… to ask your help deciding on how to respond to our buyer’s request

[Northerngirl1969]

So, we’re part of a four person chain with four houses being bought/sold. Our buyer’s house has been surveyed and an issue has been found. Their buyers (the FTBs) are requesting a £20k reduction as a result. The estate agents representing our buyers (and the house with the issue) are suggesting we help out our buyer by taking £10k off our price and that our sellers should take off £5k. Thus we would be worse off by £5k, our sellers worse off by £5k and our buyers (and the owner of the house with an issue) £10k. The first time buyer will be better off by £20k. The issue is not major. Our estate agent believes the quotes for the work don’t come anywhere near the £20k but of course there’s inconvenience etc. Lastly the FTBs got the survey done on the house very late. So we’ve already 3 months in and several thousands of solicitor fees in. Your thoughts are very welcome!

Hard No from me. The agent has two options:

1. The agents cut a deal with the FTBs and fund from their commission or some of it.

1. You inform the agents that you cannot proceed on those terms, and to please arrange further viewings ASAP.

Good luck.

I don't think I would for damp. In my area all houses have damp as they are Victorian and it's basically just something they all have.

I would be willing to share a bit of the pain but not at 20k cost across the chain and the ftb has to take a big proportion too.

It’s your buyer’s issue, not the rest of the chain. The FTBs and your buyer will need to negotiate or forfeit. I would ask your EA to relist your property and resume viewings asap.

I don't know why everyone's calling the FTBs cheeky- we don't know whether they are or not regarding the cost of the work. But they haven't demanded anything of the OP. They're probably not thinking of the onward chain, why should they?
After their survey, they have reassessed what the house is worth in its current state but they still want it. They've amended their offer to the vendor. It's HE who is trying to pass it on up (or his agent), they haven't done anything wrong.

I’d be tempted to hold firm, in that case. As long as you’re willing and able to take the nuclear option of backing out completely, if it becomes necessary

If the other 3 are desperate to do the deal, you might find that they split the £20k between themselves and the move still goes ahead

Nope. It's essentially an attempt at gazundering and pretty shitty behaviour.

Depends how much you want the sale.

Personally I'd say absolutely not thanks.

Would they pay you £5000 more for your house if the tables were turned? I doubt it!

"The problems found with that house and its value have nothing whatsoever to do with the value of our house. Our house hasn't magically decreased in value because another house has issues, so no, we won't accept less money for it."

Cheeky fuckers. I’d do nothing for now. Would your seller be happy to wait for you to find a new buyer? If so tell the EA it’s a hard no and they risk losing the sale.

No.

Are the estate agents taking a reduction in their commission or just the buyers and sellers?

As others have said, it really isn’t usual to do this.
It’s only 5K so if you spread that 5K over the number of years you’ll be in the house, it’s pretty negligible.

This is my reaction too. Each house sale is a seperate contract.
Not a chance
🤪

If you don’t pay the £5k though and find another buyer, you’ll have to make sure the new buyer offers the same as your existing buyer plus another couple of grand to cover the fees you’ve lost with this one - do you think that’s feasible? You’ll also have lost a good few months of time especially as property buying starts to low a bit at this time of year.

As the vendor of the damp house, I’d be getting quotes for any works linked to the damp and reducing my price by half that amount. 20K is very high! I wouldn’t be expecting the people I’m buying from to reduce their price

I'd probably say no.
things to consider - how much have you spent on legal and survey fees at this point if it were to fall through?
WHat is the market like in your area - how long was your home on the market before you had an offer? Snapped up quickly, an absolute "no" - been on the market for months, maybe weigh up your options. But probably go back with a "no" initially.

£20k seems really high as a reduction for work on a first time buyer property. I think I would be wanting them to negotiate with the bottom of the chain and see if that would come down. To get the deal done I might be prepared to pay say £2k towards to cost. I totally understand all the people saying 'no way' but the whole chain could fall apart and you could end up losing your onward purchase. Again, as a pp said this will depend on how unique the house is/how much you love it. With my current house, there are a lot that are similar and I could have easily walked away, a previous house I would have been gutted if it had fallen through.

That will be an interesting conversation 😂 so hey can you take a £5k hit to help my seller?

That's not all that matters, if OP agrees it's now up to them to convince their buyer to share the hit if not they take the £10k hit.

It happened to us. Buyer dropped their offer by £10k and suggested we spilt it with the person we were selling from. I was furious and gave in and did not ask the seller to split it. I've still not got over it. I won't ever be in that position again. I'll sell out of chain if I need to.

This is quite a usual request, but you don’t have to agree to it. The only reason to would be if it was the only way to keep the chain together.

Few insights though…

3 months in to get a survey is not late or slow, it can take that long and particular for lenders surveys/valuations. Not an unusual time scale at all.

Do you know if the lenders valuation has picked up on the issue, and if so whether it has impacted their mortgage offer? If not then that gives some leverage.

If you are buying with a mortgage and/or the others above you in chain are then changing your purchase prices would mean going back to your lenders for revised mortgage offers which may or may not change what rates and offers you get. Eg if knocked you down a bracket for loan to value etc. If that would disadvantage you then that’s your ticket to very firmly be able to hold off agreeing as can put it that you can’t agree as would make you unproceedable due to your lender so it wouldn’t achieve anything.

I have seen this before - a buyer at the bottom of the chain held the whole chain to ransom. The other 4 sets of people in the chain split the costs of the buyer's demand to keep the chain intact. My friend was the second in the chain and was so angry about it that her and her dh destroyed important parts of the house so that the ransoming buyer would be inconvenienced and out of pocket by quite a lot. Very bad situation all round.

So, the estate agent is saying the chain could break? It's a risk but so is life. On the face of it, it's not your prob. The negotiation is between the FTB and the seller. I mean, why does everyone else have to fund the sellers house with problems they probably knew about?!

In my experience this isn’t unusual, it depends how much you want to proceed

Tell the agent to take a cut in their commission and then you'll discuss it!