Charging to furnishing in previously tenanted flat?

[Bells3032]

I am selling a flat i used to live in before i met my now husband and moved into his flat. I had rented my flat out.

Originally it was being sold as Tenant in Situ with a fully furnished lease including sofa, beds, fridge freezer, television, microwave and everything. But 8 weeks into the sale the buyer's solicitors said they wanted it with vacant possession. so everything was held up and caused a lot of suffering and stress to both me and my tenants as they weren't honest from the start. They blamed the lawyer and changed the lawyer and than sat on their laurels not appointing a new lawyer for a further 5 weeks til i put the flat back on the market. It then took a further month for the contract to be passed to their lawyer as the agent supplied my lawyer with incorrect contact details.

I messaged by buyer to see if they wanted all the furniture and to see if we could agree a price. They now are saying we said it was fully furnished included in the price. I said the agreement changed when it went from tenants in situ (and they had a furnished lease so i couldn't be bothered to argue about the furnishing and was gonna throw it in fully furnished anyway).

I feel they've lost me a lot of money as i've had to evict the tenants and the delays to them having appointed a lawyer mean my flat will sit unoccupied for several weeks and take a bigger risk if it doesn't go through. And that doesn't even include the increased legal fees due to the change in contracts. As well as the extra funds I am having to borrow short term to cover the extra cost of stamp duty on my new home as my flat won't be sold before we move (we are moving into a new house and since i will still own the flat at the completion date i will have to pay an extra 3% on the full price for stamp duty and then claim it back once the flat is sold).

Therefore, not feeling as generous and wanting to charge extra for the furnishings (the fixtures and fittings forms were updated to state this when the sale changed).

Do you think I'm being unreasonable?

I think your buyers are really chancing their luck. They've caused problems from day one. Are you sure you wouldn't rather find new buyers or is it too late to start the process over again?

Personally unless you ate in a really slow area I'd stick it back on the market. Now you have vacant prosession it should fetch a higher price and you'll pick up buyers without the hassle!

Depends on the quality of he fixtures & fittings & what they are. ( I used to work in Sales & Lettings).Is it worth anything you could put toward your increased costs & can you take it to the tip yourself,as a man with a van to take it would be at least £60 where I live (NE London). Secondhandcurtains,ovens,washing machines & furniture make peanuts on Facebook marketplace. Is it high end or IKEA basics?.

@Ohtherewearethen i wish i could. unfortunately in the covid market tiny , first floor flats are not in high demand. I've told them they have to exchange by the 20th november else i am putting it back on the market - no further chances as just had enough. When the sale was reagreed they had done the mortgage and survey already so thought it would only be another couple of weeks for the legals to be done. It's now been 9 weeks since then and they've only done the surveys.

Reselling will take at least another 3-4 months so would prefer to avoid if i could

@CSIblonde the sofa and beds are expensive makes (initial price about £1.5k each). the rest is mainly ikea. We want to take the sofa as we actually bought a matching sofa so would go in our new house. The rest of it i don't really mind so much.

I think I'd put it back on the market and tell the buyers where to go. I think they've probably really shown their colours and are likely to push and try and force your hand as the sale progresses. I'd fully expect a last minute stunt to knock off £10 grand or them to just pull at the last minute anyway. Better that you be in control of the situation.

You still have the stamp duty break on your side, don't you? I think that it's also coming up to peak quick sale and completion period too, as people try and get in for Christmas.

I'd put it back on the Market.

This 95% mortgage policy from the Tories is going to make first time buyer properties much more popular and demand will go up.

They are messing you around.

I still think I'd get it back on the market.

But I understand just wanting rid so I'd go back and say you will include all the other stuff but the sofa and the bed (if you want it) have been removed. And stick to a short completion date as you are running tight on the stamp duty window / remarketing!

I would put it back on market immediately. Take sofa you want out Of sell asap. The buyer you have is not a good one and still likely to pull out down the line. Get out now gives you time to relist without tenants for higher price.

I would go back and say "the original price was tenants in situ with furniture, you wanted it changed to vacant possession. That meant you wanted an empty building for the price. Now I am offering the furniture for an additional cost on top of your request. Please respond in x days. As previously stated, completion must happen by x date or it is going back on the market."

We've given them 10 days after the tenants leave to exchange. I said if they've not exchanged by then it's going back on market. though tbh the price was relatively good. it's still a loss for me overall but compared to what they are getting atm with another lockdown looming it's fairly good