Potential CF house buying/moving

[Whatelsecouldibecalled]

Currently in the midst of trying to move house. House went on the market start of the year. We had a fair amount of interest and accepted an offer relatively quickly having found a house we were really happy with and had an offer accepted to buy. We accepted an offer lower than asking price on ours because we wanted to be in a position where we had sold for putting forward an offer to buy next house. Fine our decision and still left us with enough to buy next house. So far so good and our buyer got a bit of a bargain in the process. Buyer then comes around a fair amount measuring up etc and then makes a strange claim about her searches throwing up something strange. So I get out the searches we have paid for when we bought current house to show hers are incorrect. She then asks me for a copy of the homebuyer report that we paid for when we bought the house. I wasn’t happy about it but then I thought needed to keep her sweet. So again gets a bargain as she’s not had to pay out £300 for mid level survey. All solicitors moving towards a completion date asap and as far as I was aware we were good to go at the end of the month.

Then we get an email to say our buyer that they can’t move for another 13 weeks due to them being in rented accommodation and they can’t afford to pay for both the rent and the mortgage. Shit situation for them but not my fault. My sellers are then really cross and say they won’t wait that long and are threatening to pull out. I ask buyers if they can move any quicker and they said no. We don’t want to loose our next house it took ages to find one that meets all our requirements and need to move ASAP.

Buyer comes back to me to say would we be prepared to pay them £800 to cover a months rent so they wouldn’t be as out of pocket!! I’m really pissed off. I feel like they have have got me over a barrel because If I say no the whole thing will collapse. It’s a case of who had the biggest nerve. If I stand firm and threaten it will collapse they might just suck up the rent and mortgage but then my sellers might pull out putting us back to square one and us loosing all the money we have already spent on searches etc.

To compound the issue we are due to start IVF treatment soon and I just don’t need this stress. We thought we would be moved before treatment starts.

AIBU in thinking buyers are cheeky fucker for asking us to pay their rent when we have already be more than accommodating?

AIBU in backing down and agreeing to it to keep our dream house?

AIBU to be pissed off about the whole situation?

Do I need to just stop moaning?!

[FiveLittlePigs]

If you're in the uk your solicitor should be fielding all those sort of questions.

[Whatelsecouldibecalled]

Solicitors are dealing with it but we s have to make decisions about whether we pay the extra

[Dieu]

Oh, I am raging for you. That is so fucking cheeky, and not your problem, as you said

[Dieu]

I'm not sure I could pay the extra. I'd be choking on it.

[MyKingdomForBrie]

I'd go with offering to split - £400 each. Life's too short for a chain collapse at this point.

[TowelNumber42]

Do not back down. They'll find another way to extort you if they see you are desperate. Get the estate agent to point out they got a bargain and you don't mind putting it back on the market for more money (even though that's not true).

They are chancers. Call their bluff.

[MyKingdomForBrie]

I don't think your buyer has been CF asking for sight of your homebuyers or old searches. Fairly standard and they don't really do her much good as they can only be relied on by you, I.e. if any info is incorrect she can't sue based on your docs as they weren't supplied to her by the creator.

[CaptainJaneway12]

Well, unless they are very short sighted it will cost your buyer more to start the process from scratch with a less flexible seller. They would need searches etc and may not get such a good deal... I would stand firm.

[GinUnicorn]

Honestly I’d be tempted to call their bluff here. It is a big risk though so totally understandable if you would rather just reluctantly accept.

[AllTheFunAndGames]

Can you increase your mortgage to get your dream house and pay it off when your sale goes through? YANBU. They are CFs. I think your buyers never had the sufficient budget for your house price. They were stringing you along, in the hopes of you agreeing to drop to their available budget.

[winobaglady]

Why not say you will pay 800, but the purchase price increases by that amount too?
It sounds like they need ready cash, so they can pop it in their mortgage, surely?

[HerculesMulligan]

Our CF buyers did exactly this. It happened to coincide with me having a miscarriage, so you can imagine how stressful the week was. We asked which was smaller, the rent or the monthly mortgage repayment and then offered half of that, just to keep things moving.

I still resent having paid it but it kept the chain together and we are in the right house for us now, which we wouldn't have been if not for that £650. It was small potatoes in the grand scheme of what housemoving costs, although I will always dislike them a bit for being so unreasonable.

[sueelleker]

Can you get a bridging loan?

[Soontobe60]

I think if it were me, and I really wanted the sale to go through, I'd agree to pay half the rent IF the sale happened by a certain date, and only directly to the landlord of the property.

[woodhill]

CF, I bet they will make you drop your price at the last minute.

Don't have it OP

[BlodwynBludd]

If you had that much interest I would put it back on the market. They sound like nightmare buyers and I wouldn't want to be bound to them.

[RandomMess]

I too would seriously consider going back on the market as I would be concerned about them gazundering you last minute.

[Whatelsecouldibecalled]

Thanks for all replies. Glad to know that it’s not me being unreasonable.

My solicitor has said that if we do decide to pay the £800 buyers will only receive it on completion and not a penny sooner and only if they agree the date which me and seller want and exhange contracts ASAP which means they are then tied in and liable if they pull out.

@hercules I’m so sorry and can’t eveb imagine the stress and upset at that time.

[ResistanceIsNecessary]

Call her bluff - they are trying it on and if you agree to this I guarantee the next thing will be a request to drop the price.

Go back via both the EA and solicitor and ask them to point out the following:
You accepted less than asking price for a quick sale despite the fact you had a lot of interest in the property;
You've supported her with searches info and survey details, saving her money;
She knew what the situation was when she made the offer on the house - so if her rental period was going to be an issue, then she should have said something at the time;
That you aren't going to pay her anything and furthermore she needs to commit to exchange of contracts within the next 7 days, or you will pull out and immediately re-market your property.

[donquixotedelamancha]

Solicitor won't be able to advise what to do.

Yes they are CFs, obviously. We had one of these; they don't really want your house, they want any bargain.

Put the house back on the market asap. Tell them that if they wish to proceed they must complete by X date.

Accept you may well have lost the offer. The only other choice is to keep letting them knock you down and string you along.

FWIW, when we sacked our joker off we got a higher offer within 3 weeks and got the house we originally offered on.

[RhiWrites]

Don’t say yes, don’t say no. Say “it is our view that the buyer has already received a discount on the listed price of X and a copy of the home buyer’s report to a saving of Y.”

See if they leave it at that.

If they do press the issue offer half of what they asked for as a final goodwill gesture and add that any further requests will jeopardise the sale.

[Xyzzzzz]

Omg they’re being so cheeky and CFs.

I’d either meet them halfway if you were nice or say fine but I’m increasing the purchase price to reflect this, they’ve got away with so much.

[Alsohuman]

I’d pay it, cheeky though it is, what % of the selling price is it? In those terms it’s loose change.

[MadameAnchou]

What donquixote said. We learned the hard way to cut CFer buyers and vendors loose asap. They always try to take more and more and end up costing a fortune holding you over a barrel trying to squeeze more money out of you. Fuck that.

[Whatelsecouldibecalled]

I don’t think I can bare to unpack quite a fair amount (as already packed a decent bit thinking we were moving in two weeks!) to our house back right again to put it back on the market to look for another one again. Our sellers have said they will not wait past April/May at the very latest so even I did put it back on the market I won’t sell in enough time to still keep our dream house. I also don’t think I can go through all of that whilst juggling ivf. My head might explode.

I think we’re going to have to bite the bullet. Wondering if I can absolutely gut the house? Take every last thing? Too late to take up carpets now as fixtures and fittings form has gone in but every other possible item?!