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Original poster

People buying our house want us to pay their rent - is this reasonable?

164 replies

ragle · 06/10/2014 17:29

Hi,
We are leaving the country on October 30th and agreed to sell our house to a couple on condition that completion occurred on 24th October. Today they said they wanted to delay completion until 10th November unless we paid their rent (£700). On all the property documents the completion date has been set for 24th October. They have also delayed exchange, which was supposed to have happened by now and we have bent over backwards to accommodate their every whim in order to keep the sale on track. I feel completely over the barrel and I am so angry with these people! But is this normal to pay the buyers rent so they are not left paying rent and a mortgage to get the completion date originally agreed on?
Any advice very welcome!

OP posts:
beautifulgirls · 06/10/2014 21:04

The agent will lose their fee if the sale falls through. I would put it to the agent that you will cancel the deal and move to another agent unless they talk some sense into the buyer immediately. The agent will not be best pleased to potentially lose their fee in all this.

MrsMarcJacobs · 06/10/2014 22:11

Exactly what chandonsays

Silverdaisy · 06/10/2014 22:35

Years ago a husband and wife who happened to be solicitors bought my house, and made life hell. They nit picked about everything, complaints about cracked tiles ( which were visible in the EA particulars) and were charging us money for this. Never again!

marysafairy · 06/10/2014 22:40

If she is a solicitor and is happy doing this to you now she is almost certainly going to try to lower the price at the last minute. If you agree now she will know how desperate you are. You will also have lost more time and be that much more vulnerable.

If you agree to this, then insist on bringing the date of sale forward and only give a cheque after they have completed. Use your agent as escrow and have your agent confirm in writing that he will only give the cheque once they have signed everything necessary.

Sorry if i have got any terms wrong as have never bought in UK

londonrach · 06/10/2014 22:59

I wonder if they that interested and plan to pull out anyway. Where are you. Can you afford to sale it from abroad. Id be careful saying yes in case they came back with another lower offer just before exchange. Maybe talk to ea and get his views on this. Good luck.

MidniteScribbler · 06/10/2014 23:08

Tell the agent that it's his problem and if he wants the sale to go through then HE can pay their rent.

knewnana · 06/10/2014 23:17

Ragle, sorry if I've missed something as I have only briefly scanned through this thread.

All negotiations and payments should go through your solicitor - that's what you pay them for - and your purchaser as a solicitor should know this. So no cheques to the agent under any circumstances.

If you feel you need and can afford to lose £700, get your solicitor to offer a price reduction on the property equivalent to the value of the rent on condition that exchange is done immediately. Once contracts are exchanged, it's a done deal and no more negotiations. If she won't exchange immediately, then its just a ruse to see how far she can push you, and believe me she will keep pushing.

So speak with your solicitor and get them to call her and suggest the reduced amount with immediate exchange. Speak to your agent - but only tell the agent that you believe the purchaser is stalling to get you to drop the price which you will not agree to, so you are giving them notice that it may be going back on the market and can they begin to prepare new photos, etc., so it can be ready.

My boss just moved house. On the morning of exchange the sellers demanded an additional £20k or they were pulling out. The seller had the upper hand and she had two options, pay up or start over. They paid.

Good luck.

PhaedraIsMyName · 06/10/2014 23:23

You have this weird system in England of "exchanging contracts" We don't have that in Scotland and contracts are tied up much more quickly.

However in either country if you are not at a point where there is a binding contract then anything and everything is fair game for negotiation. Effectively they are dropping the price by £700. Up to you whether you agree or not. Fretting about whether it's normal or not is irrelevant.

OneSkinnyChip · 06/10/2014 23:26

Honestly? I'm like you. I can't bear bullies and blatant pisstakers. I would say no and live with the fall out. I'm not saying this is sensible but people like this woman really will take a mile when you give an inch. Draw your line in the sand.

Biscoff · 06/10/2014 23:30

They are exhorting you

mellicauli · 06/10/2014 23:39

A solicitor bought our first flat. She wanted to us to pay her rent and the decorators to come in while we were still living there. My husband (also solicitor) rang her up and told her exactly where to get Once we spoke directly it became apparent that no one had told her anything about any of our situation (ie in a hurry). So I would ring up directly. I would make enquiries if she intends to reduce the offer on contract day. When she says no, ask her if that is an undertaking. (Breaking an undertaking is very serious to a serious ) Solicitors are actually held go a higher standard of behaviour than the rest of us, not lower!

Sleepysheepsleeping · 06/10/2014 23:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Eastpoint · 06/10/2014 23:51

I know 3 families who have had this issue with solicitors buying their homes. My father had the courage to tell the buyer to go away & put the house back on the market. Three weeks later the buyer came up with the money he couldn't find. Even though he had three weeks without a buyer it was better than wondering what the chancer would try next.

Hissy · 06/10/2014 23:59

tell them they have 24 hours to exchange or you'll put it back on the market.

get other agents round as well and consider reporting your agent's conduct. in no way shape or form is he acting on begalf of his client (you)

i'd say they may be 'known' to each other. something smells off.

WhereYouLeftIt · 07/10/2014 01:23

If you pay this £700, there will be another demand. And if you yield on that, there will be yet another. IMO, they will definitely try and drop the price at the last minute.

In your shoes I would call their bluff and say no, and insist on exchange taking place NOW. And if they won't, I'd walk away, because they are trouble. You would not be cutting your nose off to spite your face, but reassessing the viability of these purchasers.

As for your agent, I'd be torn between knewnana's advice ("Speak to your agent - but only tell the agent that you believe the purchaser is stalling to get you to drop the price which you will not agree to, so you are giving them notice that it may be going back on the market and can they begin to prepare new photos, etc., so it can be ready.") and going to another agent if you feel you can no longer trust them ("I wonder if our agent is in cahoots with them"). If they are in cahoots, knewnana's advice could possibly stop them fucking about, if the maybe buyers think that you'll pull the plug on them.

arkestra · 07/10/2014 07:10

My reaction is the same as many others: don't look at this in isolation but as part of their already established (and escalating) pattern of bad behaviour.

If you agree to pay the 700 now, there is a very good chance that they will drop many thousands on what they are prepared to pay immediately before completion.

Obviously calling their bluff at this stage carries risks: but so does paying their rent...

WeAreEternal · 07/10/2014 07:14

I would do as other posters have suggested and tell the buyers they have 24 hours to exchange or you will be putting the house back on the market.

You can be sure this won't be the only money they will try to get out of you.
You EA has behaved very poorly. I would be contacting other EA and tell the EA that if you pull out of this sale you will be putting your house back on the market with a different EA.

Delphiniumsblue · 07/10/2014 07:18

Call their bluff- they have a lot to lose too. (It depends on whether you can afford to call their bluff if it doesn't work) . Not easy, but they shouldn't do it. They know that you want the sale so they are milking it.

TheHouseatWhoCorner · 07/10/2014 08:03

I would instruct your solicitor to contact the buyer and tell her that you will not pay the 700 and that the house goes back on the market with a different estate agent if they don't exchange by end of today.

ThePerfectFather · 07/10/2014 08:16

Jesus it's meant to be a seller's market too!

I can't stand the idea of someone taking the piss and getting away with it so, personally, I would tell them to fuck off and instruct my solicitor to put the place back on the market and to ignore any offer from that couple. It's £700 now, it'll be something else and something else and so on as the date gets nearer. They want to play you as much as they can. If they can afford to buy a house, they can afford to pay their bloody rent.

Who the hell acts like this anyway? I couldn't imagine doing something like that.

GermanHouseCat · 07/10/2014 10:38

I agree that there is something off in the relationship between your EA and the buyers. When DH and I bought our first flat years ago, there was a gorgeous flat on the market which EAs just would not let us view - kept stalling and trying to put us off. They must have had a buyer in mind. It was a bargain garden flat in a gorgeous period property. Wish I'd had a way of letting the owners know.

winkywinkola · 07/10/2014 10:54

Say no. And no again. And put house back on the market if they try anything.

I detest pisstakers.

winkywinkola · 07/10/2014 11:00

Say no. And no again. And put house back on the market if they try anything.

I detest pisstakers.

biscuitsandbandages · 07/10/2014 11:01

When we bought we did ask the sellers to go halves with our rent. They agreed but didnt pay up.

The reason was we couldn't give notice until exchange had happened and they delayed exchange repeatedly due to stupidity (wrong person signed forms etc) but still wanted to complete on a certain date which left us with 6 weeks of mortgage and rent to pay.

WorkingBling · 07/10/2014 11:29

Our sellers tried to do this to us. They'd delayed because they refused to send over some documents which we needed in order to insure the house. They got the estate agent to call me and threaten us with having to pay their rent if it didn't go through.

I completely lost it. Told the estate agent that I could not believe he would dare to threaten me. Pointed out that I have emails from my solicitor repeatedly explaining that the delay was due to this information and that in an attempt to get around it I had called every house insurer I could find but not one would agree to insure the house without the information that was missing. I said if it didn't go through on time and we were then forced to stay in a hotel I would be sending the bill to them and so they better get that information to us asap.

It arrived at my solicitor the following day.