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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU house sale saga

38 replies

00kitty · 26/10/2022 23:56

AIBU is am I being unreasonable asking my buyer to pay a very small inconvenience fee now?

I’ll try and be brief

sold house in May 2% over asking price. Took us ages to find our ‘cash buyer’ told us not to worry.

July we had offer accepted..we then discover our cash buyer is not a cash buyer (hid this from EA too)

8 weeks later our buyer pulls out to buy something cheaper in a different area of town

Cue a call…the property he was buying has pulled out and he now wants our again. Negotiated 6% discount off price he was paying (I don’t think he could ever affford original price and I accept market has changed since we first marketed)

We have to move out in 2 weeks if we agree to go forward with this as lower down the chain mortgage offers expire then

my concerns/ facts:

  • by his own admission our house was not first he pulled out of
  • we have lost our onward purchase
  • our home is not big enough to make staying an option
  • we are happy (though it’s far from ideal) to move in to a spare bedroom at our families home until we find
  • happy to take a gamble with exiting property ladder
Alas I will incur costs to re instruct our solicitor if he again later aborts and storage fees/will have sold half our furniture.

so am I being unreasonable to ask him to pay something now to show his sincerity?

There just seem red flags and without a token amount transferred now which I can use as deposit on storage costs I’m not sure I’m willing to give him another chance particularly as we will then be homeless/and or could ask for another reduction on exchange day. We would only refund it in the event we dropped out

what would you do?

OP posts:
Gwenfornow · 27/10/2022 00:01

Walk away.
I would not sell to him.

notdaddycool · 27/10/2022 00:03

we had one like this, he even offered over asking when he came back but we went with someone offering £10k less who we trusted more.

Arghh1234 · 27/10/2022 00:06

Wow, AVOID! Not worth the hassle. Don’t make the same mistake twice! He’s proved he can’t be trusted. Walk away asap. 🚩

Blablablaaaaa · 27/10/2022 04:40

Depends how you feel about potentially living with family for 10 months and how difficult it is to sell your house. If these are ok, I would push ahead but not budge if he try’s a fast one at last minute. Demands to lower the property cost would be met with a firm no. it would be helpful to not be apart of a chain when you buy but it’s not the norm with family sized homes.

NumberTheory · 27/10/2022 04:56

Is he the only offer you’ve had?

If you have or are likely to get other viable offers, I would dump him and more on. He is trouble and I would bet will ask you for a discount the day you exchange.

I don’t know if there are any mechanisms in the UK for him to pay some sort of surety. Does your solicitor or EA have a suggestion about that?

An alternative might be to have the house on the market until he exchanges and tell him, given his past behaviour, you aren’t prepared to take it off until he’s actually bought it. But your EA might not be too keen on that, nor potential buyers.

Aprilx · 27/10/2022 05:11

i would be wary of your buyer, in fact I would probably find another one. But that said, no I don’t think it is reasonable to ask for cash now, this is not his house buying in the UK works. If you have doubts about your buyer then you need to terminate the deal.

Orangesare · 27/10/2022 05:17

If you need to move and haven’t had any other offers you will have to stick with it. Unfortunately there are a lot of buyers out there like this atm.

Aprilx · 27/10/2022 05:22

*not how

pilates · 27/10/2022 05:33

Your buyer has already proved he can’t be trusted. It sounds a recipe for heartache for you.

ParkingPermitWoes · 27/10/2022 05:37

If you're going to ask him to pay your legal fees if he pulls out then that's fine. But that should be in a signed and legally enforceable document otherwise it's worthless. He won't sign it.

Dontsparethehorses · 27/10/2022 05:51

Worst case scenario for you though is that he pulls out and you don’t move in with friends? Is that right? You’ve already lost the house you wanted. So either it goes through and you’ve sold - best evade scenario, or he pulls out and breaks the chain lower down but without any real impact on you? I know it is a selfish attitude but I can see how he wouldn’t have any reason to provide financial incentives to you- the person lower down the chain is the person most at risk from what you’ve said? But I might be missing something?

girlmom21 · 27/10/2022 05:55

I agree with everyone else.
Avoid him like the plague.

Fajeeta · 27/10/2022 06:18

No he isn't trust worthy who lies about being a cash buyer!

SchrodingersKettle · 27/10/2022 06:18

Sounds like a nightmare.

Tabasco007 · 27/10/2022 06:25

If you have to move out in 2 weeks because of the below chain, the surely that means that exchange and completion is likely to have happened... I would many be moving out of my house until it does. So if it's completed and your happy to stay with family, potentially for months, then just crack in with it... but don't do anything until it's exchanged and you have a set completion date.

Nosleepforthismum · 27/10/2022 06:59

Used to be a conveyancer. I’d just walk away personally. You might get him to agree to pay your legal fees if he pulls out but this will involve your solicitor getting the money from him now and holding it until completion. I think he/his solicitors will reject this and it’ll just be a load of of back and forth emails wasting everyone’s time. You can ask him to be responsible for your legal fees and this will be dealt with at completion (if he even agrees) but again, if he pulls out realistically you are not going to go through the hassle of taking him through the court process to try and claim the money back.

Forget asking for him to pay for being a twat. You need to focus on the important issues:

  1. Are you happy with the price it’s now being sold at?
  2. Are you happy to move out in two weeks?
  3. Have you really considered the issues moving in with relatives/friends can bring as you could be there for a long time (I would allow for up to a year).

If you are happy with the above then just go for it and focus on getting exchanged as soon as possible. If not, get rid of your buyer, remarket and start again with a new buyer and a new house you want to buy.

SimonaRazowska · 27/10/2022 07:04

Stop wasting time on this guy

he’ll never buy

Roselilly36 · 27/10/2022 07:13

Sounds a time waster tbh, tell him to take a hike, he is just the sort that would want you to drop the price on exchange. He will be looking for a better deal the whole time, and won’t think twice of dropping you again.

Roselilly36 · 27/10/2022 07:14

I would be furious with the EA too, did they not ask for proof of funds? Rookie mistake, standard procedure.

CrampMcBastard · 27/10/2022 07:30

Come again. Why do you have to move out in 2 weeks?

CrampMcBastard · 27/10/2022 07:32

And why the cash buyer? Do you have a non-standard construction house/subsidence?

Original poster
00kitty · 27/10/2022 07:46

CrampMcBastard · 27/10/2022 07:32

And why the cash buyer? Do you have a non-standard construction house/subsidence?

No, he just told us he was cash but then after offering on ours decided he didn’t want to pay higher rate stamp duty and wanted to sell his property (apparently had sold his main residence a year prior to this and moved in to his B2L)

OP posts:
Original poster
00kitty · 27/10/2022 07:47

CrampMcBastard · 27/10/2022 07:30

Come again. Why do you have to move out in 2 weeks?

The rest of the chain has been waiting since May….mortgage offers expire soon
our solicitor has confirmed she can work to the deadline

OP posts:
Original poster
00kitty · 27/10/2022 07:48

Roselilly36 · 27/10/2022 07:14

I would be furious with the EA too, did they not ask for proof of funds? Rookie mistake, standard procedure.

He said he was cash, then cash plus a small mortgage of 30k then decided he didn’t want to pay higher rate stamp duty and wanted to sell his other property

OP posts:
Original poster
00kitty · 27/10/2022 07:50

Roselilly36 · 27/10/2022 07:13

Sounds a time waster tbh, tell him to take a hike, he is just the sort that would want you to drop the price on exchange. He will be looking for a better deal the whole time, and won’t think twice of dropping you again.

That’s my fear that come exchange day he will try for another drop but with the current market we are not getting people through the door

OP posts: