Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Unflip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Unflip

1 2 ··· 9 10 11 ··· 17 18

Original poster

House sold months ago, buyers now want a

439 replies

Roseyliv78 · 15/02/2026 11:50

Hi all, wondering if anyone can give me some perspective…

We sold our house a few months ago and the buyers were fine up until last week. Out of the blue, they suddenly asked for £11k off a £300k purchase. They also apparently told our estate agent that, because we’re moving to a much bigger house, we can afford to give them a discount. We have no idea how they even got our new address, the estate agent says they definitely didn’t give it out.

The mortgage valuation guy said there were no down valuations at the end of the visit, and all the surveys came back fine, so nothing has come up to justify this. Our buyers said it was due to local area but the surveyor and bank surveyor both said it’s been extremely strong.

We obviously said no. We also offered to talk to the rest of the chain to see if the £11k could somehow be sorted that way, but they didn’t respond. Then they said they were disappointed we didn’t renegotiate, even though we had already negotiated properly at the time.

Honestly, we’re just a bit confused by the whole thing. Has anyone else had buyers suddenly try this months after the sale?

is this a classic attempt to try and give us a headache?

its strange as know they’ve paid all the legal fees, surveyor fees. Surely very risky as we could tell them to do one, and they could lose all the fees if we didn’t want to sell to them now.

allot younger then us as we both in our early 40s and our buyers early 30s don’t know if it’s a social media trend etc.

OP posts:

UninitendedShark · 15/02/2026 16:31

Getamoveon2024 · 15/02/2026 11:59

We had a CF do this, the day before exchange. No reason, he just thought he could chance his arm. Not only did we refuse, but we told him the house was no longer for sale to him, at any price. He then tried to complain to our solicitor! Twat.
Someone else bought it at full asking a couple of weeks later.

Good for you! CF’s should not be tolerated.

Milmington · 15/02/2026 16:27

Mumstheword1983 · 15/02/2026 15:53

Absolutely agree. When I bought my first house 20 years ago missives were signed a good month before we moved. Last year when we moved the missives were signed the day before we moved and it was all cash buyers in the chain other than us and we were porting our existing mortgage with no delays. Couldn't understand the wait.

However I've never heard of lower offers being made at the last minute and I've bought and sold 5 times in 20 odd years. Is that more common in England?

Show quote history

I think it will be related to the fact that in Scotland the Home Report is available at the time of offer. In England buyers use the survey to get a reduction, sometimes when it's not justified.

BillieWiper · 15/02/2026 16:24

CautiousLurker2 · 15/02/2026 16:22

Not everyone gets the terminology. When you read the OP posts it’s clear she means they received and accepted a proceed-able offer several months ago and are a considerable way into the conveyancing process now.

Clearly not exchanged yet, though.

Show quote history

Yeah, I'm sorry I wasn't trying to be mean but I had to read a bit before I realised it wasn't sold at all. The terminology is pretty important in this case.

CautiousLurker2 · 15/02/2026 16:22

BillieWiper · 15/02/2026 16:19

House was not sold months ago. Why are you entitling your OP in such a misleading way?

Clearly not exchanged yet, though.

ThisLuckyPlumCritic · 15/02/2026 16:19

A friend of mine had this recently, and he told them via his solicitor that it wasn't acceptable, and they've got until the next day to buy it at the agreed price, or he's putting it back on the market. They came back the same day to agree to the original price.

They are trying it on.

BillieWiper · 15/02/2026 16:19

House was not sold months ago. Why are you entitling your OP in such a misleading way?

DotAndCarryOne2 · 15/02/2026 16:09

SpanThatWorld · 15/02/2026 11:55

There are always chancers out there.

I was selling my family home after my stepdad died. It was just after covid and probate took forever. The same buyers waited and waited.

On the day we were due to exchange, they pulled out.

Estate Agent called full of woe. Would I like to reduce the price?

Fortunately, I was in no hurry so said I had no interest in proceeding with them and to put it back on the market.

Edited

I hope the EA didn’t add this to your fees.

EarthSight · 15/02/2026 16:05

They also apparently told our estate agent that, because we’re moving to a much bigger house, we can afford to give them a discount

They're clueless, or incredibly cheeky or both. I'd consider their offer a disingenuous one from the start.

Our estate agent even said that it could easily cause the chain to collapse if we did, which makes it all feel a bit tactical

Yes, your estate agent will be thinking mostly about themselves, the targets they need to hit, and other people in the chain. You might have to delay the sale of one house. They stand to lose or delay sales on potentially multiple houses at the same time if this falls through. Be careful and don't cave into pressure from them.

Madformaltesers · 15/02/2026 16:03

We had this, a chain of 5 and a side chain as the couple below me were divorcing.
Ftb at the bottom apparently was 8k short 🙄 number 2 in chain, myself 4 and my vendor 5 refused to drop our price, I wasn't fussed if I moved, my vendor had multiple offers, but due to the person, number 3 in chain divorcing and wanting to cash buy my property they caved and paid the ftb 8k to keep the chain going,
estate agent reckoned its become a thing

AcrossthePond55 · 15/02/2026 15:55

@Roseyliv78

Call me paranoid, but I'd have your post where you mentioned the amount of your profit either deleted or redacted to remove the amount.

You've given enough info about the 'issue' that someone might be able to figure out more than you want them to know.

Happytaytos · 15/02/2026 15:54

Why give them until Tuesday? Phone EA Monday and say unless you know by 4pm Monday, it'll be back online 5pm Monday.

Mumstheword1983 · 15/02/2026 15:53

Seeingadistance · 15/02/2026 14:46

The Scottish system has changed over the past couple of decades for reasons I can’t understand. It used to be that as soon as searches complete and valuation agreed with lender that missives were signed - usually about two weeks or less after offer was made and accepted. Once missives are signed that’s it. It is possible to pull out after missives are signed but it’s so financially onerous that no one in their right mind would do so.

Now, as others have said, missives aren’t concluded until you’re almost at entry date. I don’t understand why this has changed as it makes a good system much worse.

Show quote history

However I've never heard of lower offers being made at the last minute and I've bought and sold 5 times in 20 odd years. Is that more common in England?

MikeRafone · 15/02/2026 15:40

we had similar many years ago - the people at the bottom of the chain wanted money off and everyone in the chain wanted the next people up to knock something off

we said that ok but we can't then proceed so will have to bail

it reverted back for us - don't know what happened int he rest of the chain

as we were about to get sorted the people at the bottom of the chain said they needed to move on 5th of April - again we said can't do that as our mortgage offer runs out on 6th February - so we will need to start the process again.
we moved on 6th of february

some people just want to call the shots - that fine but others can't always fit in..

ICanBuyMyOwnFlowers · 15/02/2026 15:34

I hope you've told them that you're putting the house back on the market. If they want to play dirty - so should you. If it's already on the market, start talking to other estate agents

Need to put the pressure back on them.

ParsleyTheHorse · 15/02/2026 15:33

Morecoffeewanted · 15/02/2026 15:06

In my area there are a lot more houses that are empty for sale now. The market has changed on just months.

Someone at the bottom at a chain and knowing how fragile they are could be rejudging how much they want to pay for a particular house.

I do sympathise as we had someone pull the opposite years ago. We were the buyers and months into a chain and just before exchange the seller demanded an extra 10% to proceed. We refused and eventually they sold it for around 5% more but it took a long time. The chain collapsed.

I would have a look at your local market and see if there is a similar chain free house that has come on the market or anything obvious

OMG yes, do this OP. Counter with a request for £5k more than they originally offered 💪

Mags1001 · 15/02/2026 15:33

Gazumping.

Yes.

I had my buyer skip the survey & want to be in in a week, most things had gone through but I had very little notice.
Within a day is had removal men shipping containers & my contract signed & the following week I was out.
Only then did they decide they wanted a 2nd viewing before signing.
Luckily the guy got the flu & couldn't attend
Then they didn't sign the contracts until completion day. Then started complaining the boiler had broke (it was mid Dec & the outside pipe had frozen.). If the house had not been empty then that wouldn't of happened. I didn't get asked for money off as id dropped it 5k anyway, but they were disgusting in their behaviour.

Looking back, as I've now been renting for 4 years & everything has rocketed in price I shouldn't of sold.

faithcrowley · 15/02/2026 15:32

So because you worked hard to overpay your mortgage and have earned enough to move to a bigger house, they feel entitled to a discount - ie. your money? Cheeky sods!

Original poster

Roseyliv78 · 15/02/2026 15:31

LadyLapsang · 15/02/2026 15:29

OP, stand firm and I wouldn’t be letting them come back to inspect the house again as they will probably come up with a lot of spurious nonsense.

We’ve already reiterated this. Last week

OP posts:

Original poster

Roseyliv78 · 15/02/2026 15:30

Hopefully that should focus there minds.

We know the solicitors they used and they’ve legally done all paperwork and no more work to do so they would be faced with a full bill, as we was going to go with them originally.

OP posts:

LadyLapsang · 15/02/2026 15:29

OP, stand firm and I wouldn’t be letting them come back to inspect the house again as they will probably come up with a lot of spurious nonsense.

Original poster

Roseyliv78 · 15/02/2026 15:26

We’ve said our estate agent to tell our buyers need to know by Tuesday by COB.

OP posts:

LadyLapsang · 15/02/2026 15:26

@Unicorntearsofgin Does the survey state the property is not worth the agreed purchase price? It could quite possibly need 25k spending on it and still be valued at the purchase price. Depending on the size of your deposit, it may not be the building society that is taking the risk.

Poodlelove · 15/02/2026 15:25

This happened to us a few years ago , 3 days before Christmas , we said absolutely not.
They didn't pull out and the sale went through 3 weeks later.

LadyLapsang · 15/02/2026 15:21

OP, your estate agent is employed to represent you and sell the property. You accepted an offer for a given price. If the buyers change the offer, unless you accept, the deal is off. Your estate agent needs to persuade them to stick to the agreed purchase price. Depending on the contract with the EA, you could walk away from them too and remarket with someone else.

Unicorntearsofgin · 15/02/2026 15:21

We are actually on the other side of this and it feels horrible. Found a place we love but the survey has come back with some major unknown problems that are going to cost an extra 25k to fix. Unfortunately we hadn’t budgeted for that so have suggested to our seller we go 50/50. Just to give the other side. We certainly aren’t doing this out of spite.

Unflip

1 2 ··· 9 10 11 ··· 17 18