Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU: Do you renegotiate the price of a flat sale based on something you haven't noticed because you're blind or stupid?

64 replies

user1476448102 · 24/05/2019 20:19

We're selling our 2 bed flat and were lucky enough to have had an offer within 2 weeks from first time buyers with an enormous deposit.
However, a month ago they realised that our garage was a storage garage rather than a garage for a car. To start with, it's got parking in front of it, there are parking lines and a parking sign with times that you need to have a permit to park there. Secondly, it hasn't got a drop curb. Thirdly, we never advertised it as off street parking, it's a garage that you can store stuff in. We put our bikes in there.
We think they must have a fancy car or something, as their solicitor said that "they required" us to apply to the council to get the parking restrictions changed and get a drop curb put in. It might cost us around £7k and take months. We don't have a car. We said no.
Apart from this demand, they've been saying they want to renegotiate the price for a month, but haven't come back with anything. They've also now had the survey through, which apparently they want some other money off for. We think they are wasting our time.
When we bought the flat, we really wanted a wood burner, but we didn't request the sellers to get it for us. AIBU?

OP posts:
ArgyMargy · 24/05/2019 21:00

It's a lock-up. Stop calling it a garage.

Ihatemyseleffordoingthis · 24/05/2019 21:01

"The garage does fit a car, we kept a car in it when we borrowed MIL's car. It's big enough for a car and it's called a garage on the title plan, it's just that you might not be able to get the car out again as there might be a car parked in the way on the street."

Sounds like the shed "garage" was misrepresented tbh. BUT I'd also think they had the potential to be a pita through the whole proceedings.

Passthecherrycoke · 24/05/2019 21:01

It’s the estate agents calling it a garage. What is OP advertising? Nothing. It’s not up
To her to define it.

sparkleandsunshine · 24/05/2019 21:01

Yeah it’s bull, they didn’t do their research and that’s their own fault, they can either take it as it is or shove off.
And everyone knows you have to get a surgery done if you buy a property, that’s them trying to pull a fast one.
As for the agent, of course they’re going to agree with the buyer, they want to keep that buyer happy, get the sale and get their commission, they don’t care what it costs you. Tell them all to make a lower offer if they want to, but otherwise they’ve lost it and they loose the money they paid out on a survey. Then decide if you want to reject that offer. They’re taking the piss.

thisisacrazyidea · 24/05/2019 21:03

As Barbarian said. If they want the flat for the garage they are likely to pull out as you aren’t selling what they need. We are buying a house advertised as having self contained annex.....except said annex doesn’t have PP or building regs. We want the house for other reasons, so it’s not a deal breaker for us, so we probably won’t re negotiate.

IceRebel · 24/05/2019 21:05

I can definitely see why they are confused, if you advertised it with a garage then you have technically advertised it with off street parking.

A garage is "a building for housing a motor vehicle or vehicles." If you can't actually use it to store a car, then it's really just an outbuilding / shed.

Tawdrylocalbrouhaha · 24/05/2019 21:09

There's no such thing as a "storage garage". If it's not a usable, accessable garage, then it should be called something else.

Certainly they should have looked more carefully before making an offer, but I think the description was misleading (like describing a 5'x5' room as a bedroom, and then saying "it's a storage bedroom").

Monkeyssplit · 24/05/2019 21:12

I wouldn't be happy if I thought I was buying a house with a garage and then it turned out to be a house without a garage. It wouldn't be worth as much to me. I would pay more for a house with a garage. So I don't think they are being unreasonable in wanting to change their offer. You may not be happy to sell your house for the amount of money they are prepared to pay in which case you should turn their offer down and put it back on the market and make it clear to potential buyers that the garage is not actually a garage to prevent the same thing happening again.

Laiste · 24/05/2019 21:12

Lock up is a good description.

Yes it's the EA who is doing the advertising and not the OP, but it's the OP paying them to sell the place so it would be sensible to make sure they're listing things correctly.

shiningstar2 · 24/05/2019 21:13

Have you researched the going price for similar properties in your immediate area op? Not what people are asking ...what they are actually getting when the deal goes through. If you have this is simply a business transaction as a previous poster has said. This is what we are offering, this is the asking price. Buyer can either take it or walk away. You can either negotiate or walk away. If they keep pressing to pay less and less you have little choice except to relist it if you are sure that your asking price is pretty normal for the area.

NameChangeNugget · 24/05/2019 21:14

@BarbarianMum is spot on

Crazycat16 · 24/05/2019 21:16

but to be honest we didn't get to approve anything from the agent. They just stuck the listing up without even showing us and I've no idea what they said to the so called buyers.

Really? You NEVER got to approve details before they advertised your property?
I have never experienced that in all the times we have sold properties over the last 20 years so that is definately something to take up with your agents.

But they buyers have seen the property and the ‘garage’ and they have made an offer. It is up to you if you want to accept.
It sounds like they are going to throw up more difficulties ahead, they viewed it so have seen the realities, keep the property listed if you go ahead with their negotiations.

londonrach · 24/05/2019 21:17

Its a storage area not a garage. Accept or decline to offer. Put flat back on market if necessary at same price but call it storage not a garage. A garage is amazing to keep a car in during the winter

BogglesGoggles · 24/05/2019 21:20

I don’t think they’re being unreasonable here. Surely it’s natural to assume that a garage can take a car? The fault here seems to be with your EA really.

ChicCroissant · 24/05/2019 21:26

It doesn't sound like a garage to me - you can't access it because there isn't a drop kerb (which is presumably why other cars can park across it) which means you can't keep a car in it - which is the definition of a garage!

I think you've been misleading there in advertising it as a garage. It is a storage space, but not a garage. You knew it was advertised as a garage so by not saying it wasn't, surely you are wasting your buyer's time not the other way around Hmm

mrsm43s · 24/05/2019 21:34

A property with a garage (that being an accessible building to store a car) is worth more than a property with a storage shed. Where I live by about 20K+. You can't command the price for a property with a garage unless you have the drop kerb/right of way required to make that garage usable.

NauseousMum · 24/05/2019 21:36

Sounds like the estate agent misled them which is probably why they aee pushing you so hard to drop the price.

When you go with the new agent, register it as 'storage unit, potential for off road parking dependent on car size and if permission is sought for dropped kerb.'

Dippypippy1980 · 24/05/2019 21:36

I can se how this misunderstanding arose. You see a garage you assume you can park your car in there.

Your estate agent needs to handle this. You aren’t prepared to apply for the permits etc - reasonably enough, they could pull out at any time. Also I assume the flat was priced to account for the lack of car parking facilities in the garage.

First time buyers can be a nightmare. Either they want it or they don’t, and if they need somewhere with garage parking your isn’t the place form them. Gove 5m until Tuesday to decide then it goes back once market - with a different agent.

Frogarmy · 24/05/2019 21:38

I've seen eleventy billion houses advertised as "bedrooms" - yet they wouldn't fit a standard sized bed.

I think caveat emptor on this one. If it fits a car in, and can be used to store a car, then it isn't a "shed" A shed implies a much smaller door. It is their fault that they didn't check the dropped curb...

As a PP said - how much do you want/need this sale? Chase them for an offer and be prepared to negotiate - or tell them the house is going back online/being marketed. You could meet them halfway and drop £3.5K. If I wanted a quick sale, I'd drop the £7K, but make the deal contingent on the sale completing to my a deadline.

Frogarmy · 24/05/2019 21:39

houses with bedrooms not as!

milkshak3 · 24/05/2019 21:43

it's not a garage. it's a brick shed, isn't it?

GabsAlot · 24/05/2019 21:43

They measured it looked in it and are now claiming they didnt know they coldnt put their car in?

Bin em off

Laiste · 24/05/2019 21:46

If it fits a car in, and can be used to store a car, then it isn't a "shed"

It isn't necessarily a garage though. Being able to FIT a car in something doesn't mean you can describe it as a garage. You shouldn't be driving a vehicle over a pavement without a dropped curb so you shouldn't be calling it anything which implies it's a storage space for a car.

CSIblonde · 24/05/2019 21:58

I worked in an EA :A sale is 'as is', so what's listed on the particulars, including any negotiables like white goods or carpets . It sounds like it should be called a storage locker tho. If they want to make it a garage or indeed do any alterations to the property it's up to them to pay for it.

Marchinupandownagain · 24/05/2019 22:15

Beware of agents who are in the same group as conveyancers and mortgage providers - eg Countrywide, we've lost money through that kind of shenanigans