House sold months ago, buyers now want a

They want the house. They also just want to feel like they got a "good deal" or were "canny buyers."

This really pisses me off. A good deal is one where all parties go away feeling satisfied. It's not one where you've screwed everyone else for every last penny.

If the deal completes, I'd be leaving the house in a right old state (within the limits of the law, of course). And I'm someone who left our (lovely!) FTB a fully cleaned house and a bottle of champagne.

Best attitude and I would do the same. I know you'll lose out on your own survey costs but they are incredibly cheeky and puts a horrible shadow over the whole thing.
Moving home is one of the most stressful things going imo!

When was your completion date booked?

The house buying process in England really needs to change to the Scottish system .
Sold recently in Scotland we paid for house survey all viewers had access to this and house valuation.
Waited till a couple of notes of interest then goes to closing date for offers ,accept the best offer ,agree entry with buyers and that's it .Literally moved out 6 weeks after accepting the legally binding offer.House was done and dusted in 8 weeks total .There is even some guarantees that central heating etc works put into contracts .
English system was such a shock to us .
Constantly chasing everyone, threat of everything falling to bits before finally moving into house ,and we were cash buyers at bottom of chain .
English seller after accepting our offer phoned up asking if we would up our offer by £5000 as she had more interest than she thought she would have .
We told her either continue with our current offer or decline and we would move on .At no point did it occur to us to try to reduce our offer because it had been agreed between both parties .
Hold your ground that's a huge amount of money ,good luck

im confused
so the house isn’t actually sold yet?
Just say no, ask them if they want to continue with the sale, give them 24 hours to respond, at this point, state that you’ll be instructing the agent to re market.
You could equally say after the 24 hours period, it will be re advertised at £2k more.
They have already paid a fair bit in surveys at this point.
They may well have found another property, maybe it wasn’t meant to be.

Tell your estate agent to re-list first thing tomorrow morning, that sends a clear message, it will also get them scurrying back if they really want the place or if not, you had to do it anyway.

I know one person who did this (and he is a bit of a chancer) and the sellers just said a straight no, they're not taking any less for it. He went ahead with the purchase anyway, at the original agreed price - he was just trying it on.
These people are absolute CFs - never give in to them. Threaten to put the house back on the market, and push for a deadline for exchange.

What deadline have you set? You’re wasting time if they’ve been sitting on this for a week and a half. You need to put it back on the market and move on if they’re not serious now about buying it.

You are sadly mistaken if you think your house is sold. The buyers have made a non binding offer and you and everyone else in the chain has built upon that. Until you exchange, your house is not sold.

The buyers, who sound like utter shits, are only doing what is legally possible. Sorry this is happening but you must adjust your knowledge of the sale process to align with reality.

really hope your sale proceeds ok, and that the buyers later get scabies which is what they deserve.

Don't be silly, what do you imagine OP would gain from that?

Make sure your estate agent tells them that they’re getting the house ready to relist and are going to open it up for viewings again as of next week, so they can exchange or accept that they’ve lost the money they’ve spent on legals and surveys if they don’t get a move on.

they’re bullies. Don’t give these tossers an inch.

my oh had this with his FMH in London - bloke wanted like £100k off, my OH (lied) and told him that the EA has passed this on to the STBXW and she (utterly batshit in every way and obviously so) had gone predictably batshit and had said that she didn’t want to sell the house to him under any circumstances or at any price as he’d offended her by his actions.
The ex wasn’t even told of this reduction, she would have flipped..

not another peep out of dickhead buyer, he exchanged days later

Happened to us, years ago. We took the Sold Subject to contract label off the for sale board and waited to see what would happen.
After a few drive pasts (with their mum) they changed their minds and paid the agreed price.
They were 'following advice', apparently. We're quite friendly with them now.

I had that. She said her dad had told her to do it 🙄

I got confused they’re FTB not you! Sounds like a classic case of entitled FTB trying to get a deal having watched too many Location location location!

The estate agents might be pressurising them to get a discount so they get their sale even though I think they get less commission.

Which has now been changed. What stage of the conveyancing process are you in? You’re FTB but you’re selling this property so you must have bought it or been left it.

We have moved house very many times, this is the lowest of the low chancers. do not budge.
Good luck.

Refuse to give a discount. It’ll be a pita for all involved but if they do pull out your solicitors have all the searches, report on title etc so should be able to pass to another buyer. People like this really piss everyone off (I’ve worked as a conveyancing sec).

On what planet do you describe a house as being sold, when you have in fact not sold it yet?!

I can only assume you are deliberately trying to make the thread misleading

When you say ‘sold’ presumably you mean that you’d accepted an offer? Which does not equal ‘sold’.

It’s a common enough ploy - if you don’t give in, TBH you do just need nerves of steel to tell them (relatively politely) to sod off.

Happened to me - shortly before exchange of contracts my buyer demanded a discount, and what pissed me off even more was that the EA was apparently on her side, urging me to give in! And this after I’d actually turned down a higher offer from someone else, because I’d given my word to the buyer!

I basically told the EA absolutely no way, and in the end she went ahead at the first agreed price.
Good luck! It’s a nerve racking scenario.

My hunch is they want to move so just trying it on. Just say no and instruct the EA to put back on the market.