My mum has a caravan on a caravan site which she is selling. The site owners have put the ground rent up from £1000 to £2900 in the last three years and since her partner passed away, my mum can't afford to pay the ground rent any longer.
She approached the site owner about selling it and he told her that he would offer her £2150 for the van if she sold it to him. He then said he would sell it on for about £4600. He said if she chose to sell it privately, he would want 15% commission of whatever she sold it for. Fair enough. This weekend, a family have offered my mum £2500 for the van. They seem really nice and genuineand they have wanted a van on this site for years so mum has agreed a sale with them.
She went to tell the site owner that she has sold up for £2500 and to ask what she must do next. The site owner then said that actually he wants 15% of the price he THINKS he can get for it (£4600) if he was going to sell it. WTF?! This can't be right as it is just speculative, surely? We also called the caravan sales place that mum bought it from in the first place to get a value and the sales guy there said she'd be lucky to get £2000 for it, so this sum of £4600 is just wishful thinking on the owner's part, surely?
Basically, the sale has to go through the office books so he can take whatever cut he wants and give my mum what's left but I think this is wrong and legally very shaky. My mum is a bit of a pushover so she has asked if I will speak to him (the owner) but I feel like I might lose my rag with him. Does anyone know whether he is right?
TIA :)