The survey came back. The buyer didn't. We still will.
Damp, a flat roof, "evidence of movement", a construction type the lender doesn't like — the things a survey finds in an ordinary house are the things we buy every week. One cash offer, the findings priced in, no second survey and no renegotiation. Anywhere in England.
What the lender does
Asks for a damp and timber report, then imposes a retention or reduces the loan.
What we do
Price the damp in. No specialist report, no retention, no second survey.
The buyer still wanted the house. Their lender didn't.
A mortgage survey isn't really for the buyer — it's for the bank, and the bank has four ways of saying no. Each one hands the buyer a reason to walk, and most take it.
1The down-valuation
The valuer says the house is worth less than the agreed price. The buyer has to find the gap in cash, renegotiate with you, or withdraw. On a £140,000 house a £12,000 gap is enough to end it — and the agent will suggest you "meet them halfway".
2The retention
The lender agrees to lend but holds back a sum — £5,000, £10,000 — until a named repair is done. The buyer can't afford the shortfall, you don't want to do the work on a house you're leaving, and the sale stalls on who pays.
3The further report
"Subject to a damp and timber survey." "Subject to a structural engineer's report." Three weeks and £400–£900, usually paid by the seller, after which the engineer says what the surveyor said and the lender still hasn't decided.
4The decline
Construction type, flood zone, lease length, knotweed: the lender simply won't lend on it. The buyer can try another lender — who will send another valuer — or give up. By the second decline, most give up.
The eight things that come back on an ordinary house — and how each one ends
These are the findings that have killed real sales in the towns we buy in. For each: what it looks like, what a lender does with it, and what we do instead. The percentages are typical movements in our offer, not promises.
Damp in a solid-wall terrace
A 1900 terrace in Hindpool, Barrow or the East Marsh in Grimsby, solid brick, no cavity, a rear wall that's been slightly wet since the Victorians built it. The meter reads high, the surveyor writes "high moisture readings to ground-floor walls", and a sale that was agreed on Tuesday is dead by the following Friday. The house has been lived in for 120 years.
Lender
Damp and timber report at your expense; then a retention of £3,000–£8,000 or a reduced loan. Buyer asks for the price to come down by the same.
RetentionUs
We know what a solid-wall terrace is and we price the wall. No report, no retention, no second negotiation.
Offer moves ~2–4%The flat-roof extension
A felt-roofed kitchen extension on a Carlisle semi, put on in 1988, fine until the surveyor pokes it. "Flat roof covering at or beyond the end of its serviceable life; recommend replacement." The buyer's lender wants it done or wants £4,000 held back; the buyer's mum tells them flat roofs are a nightmare; the buyer goes quiet. It doesn't leak.
Lender
Retention until replaced, or a reduced valuation. If the extension has no building-regs sign-off as well, an indemnity policy on top.
RetentionUs
A flat roof is a known cost — we've replaced dozens. It's in the figure, not a condition of the sale.
Offer moves ~1–3%"Evidence of historic movement"
A bungalow in Kirton, outside Boston, built on drained fen; or a terrace off Sincil Bank in Lincoln on the Witham floodplain. Cracked render, a door that catches, a kitchen floor that runs gently toward the back wall. The surveyor can't say it's stopped moving, so he says "recommend structural engineer". Every house on the street looks the same.
Lender
Structural engineer's report (£500–£900, usually yours) before any decision. Then either a retention for underpinning, a decline, or — six weeks later — approval of a sale the buyer has already lost faith in.
Further reportUs
On fen or floodplain, settlement is the ground, not a defect. We've seen enough of it to price it ourselves. If it's genuinely structural we'll say so — and still make an offer.
Offer moves ~3–7%Non-standard construction
A semi on the Ermine in Lincoln, Westcliff in Scunthorpe, Moorclose in Workington or Raffles in Carlisle. Wimpey no-fines concrete, a steel frame, prefabricated panels — built fast after the war, sound ever since. The valuer recognises the type from the pavement and writes two words that end the sale before the survey is even typed up. The house isn't the problem. The lender's list is.
Lender
Many decline outright. The rest want a structural report and lend at a lower loan-to-value, so the buyer needs a bigger deposit they don't have. Second lender, second valuer, same answer.
DeclineUs
We don't have a list. We buy no-fines, steel-frame and panel houses as houses. The type is in the figure because resale is narrower; it's not a reason to say no.
Offer moves ~4–8%Flood zone or a past flood
A terrace in Cockermouth with 2009 and 2015 on the search, a Boston house with December 2013, a Skegness bungalow in Zone 3 like every other bungalow in Skegness. The survey itself may be clean; it's the search and the insurer's quote that do it. £1,400 a year for cover and the lender's underwriter stops returning calls. The defences have been rebuilt. The record hasn't.
Lender
Wants the insurer's letter before exchange. A high premium or a refusal to quote means a decline, however good the house. Flood Re helps older houses; newer ones can be stuck.
DeclineUs
No insurer to satisfy before we buy. We price the zone and the history, complete, and arrange cover afterwards ourselves.
Offer moves ~3–6%Roof, chimney and the things up high
A sandstone terrace on Lowther Street, Whitehaven, two hundred years of Irish Sea weather on a slate roof. "Slipped and delaminating slates, defective flashing to the chimney stack, recommend a roofing contractor's report." The buyer gets a quote of £9,000, the lender holds £9,000 back, and you're asked to drop the price by £9,000 for work the next owner may never do. The roof has kept the rain out since 1820.
Lender
Retention against a roofer's quote, or a reduced valuation. On a listed building, a conservation-area roofer's quote, which is higher.
RetentionUs
We know what a Victorian slate roof costs and we've done the listed version. It's a line in our figure, not a hold on your money.
Offer moves ~2–4%Old electrics and the extension nobody signed off
A 1960s consumer unit with rewirable fuses, a conservatory the previous owner built himself in 2004, a loft room with no building-regs certificate. None of it is dangerous and all of it is on the report, each with "recommend specialist inspection" beside it. The buyer's solicitor asks for an indemnity policy for the extension and a satisfactory EICR for the wiring; the buyer asks for £3,000 off. It's lived in, it works, it's just old.
Lender
Usually a condition rather than a decline — an EICR, an indemnity, sometimes a retention for a rewire. Each adds a fortnight and a cost, and gives the buyer a reason to renegotiate.
ConditionsUs
We'll rewire it after we own it. No EICR needed, no indemnity, no building-regs regularisation before completion.
Offer moves ~1–3%Japanese knotweed
A clump at the bottom of the garden, or — worse — in the neighbour's garden three metres from your wall. The surveyor flags it, the lender wants a treatment plan with an insurance-backed guarantee, and the buyer has read the horror stories. Most mortgage sales with knotweed on the report simply stop. It can be treated. It just can't be treated inside a mortgage timetable.
Lender
Decline without a specialist management plan and guarantee in place — £2,000–£5,000 and a season of treatment before anyone will lend.
DeclineUs
We buy it with the knotweed and commission the treatment ourselves. The cost is in the figure; the timetable is ours, not yours.
Offer moves ~4–8%The 48 hours after the buyer pulls out
Most sellers do the wrong thing here — book a builder, drop the price, relist with the same agent. Here's the order that actually saves money.
Get the survey
Ask the buyer or their solicitor for a copy of the report. They paid for it, but most will hand it over. It's the single most useful document you now own: it tells the next buyer's lender exactly what the last one saw.
Don't book a builder
Repairs on a house you're leaving rarely return what they cost, take weeks you don't have, and the next surveyor finds something else. Fix a genuine safety issue if there is one. Leave the rest.
Get a figure from us
Send the postcode and the survey. You'll have a firm number within the hour — the findings already priced in, no second survey, no conditions. It costs nothing and it tells you what the floor is.
Then decide
Relist and hope the next buyer's lender is kinder — four months, a fresh survey, the same report. Or take the certain figure and be done in seven days. Either is fine. Now at least you're choosing with both numbers in front of you.
One house, one survey, two endings
A 3-bed terrace in Denton Holme, Carlisle, agreed at £140,000. The buyer's survey finds damp to the rear wall and a tired flat roof on the kitchen. The lender imposes an £8,000 retention. Here's what happens next on each path.
| 3-bed terrace, agreed £140,000 | Stay on the open market | Sell to us the week it falls through |
|---|---|---|
| What happens to the first buyer | Asks for £8,000 off to cover the retention; you offer £4,000; they withdraw anyway two weeks later | Irrelevant — we make an offer the day you send the report |
| Damp & timber report | −£450, paid by you to keep the next buyer interested | £0 |
| Time back on the market | 4 months, a second survey, the same two findings, a second lender wanting the same retention | None |
| Second buyer's negotiation | Agreed at £131,000 after they've seen the first report | £112,000 cash, fixed — the findings are already in it |
| Agent, conveyancing, EPC | −£4,800 | £0 — we pay both sides' solicitors |
| Mortgage, council tax, insurance while you wait | −£5,600 (7 months) | −£150 (7 days) |
| Chance the second sale also fails | Roughly 1 in 4 | None |
| Time to money | 7–9 months from the first survey, if the second sale holds | About 7 days |
| Net in your pocket | ≈ £120,150 | ≈ £111,850 |
Worked example, not a valuation. If the second buyer's lender is kinder, the open market can leave you with more — the price is seven to nine months, a report you pay for, a second negotiation, and a one-in-four chance of a third buyer. For a lot of people who've just watched one sale collapse, £8,000 is what certainty is worth. Put your own survey into the tool at the top of the page to see your figure.
The towns where the house is fine and the report still kills the sale
Old stock, wet ground, post-war estates and cautious valuers — the same pattern wherever we buy. Each town page explains the local version in detail.
Somewhere else? We buy after failed surveys anywhere in England. Start from the county — Cumbria · Lincolnshire — or just send the postcode and the report.
Selling after a failed survey: what's actually going on
There is a moment every seller who's been through it recognises. The sale was agreed, the buyer was keen, the solicitors were instructed — and then a surveyor spent ninety minutes in the house and the whole thing fell apart. If you're searching for how to sell a house after a buyer pulled out, or what a down-valuation means, or whether you have to fix what the survey found, this is the honest version.
The survey isn't for the buyer
A mortgage valuation — and most "surveys" that end sales are really valuations with a condition report attached — is commissioned by the lender to protect the lender. The valuer's job is to decide whether the house is adequate security for the loan, and the easy way to be safe is to be cautious. Damp gets a retention. A flat roof gets a retention. Fen settlement gets an engineer. A construction type that's not on the list gets a decline. None of it is a judgement that the house is bad; it's a judgement that lending on it carries risk the bank would rather you paid for. The buyer, who liked the house, is handed a reason to doubt it and a bill for the doubt. Most walk.
Why fixing it usually doesn't work
The instinct is to repair whatever the report said and relist. Three problems. First, the money: a damp-proof course, a new flat roof, a rewire — £3,000 to £12,000 on a house you're selling, which rarely comes back in the price. Second, the time: four to eight weeks of trades, during which the mortgage and the council tax keep running. Third, and the one nobody warns you about: the next surveyor is a different person with a different checklist, and they will find something else, because every house older than thirty years has something else. We buy houses in Grimsby and Workington that have been through this twice — two surveys, two sets of repairs, two collapsed sales — before the owner stops.
What a cash buyer actually changes
No lender, so no valuation, so no retention, no decline, no further report. We read the survey the first buyer paid for — it's useful, and we'll ask you for it — and we price what it says into one figure. That figure is fixed: there's no exchange-day renegotiation because there's no second survey to trigger one. A cash buyer for a house that failed a survey isn't paying more than the open market would; the point is that the open market, for this house, has stopped paying at all. What we offer is the certain version of a number you've already been offered twice and never received.
Being straight about the price
Our offers for houses with a failed survey behind them usually land somewhere between 75% and 85% of the price that was agreed, depending on what the report found. Damp and a flat roof: towards the top. Non-standard construction, knotweed or a structural question: towards the bottom. Against that, the open-market route costs the specialist report, the agent, the conveyancing, four to eight months of holding costs, the price chip the next buyer will ask for having read the same report — and a one-in-four chance of doing it all again. The worked example above puts the two side by side; the tool at the top of the page will do it for your house.
The things a survey can't find that we don't mind either
A tenant in place — we buy tenanted, and the survey finding doesn't change that. A short lease on a Cleethorpes seafront flat. A probate that's still going through. A Coal Authority report with workings under the street. If the survey was the thing that stopped your sale, send it; if it was something else, tell us that too. The answer is the same either way: a figure within the hour, and a completion date you choose.