Holding together your sale after a negative survey report on your property.
Your buyers have had their survey on your property, and the report has raised questions - what should you do next?
If you are selling your home, a survey report is inevitable. Most buyers will be using mortgage funds to purchase a property, so the lender will want to conduct a property valuation. Even if no mortgage finance is needed, most buyers will want to ensure that the property they have selected has no defects before they buy. But what if the report comes back with issues? How can you, as the seller, handle this so you can still sell your property?
The simple answer is that you follow the letter of the report, dropping your price to their suggestion or repairing whatever they have found in the property. Still, there might be better results for you.
Even though surveys are impartial, the surveyor's view can affect your property sale, which is complicated further if there is a chain of buyers and sellers that you may be linked to. A chain collapse can be catastrophic to everyone involved.
Holding a sale together can be tricky, and many issues can be highlighted in the survey, so it is a critical milestone in the process. If something is highlighted in the report, it can be a make-or-break situation. If the issue is very bad or costly to repair, your buyer may have second thoughts. If the issues raised affect the value, the buyer may be unable to raise the funds to pay the agreed price.
But, another buyer will also probably have a survey done, and they will pick up on the same issues. Therefore, addressing them is usually best rather than pulling out of the sale and trying to find another buyer. AA renegotiation with the buyers or dealing with the issues for them may be the best option rather than trying to find an entirely new buyer and a new chain.
The first thing to do is to make sure that you fully understand the points raised in the survey report so that you can make a decision. The next task is deciding whether these issues can be rectified and whether you will handle them.
It is important to clarify if the buyer still wants to purchase your property and if there is any point in trying to reach a solution. If they are pulling out, and there is no way to save it, you can plan things accordingly. Will it be possible to save the sale with a renegotiation, or is it dead in the water, and is it time to move on? While this will always be disappointing, at least you will know either way, and you can get on with trying to find a new buyer.
Generally speaking, it is better to try and keep your current sale together if you can rather than starting again from scratch. If you have to find a new buyer, you will have costs related to the aborted sale as well as costs from the new one. It could cost you more in the long run because the sale price is unknown and could end up less favourable than the offer that you had.
After the initial sale price is negotiated, the legal process is filled with milestones that can result in renegotiation and alterations to the original deal. The average length of the legal sale process for a property in England is up to 16 weeks, and many critical elements of the process can raise questions or issues that you will need to overcome.
A good estate agent will keep lines of communication open between you, your buyer, and all other connected parties within the chain. This is vital to get to a legal completion and your moving day.
A 'bad' survey does not mean that the whole chain has to fall apart, but it does require some creative thinking, key negotiation and open-minded sellers and buyers to reach a suitable conclusion.
If you are worried about the survey report on your property, get in touch with our team of property experts for advice on how best to navigate the process to ensure that your sale is completed and you move to your dream home.