House sold months ago, buyers now want a

FTB - sorry your going through this , from past experience I’ve found them to be the worst at trying it on , no means no !

To anyone who has bought property outside of England & Wales, the whole system appears to have been specifically designed to enable abuse of this type.

In France, you generally put down 10% of the purchase price when you put in an offer. (Sometimes this is a cheque that isn't immediately cashed, but it's made very clear that if either party backs out or attempts to vary the deal unilaterally, that 10% is at risk.) In effect you sort-of "exchange" at that point. There is no gazumping or gazundering.

When DD bought her house she put in an offer when there was almost no chain. Then a chain developed (because someone changed their mind) and it took 8 months to sort out. This was just post-Covid when prices were rising weekly. Her sellers didn't change the asking price, but she was worried every week that they might do. In the end she probably saved £30,000.

This happened to my dad. They randomly requested £5k off a week before exchange. Unfortunately my dad was coming up to 65 and as he still needed a small mortgage he had to accept.

Oh God yes, I've experienced and had friends experience all kinds of tomfoolery like this.

My friend had an offer on her flat which she accepted. The legal process started and then her buyers said that they had become aware of the profit she was making between buying it years earlier and selling it and thought she should share her good fortune with them, so were reducing their offer by £30,000.

Another friend was second in a chain and her buyer at the bottom of the chain, just didn't complete on completion day. So everyone was packed up in their respective removal vans, waiting for the money to go through, and it didn't. Nobody moved that day, because the buyer at the bottom of the chain allegedly realised on completion day that they were £10k short and rather than saying something, just disappeared. When this person was tracked down, the other people in the chain clubbed together to pay the £10k that was short, and a covenant was put on my friend's old house so that if the dickhead ever remortgaged or sold it, he had to repay the £10k, which he eventually did. Everyone moved about a week after they were meant to. No, I don't know how or why the dickhead's solicitor hadn't ensured adequate funds were available.

Don't underestimate cheeky fuckery when it comes to buying and selling houses and be prepared to stand your ground.

Are you saying your buyers after agreeing a price for your house house want a reduction in price of 11k before completing?
Because thats not "sold".
I would instruct your solicitor to advise your buyers that you will not be agreeing to a price reduction and to ask if they are still in a position to proceed at the price previously agreed or not. If not, you will re market the house.
This happened to me and my solicitor just asked their solicitor if they were in a position to proceed at the agreed price or not and we would remarket if not.
It saves time to be firm and concise.
I can appreciate this decision is determined by market conditions.

Lot of it about. Had this selling my late Aunt's house this time last year. Buyers asked for £20k off their offer price accepted months before (when we had other parties interested at the time). We swallowed it, because we wanted to just get the deal done.

If it had been my own house, then no way would I have tolerated it. I'd instruct the EA to give them 48 hours to confirm whether they want to move forward with the purchase, if not to remarket it. Sick of this kind of behaviour from people quiet frankly. Make a deal, and unless there is substantial reasons (ie survey issues come up) then be a person of your word.

We also did this! It was very satisfying.

Tell them to get lost!

Good for you holding your ground! Come back and tell us what happens @Roseyliv78 !

In 2010 I was selling a big house in a prime location, due to divorce. I had spent money preparing it so it looked good, no issues. A couple fell in love with it, offered a little under the price, agreed because they could proceed quickly and I told them 'no further reductions '.
They asked if various tradespeople could come round to measure up/quote for work they wanted done. I told the EA yes, no problem, but remind them no further reductions.
Then I get a letter from the buyers, ie bypassing the EA and solicitor I am paying to deal with the sale. "Due to xyz we want a reduction of £25,000".
I got straight on to the EA, told them to re list it ASAP...
Cue much consternation on EA's part (turns out they were also selling my buyers house, so they stood to lose two lots of commission).
End result they bought my house at the price we'd agreed...

The system is really shit, we need to adopt the US/NZ/Aus system - once an offer has been accepted it is legally binding on both parties.
Cynically, I think solicitors don't want to change it because they make money on sales that fall through...

Good luck, don't drop your price!

This is what I was thinking.

It’s not the sealed bid process in Scotland that binds the parties, it’s the conclusion of the missives

I’d be asking the estate agent to remarket it, that might help ‘focus’ them

FTB house prices are dropping they’re probably panicking they’ve over paid

This is really very wrong of them!

However, if you suggested going to the chain (which I know you haven’t yet) to see if the £11K could be sorted that way then aren’t you doing the same to the rest of the chain? Whether it’s finding the £11k that way or simply getting £1k off from the rest of the chain, isn’t that the same?

You are correct,it would be exactly the same.either party can withdraw up until the conclusion of missives without any liability
Missives used to be concluded very quickly,that’s very unusual now
Having said that gazundering is still pretty much unheard of ,and solicitors have to withdraw from acting is asked to submit a lower bid

I think you're being too kind to the buyers suggesting there's anything other than a desire to feel they've bagged a buyer.

The Home Report up front is helpful in that in reduces scope for re-negotiation subsequently - or it should do. Other than that I can't see any real difference between the two systems assuming it's the standard offer/acceptance/exchange.

OP, push back hard if you can.

This happened my friend last year.
The husband was a pompous oaf and know it all.
Came in at the last minute wanting a 10% discount.
When she refused he withdrew his offer, they too were about to close.
He had mistakenly thought he had my friend caught because of her move to a larger house.

She was buying her parents large house so was not stuck at all.
She accepted hiswithdrawal via the solicitor.

He was horrified and tried to back track, but my friend had had enough of them.
He called to the house to try and speak to them and she told him she would call the police.
He couldn't accept that he had FUFO.
His wife wasapparently devastated.

EA went back to the underbidder, they came to a very quick agreement and the house was sold.

It was hugely stressful for them.
Last minute stunt pullers are the absolute lowest of the low.

We had this when we were selling our house a few years ago, we'd put an offer on another house and had it accepted but I still told the estate agents we wouldn't be dropping the price and to remarket the property ASAP, you do have to be serious in doing so though.
Came as a shock to the buyers they ended up offering us an extra 5k if we continued with them.

It also happen to a friend, buyers wanted 20k off and unfortunately friend had to say yes as they would have lost their new house.

So its not a new thing, just a piss take.

i am a mortgage broker have been for 10 years and my guess is either - they were promised a gift of a deposit and now can’t get it or they have done something stupid like get a loan/car on finance and now the don’t meet the affordability criteria of the mortgage company

If you think that’s bad I sold a house that the buyer dropped the offer by 200k the day before exchange! I declined obviously.

All’s fair in love and conveyancing.

Until you’ve exchanged you don’t have your house or your price.