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

If it had gone the other way and the house was worth less, would they still be looking to pay 150k? doubt it somehow…
Nephew is completely right and unless they have locked themselves in a bubble for two years they can’t have missed how the housing market has changed.

Nephew is right and his mum should be backing him. They'd still be getting a good deal without agents fees etc.

Poor nephew, even his own mother isn't on his side.

Nephews right.

They are proper bonkers.

Nephew is right. House prices have shot up ridiculously in last two years. They only way U&A would be close to being right is if the nephew had no forward chain or was a millionaire or something.

I haven’t read the whole thread but is this a reverse?

Aunt and uncle are being unreasonable. Maybe when they have time to think about it, and see how much their house has increased in value in two years, they will calm down and accept.

Surely they won’t be selling at 2020 prices.

Whilst the aunt and uncle are CF. The nephews mum is being horrible to her son.

Why should the nephew lose £30,000.

The only attempted fleecing going on around here is by the boomers and they should be ashamed.

Hope the nephew has pulled out completely.

Pretty unanimous then! I am also Team Nephew.

As I say, I’m not that close to the situation, but from what I understand, his mom is hoping there’s a compromise to be found somewhere. Personally, I think that’s a bad idea and they should all abandon the purchase. All a compromise (e.g. agreeing on a figure halfway between valuations) would do is make everyone unhappy. The aunt and uncle need to see what they’d get for their £150k elsewhere (i.e. nowhere they’d want to live).

Of course the nephew is right and his mother needs to get a real grip, not to mind auntie and uncle who thought they had managed to freeze time🙄

I haven’t read the whole thread

On page two 😆😆 This is a whole new level of lazy!

Two years ago we let a semi as landlords the other half sold for£120k . December 2021 identical one sold for 145k. This month another identical one has come onto the market for 179k so 59k in two years

Of course Nephew is right. If he sells his house under value he will be paying ££ extra on his new mortgage for years to come to benefit his relatives - that's not fair. The original discount was designed to reflect no estate agent fees not to sell under value.

The best thing to do at this point would be for all to say "We don't want to fall out over this - let's not mix business and pleasure" and for the relatives to look for a different house on the open market. No more talk of it.

I cant imagine that they would want to sell their property for 2020 prices, so why the hell should he? They just saw a nice bit of extra money in their pockets and didnt give a toss that they were ripping off their own nephew. Not very nice people.

And I agree that there is no compromise here. He give them one chance to buy, so if its valued at 185k he offers it to them at 180 and if they say no, market it.

You’re the ‘nephew’ aren’t you.

And I clicked YABU by mistake 😭

Are the Aunt and Uncle selling their house to fund the move?

and are they selling it at the 2020 price?

Aunt and Uncle are inhabitants of cuckoo land.

The nephew should of honoured the original asking price, however as the devil is in the details, especially with family , a contract should of been written with terms and conditions, to prevent such as this

Nephew is right.....he should market it and sell at current value

A 'compromise' would still be benefitting the aunt and uncle and screwing over the nephew, just not for as much as they had hoped to screw him over by 😂

The nephew's house will sell quickly. The small village house could take ages to sell. This age group are uber reluctant to take offers below because their home is special

"The nephew should of honoured the original asking price" disagree....

the nephew agreed to sell at market value. that market value has changed.