Aibu or is the buyer of my flat being a dick?

[Niceeyes]

I’ll try to keep this as short as possible.

got an offer accepted on my flat early March, both myself and the buyer are chain free, there were some questions over the parking space and whether it was private or allocated, (it’s private and she’s been told this). So she keeps delaying saying she’s not happy with the documents proving so. So this has now dragged the process to 10 weeks (for two chain free people this is really long)
BUT it transpired today that she’s actually using the parking ‘issue’ as delay tactics as she is now selling her late mothers place and doesn’t want to exchange on my flat until her mothers place sells (it’s under offer) …..I feel like she’s taking the piss, her offer was accepted by me as she was a chain free buyer, now there’s a chain…god knows how long.

so do I give her the extra 8 weeks to get her mothers place sold (this costs me more mortgage fees and utilities) or just tell her that she’s changed the deal and that I’m re marketing my flat.

grrr so annoyed

Woooo! Pleased as punch for you! That’s what you call a result!

Get it back on the market immediately.

Her late mothers house could take ages to sell.

Very happy for you @Niceeyes, what a fantastic result and that’ll teach me not to read the whole thread!

Cash buyers make me nervous. They often pull stunts near the end as they know they have power.

Do so many people really not know how to only read OPs posts on a thread?

fucking painful to see so many wittering irrelevancies 😄

PRESS ‘SEE ALL’ FOR OPs UPDATES BEFORE TYPING. Ffs.

@Spohn I'm new. Apologies 😊

Absolutely put it back on the market.

Great job, OP! Hope all goes smoothly now.

This has happened to me twice. I’d put your flat back on the market, and tell your buyer you’ll only remove it if and when they are ready to exchange, and that you reserve the right to accept another offer in the meantime.

So pleased to hear you found a new buyer. Some of these people really do take the p*so. For a supposedly chain-free offer this was ludicrous, your agent should have told her so.

And often they are not cash buyers at all. This happened with a flat my DD wanted, the seller accepted a supposedly cash offer which turned out only to be cash when the buyer had actually sold their flat! We eventually bought the flat as a private sale as we were actually cash buyers.

Great update!

It's very tricky. It might backfire if you say goodbye to someone who seems to be a serious buyer. Finding someone else could take the same amount of time as selling with this buyer. You could end up with someone else who comes across problems - eg being refused a mortgage. Perhaps you could say to the current buyer that you need to sell by a certain date and see if you can get her to speed things up with the sale of her mother's place?

When we bought our current house it was dragging on so the vendor said exchange next week or it goes back on the market. Worked for us, I cobbled together enough money to exchange (DH was abroad and not contactable) and we met the deadline.

Ask her to pay any increase costs you incurr to wait

Haha, just seen your update, well done!

@EmmaH2022 ours decided to put their sale into the chain half way along even though they didn’t need to, so this buyer may not have been dependent on the other sale. Anyway, OP has sold now to someone else - yay!

Yep! Get it back on the market,she will be wanting it for free next!

Re-list

it’s not nice but she has totally changed the goal posts or you could tell her you want her to pay for your additional costs if you’re happy to stay put and wait?

We had lots of problems with our house sale/buy and it took over 6 months to exchange - we even ended up stuck in our old house with no furniture/belongings (was on the truck on moving day!) with a 2 month old baby. It was horrendous.

but it just goes to show what crap can happen further down the line if you did wait.

even when I purchased my first home I was chain free and already living in it as I got it from my landlady - that still took 12 weeks for a totally private sale!

So pleased to hear you found a buyer OP. I’m in Scotland so the rules are slightly different but my parents were selling a flat and had it on for offers over. A couple put in an offer £5000 below the offers over but my parents said if they could sort it by x date they could have it as it was the only offer they’d had.

The couple asked to get in twice and measure rooms and bring their builder etc which my parents agreed to. The date came and went so as promised my dad put it back on the market for fixed price which was £15’000 over the offers over and £20’000 over what the couple had been willing to pay.

Somehow strangely the original couple found the extra £20’000 and offered to pay it two days later. They did.

Honestly go with your gut but be clear that you’re not prepared to enter into a chain especially as the discount was partly based on her chain free position. In this market she should not be pissing you around. I’d say at current price you need it to complete within next few weeks or you’ll remarket.

25k under? That’s enormous!

Remarked and remarked now! She is doing this believing the market is slowing however in sounds like you would sell quickly to another buyer.
it could fall through even once mother’s house is sold. I’ve just been through same thing 6 months ago. Re listed and got 10k more.

Delighted

She's changed the deal. She's not chain free. Tell her you are cancelling and see what happens.