzy new RCD box put in. We plastered every room in the house and new carpets etc.
We came to sell our house, and our first survey said we had no electrical safety certificate (this is just a money making venture for electricians, much like Photocard ID 10yr expiry is for the DVLA).
We arranged for an electrician to come round to do our certification, and he said 'Oh sorry mate, that is the old version of the RCD box, can't cert that. I'll need to replace it.'
We get a second opinion, and it is the same thing. Electrician comes to replace RCD box with the 'new' version (looks just like the 9yr old one), and he says, 'Oh bad cabling back here going into the box, i'll need to rewire the house'.
And so you can see where this is going... the fact is, i've PAT tested on the most sensitive setting all the power outlets, and all pass perfectly. This is just to do with a certificate and work generation.
At the end of the day, the certification is purely optional to consider for the Buyer, as is the 'Home efficiency' rating when you come to put your house on the market. It is simply more expenditure within a captive audience.
From your POV nucastle, you may be concerned by the elements raised by the survey, however please bear in mind that these things NEVER come back perfect. Even in new builds they find faults and criticisms.
