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

Even the initial £5K discount was very generous. Just because he wouldn't be needing an estate agent, there's no reason why they should have had the full benefit of that.

There's a strong case for saying that the EA fees are the sole concern of the seller and nothing at all to do with the buyer, so if there are none, that's also the seller's concern (i.e. profit) - BUT I think most people would settle on splitting the saving 50/50 as fair: why should the buyer automatically get ALL of that benefit?!

Aunt and uncle are bonkers. I can’t see them selling their house for £30k under market value.

Aunt and Uncle are cheeky fuckers.

The only people voting YABU are the aunt and uncle who want to buy a house for 20% less than its current value!

Nephew 100%

Nephew is right

Well these 2 are cheeky fuckers of the highest order!
YANBU x 100!

@cstaff

So the aunt and uncle can sell their house at current rates but their nephew has to hold onto a price from 2 years ago. Get to fuck...

This sums up what I want to say! Team nephew.

They want the increased value in theirs and he will be out priced in the move he needs to make now buying a new house. Outrageous CFers

Nephew is right, but I clicked the wrong button!

Extreme Batshittery
Surely they'll be selling at a higher price , too?

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.
She should not get involved in discussing with any of them, and tell them so.

The nephew is not wrong.
The relatives need to open their eyes to fair reality. If I were them, I'd try to still buy at the increased price, if they can make enough selling their current home.

@TheSilveryTinsellyPussycat

Nephew is right, but I clicked the wrong button!

So you were the 1% er 😂

your nephew is right. The house he will buy will also have gone up in price, likewise the one the aunt and uncle are selling. Disappointing for them yes but they’re deluded to think it’s reasonable to keep the price of two years ago.

The nephew can’t screw himself over by selling for that much of a drop.

"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."
So sorry about that previous crossout, I tried to quote those words, and did it wrong!

Part of me wonders if this was the deliberate plan of the aunt and uncle in stalling the sale in the first place. Was the nephew reluctant to sell as well, or were they the driving force in putting it on the back burner?

Just maybe, they had an idea (or followed the expert predictions) that prices were going to rise sharply once the worst pandemic trough was finally over, so in their minds, they might have banked on waiting to cash in on getting a much higher price from the buyer of their own property whilst stamping their feet that the price they were paying was agreed and set in stone - either not thinking or just not caring that their nephew would then end up bearing the whole shortfall.

@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.

Loving mad as cheese ......as you were

@TheSilveryTinsellyPussycat

Nephew is right, but I clicked the wrong button!

Pretty sure you can just click the other button and it will change for you!

Even if Nephew and Uncle/Aunt could agree on a price I'd be wary of selling to them if I was Nephew.

I have a feeling they'd be the type to complain about any future repairs the house may need (normal wear/tear and 'aging') and expect Nephew to pay for them as 'he sold them the house'. Or a constant litany of "The house you sold us needs new boiler/has leak in roof/creaky floorboard and it cost us to fix it. You should have told us".

Nephew is right. The right thing to do now is for the nephew to sell at the correct price to people he doesn't know is the aunt and uncle are willing to be fair to him and pay a fair price

Aunt and uncles house will sell for more too

Hope the nephew sells to someone else for $200K+.

Aunt and uncle are nuts - ridiculous cheeky fuckers.

Nephew should of course be able to sell for the current value.

I agree with a pp on the first page who said they were probably rubbing their hands at the idea of the bargain they would be getting whilst selling their house for the current value.

The aunt and uncle sound like tight fisted fuckers.

The nephew shouldn't sell to them as a matter of principle.

Nephew should sell to someone else as quick as he can, get as much money as he can and move as far away as possible from these absolute nut jobs. His own mother not sticking up for him wtf, would she take money from her own pocket to compensate him for £30k I don’t think so.

Nephew is obviously correct.
His mum is being unfair not to tell her sister that she is being ridiculous.