House sold months ago, buyers now want a

CF’s
Tell then you’re walking away. They’re either testing you and will retract the request abd take it back, or they didn’t mean their original offer in the first place. Tell them ‘no, your move’ and state them out

We had this. We accepted an offer, then 2 months later our buyers dropped their offer by £30k.

We said no, and they walked away. They came back 2 weeks later and asked for a 15k reduction. Our estate agent managed to negotiate a £15k reduction on the house we were buying, so we ended up no worse off. What was important to us was the difference between how much we were selling for, and how much we were buying for.

I think you meant to say fuck off!

I'd expect the estate agent to push back hard on them and make it clear that their names will be mud with them in the future should they want to buy again. You have to be able to trust people not be dickheads in property transactions, this is where agents earn their commission.

I think this was clarified in subsequent posts as meaning that the OP would still be responsible for her own solicitor's costs for any work they had carried out to date on the purchase. Unfortunately, if buyers pull out during the process some legal work is already likely to have been carried out and it's the responsibility of each side to pay their own legal costs.

Why would you pay their fees? That's not right is it?

They're definitely trying it on, they think you're 'stuck' as it's do far down the line and that you will just accept it. Say No and watch them come back with their tail between their legs. Or better yet say you want £5k more!

I think - although I could be wrong - that gazumping started first, probably in the house price boom of the 80s, and "gazunder" was derived from that in the corresponding slump of the 90s!

Ahhh, we’ve always just referred to both scenarios as ‘Gazumping’!

The chamber pot guzunder is spelled with a U in place of the A, but I just looked up Gazunder and thank you, you learn something new every day!

And yes, totally appropriate! 💩 😂

Well done for sticking to your guns.

I would take everything not nailed down when I move in retaliation, but I'm petty like that. Blinds, light bulbs, smoke alarms, everything. Cheeky fuckers.

Our horrible buyers demanded that we pay for a full electrical check about a fortnight before completion. We told them to get stuffed.

"Gazunder" is also the word for this.

"Gazumper" is someone who makes a higher offer that the seller accepts after initially agreeing to sell to someone else.

Gazump is when a buyer offers more for a house which has already had an offer accepted - and tries to "steal" a house which has already agreed a sale.
Gazunder is what's happened to OP, ie. offering less at the last minute.
Funny that it's also the name of a camber pot though - v appropriate!

I believe you mean ‘Gazumper’… guzunder is actually a chamber pot!!!

Oh, and you’re 100% correct to tell them to sling their hook. Hope all goes through without issue today! 🤞

Going through exactly this right now. The buyers have sat on a Level 3 survey for 12 weeks, 6 days before exchange they have offered £15,000 less than agreed price, basically back to their initial offer. Yes the house needs work but it was priced to sell. We have said NO. And given them until noon tomorrow to honour the agreed price. We have had a a hard push from the estate agents, saying that we need to offer some discount and they can’t guarantee getting the same price again. Still a NO from us. We are happy if the sale falls through, they think we are in a rush to move, but we are not. It is sad that the chain will collapse, but I will not be forced to drop the agreed price. Also not the moving dates will move even if they go back to their initial offer.

The reason you consult the chain is that you split the 11k between people in the chain so OP drops 11k on the basis that the person above them drops the price by 5 or 6k, the person above them drops by similar or half. This way the ‘loss’ is shared. This has often been negotiated (by the EA’s) when there is an issue, say, first time buyer unable to secure the full amount on the mortgage offer after survey etc. it means the chain works together to preserve the chain, so everyone has something to gain.

But in those cases there is a valid/unforeseen/unpremeditated reason for one the person asing for the discount has asked. It doesn’t work if you just have a CF FTB who’s watched too many episodes of location location or a A Place in the Sun.

I had this. Put my house on the market in the April but took me until July to find a solid purchase property (found another one in April but the vendors ghosted me). The day we were due to exchange contracts the EA phoned me and said the buyers were wanting a £5k discount (on a £180k property) due to the delays. I couldn't afford it and it was a time when the market was booming and I think the price would have actually gone up if I'd put it on the market again, so I told them no. If they didn't exchange by 5pm that day I'd be pulling out of the sale myself and putting it up for a higher price.

I received a call from my solicitor about an hour later saying the exchange had gone through. I said "what about the price reduction they wanted?". She said "what price reduction?".

Basically, they were trying to pull a fast one, but hadn't even told their own solicitors, who carried on based on previous instructions and exchanged anyway!

I'd already bought the new buyers a bottle of champagne and was planning on cleaning the place from top to bottom when I left. I took that champagne with me and drank it in the first night in my new home while they were left with any dirt or dust that was left behind, because there was no way I was cleaning that. They were lucky I didn't leave prawns in the curtain poles!

🤯

I don’t get the part about consulting the chain?.
these so called buyers are chancers , ignore them , the price is the price. They agreed to it . They can take it or leave it . If they leave it they are liable for costs , then you put it back on the market.
they r just idiots and chancers , wouldn’t give them an inch , a penny or a second chance.

Are there only three of us on MN who actually catch up on the discussion before we start battering away at the keyboard to reply to the title?

Absolutely seems like something first time, younger buyers try on. My in-laws had, similarly, agreed sale. Even reducing it below a threshold so the buyers didn't have to pay additional fees.

Out of the blue, with 2 days to sign over came a request. Basically, trying to corner the in-laws (held to ransom comes to mind) and make them feel responsible for the collapse of the chain. My in-laws didn't budge. The chain collapsed. They sold a few months later....

Do not engage or negotiate when you're in the stronger position...

Unless you're desperate....

Sometimes people try their luck but it makes them look untrustworthy. I was dealing with a probate sale and the buyers dropped it last minute and had been a pain in the arse. We told them to sod off given they weren’t negotiating in good faith and had another buyer lined up within a week. They had a proper moan to the estate agent as they really wanted the property. They totally overplayed their hand as we weren’t in an onward chain and just wanted to minimise hassle. Sometimes this stuff works against the buyers that try it on.

Stick to your guns say a flat NO don't negotiate certainly don't ask the rest of the chain it's not their problem. The same happened to my daughter regarding a trivial thing that came up on the survey ( they fixed it for £20 ). Guess what they still bought the house.

Would/did your house sell easily?

You may/may not want to take on this £11 cut. But you are not powerless in this.

Put your house up for sale again, get a new sign up, accept viewings etc. This may concentrate their minds.

When we've bought/sold houses it quite usual to agree to take the house off the market whilst the paperwork goes through.

They are literally trying to mug you out of the £11K. It would actually put me off selling the property to them at all.

Classic trick…..say no!