Family fall-out over house sale

[WomanStanleyWoman]

I will start by saying this is NOT my family, but rather family friends. As such I’ve only heard it second and third-hand, so I can’t confirm whether everything I’ve been told is 100% accurate.

Anyway, a couple we know - mid-sixties, no children - have lived in a small village for over 30 years. Now that they’re older, they feel a bit isolated there, so want to move back to town to be near her sister and BIL, plus their extended family.

By coincidence, one of their nephews was considering selling his house, and asked if they’d be interested in buying. He lives a few minutes’ walk from his parents, so the location seemed ideal. He had it valued at £155k, but told them as he wouldn’t be paying estate agent fees and would have a guaranteed buyer, they could have it for £150k. They jumped at the chance.

However, Covid hit soon afterwards. As it became clear lockdown wasn’t short-term, they all felt it wasn’t the right time to move, so mutually agreed to put it on hold indefinitely.

Now things are as close to normal as they’ll ever be, the couple has asked their nephew if he’d still consider selling. He said yes, and that he’d get a new valuation, but to give them an idea, similar properties in the area were going for around £185 - 195k.

They apparently reacted with complete bemusement and said ‘But you’ve already agreed to sell it to us for £150k’. He was equally bemused and said ‘But that was two years ago. House prices have gone way up since then. I’ve got to sell it for what it’s worth now’.

Well, apparently all hell has broken loose. Aunt and uncle are horrified, saying they can’t believe their own nephew would try to fleece them like this. He’s told them they’re being ridiculous and he can’t possibly take a £30k loss on his house. He’s reminded them that anyway he wants to buy will have gone up too; they’re still saying ‘But we agreed!!’ and are upset/furious. Her sister/his mother is in bits, saying she can’t believe her family is going to be torn apart over a house, and whatever she does she’ll upset someone she loves.

Who is right?

YABU - Aunt and Uncle are right
YANBU - Nephew is right

The aunt and uncle at best being unrealistic and at worst taking advantage of him, I assume the value of their house has also gone up?

Nephew is right.

I think everyone would like to buy a house at 2020 value. But it’s not happening.

Of course nephew is right. He needs to buy a house too so it’s all relative.

Nephew is right, they are being ridiculous, I think mn should officially declare them cf's of the week

He is legally right
If it was important to them they should have taken the price at the time or got agreement
Its not a shock that house prices have increased
If they're selling, their house will have already gone up
The deal was market value less estate agents fees. If they think they can get that deal somewhere else they should do so

"the couple has asked their nephew if he’d still consider selling"

• so they'd realised that time has moved on and they shouldn't assume that the deal was still on the table.

Do they currently rent? If they're selling a house, they'll get more for that too.

Even just applying the rate of inflation over the last two years puts the value up by £10k.

Do they own their current home? If so, are they planning on selling at 2020 prices?

Are the aunt and uncle going to sell their home at 2020 prices? Probably not! They’re being idiots and clearly don’t quite understand how the housing market works!

They were the ones who put the plan on hold. They expected him to sit on a house for two years then sell it for 30k less than its worth? They are being incredibly rude!

Nephew. Obvs. It was 2 years ago.

The Aunt and Uncle are crazy to think their nephew should take a £30k financial hit for them. Have they rubbing their hands together for all this time thinking of the price they’d now get for their house in comparison to bargain they feel entitled to?

If I were the sister/nephews mum, I’d be disgusted that my sister was trying to take advantage of my son in that way and definitely wouldn’t want those people living closer to me.

House price now not two years ago...id love to be able to buy petrol at prices two years ago. The aunt and uncle hug cf if the expect price to stay same..

They’re mad as cheese. And his mum is being bang out or order to feel at all torn. If keeping the peace with her sister means her own son getting dicked over then they weren’t that close to begin with. Ridiculous.

They are absolutely mental

Nephew 100% in the right here, no question

They will make more money on their sale because of price increases but want to keep the extra and screw your nephew over. How greedy of them. They are obviously completely in the wrong and you can safely tell him mum that it’s clear she should support him. If he is trying to move up the property ladder the increase will mean even with his own house being higher value, if he is buying a more expensive property what he could have afforded two years ago will now be out of reach. Knowing that, his aunt and uncle should be offering to pay market value - no discount for agents fees - if they are decent human beings.

Something similar happened to us in the 1980s. We had a note put through our door asking if we might be considering selling (flat).

We were and it turned out that the writers were distant cousins of mine.

Agreed a price (we'd had it valued already).

After a few weeks they changed their minds and so we put it on the market at 5Khigher (it was the 1980s).

Then they changed their minds again and wanted it at the original price.

We said no and wanted the higher price.

They were very cross but the market had moved up in price.

We achieved more than the extra 5k very easily.

Very embarassing.

Of course the nephew is right. Do they own their current home? Will they sell at the 2020 price? Of course they won’t!

Surely the aunt and uncle cannot be so ignorant about how this works. They are being really dishonest, if I was the nephew I would refuse to sell to them.

Nephew is right

Of course he is correct . Prices have shot up .

No Argument .

Nephew was right. He is doing them a favour giving them a discount for the fees. They are being really cheeky and unfair to their nephew.

YANBU poor nephew

@AnneLovesGilbert

They’re mad as cheese. And his mum is being bang out or order to feel at all torn. If keeping the peace with her sister means her own son getting dicked over then they weren’t that close to begin with. Ridiculous.

Exactly! How on earth can the mum think the aunt & uncle can be right?!

I think aunt and uncle are taking the piss.
They’re presumably downsizing after having paid off their mortgage. The 30k is likely to make a huge difference to their nephews financial future. Essentially they want him to gift them 30k.

The Nephew is definitely right but to avoid upset he should put it on the open market and not sell to them.