House sold months ago, buyers now want a

[Roseyliv78]

Hi all, wondering if anyone can give me some perspective…

We sold our house a few months ago and the buyers were fine up until last week. Out of the blue, they suddenly asked for £11k off a £300k purchase. They also apparently told our estate agent that, because we’re moving to a much bigger house, we can afford to give them a discount. We have no idea how they even got our new address, the estate agent says they definitely didn’t give it out.

The mortgage valuation guy said there were no down valuations at the end of the visit, and all the surveys came back fine, so nothing has come up to justify this. Our buyers said it was due to local area but the surveyor and bank surveyor both said it’s been extremely strong.

We obviously said no. We also offered to talk to the rest of the chain to see if the £11k could somehow be sorted that way, but they didn’t respond. Then they said they were disappointed we didn’t renegotiate, even though we had already negotiated properly at the time.

Honestly, we’re just a bit confused by the whole thing. Has anyone else had buyers suddenly try this months after the sale?

is this a classic attempt to try and give us a headache?

its strange as know they’ve paid all the legal fees, surveyor fees. Surely very risky as we could tell them to do one, and they could lose all the fees if we didn’t want to sell to them now.

allot younger then us as we both in our early 40s and our buyers early 30s don’t know if it’s a social media trend etc.

How bizarre. I wouldn't have offered to speak to the rest of the chain either.
Just say no and move on.

Tell them to sod off.

To do this now, once everyone has worked on the basis of the agreed sale prices. Disgusting behaviour.

What's the rest of the chain got to do with it? Are you near completion? Tell them absolutely not, complete on X date or you're putting it back on the market. Cheeky fuckers.

Pass on a message via your estate agent “What part of off are you having trouble understanding?”

Stick to your no, it’s ridiculous for them to try and get 11k discount for no issues with survey etc. Let them lose the money they’ve spent so far.

You did the right thing in saying no. Hope it can all go through eventually.

I have long argued that the law for the sale and purchase of houses in England and Wales should be changed. Same process as in Scotland would be an improvement and relatively easy to implement.

There are always chancers out there.

I was selling my family home after my stepdad died. It was just after covid and probate took forever. The same buyers waited and waited.

On the day we were due to exchange, they pulled out.

Estate Agent called full of woe. Would I like to reduce the price?

Fortunately, I was in no hurry so said I had no interest in proceeding with them and to put it back on the market.

Are they the bottom of the chain and you've yet to explain? I think they are being cheeky and trying a risky tactic: that you won't want to collapse the chain and you'll take the hit on the price.

But you also make it sound like the sale has completed and you're in the new house? In which case, they don't have a hope in hell of reopening a completed sale and this is crazy behaviour.

Seems to be becoming a thing these days, chancers wanting money off right at the end of completion amd people bowing down to stop a chain folding..... just stand firm and see if they pull out. I doubt they will.

Quite common to attempt to “gazunder” in this way. People gamble on the fact that you’ll be so desperate not to lose your onward purchase that you’ll agree to it, or meet in the middle. Just hold your nerve and say the price is the price. It’s possible they will pull out but £11k is a lot of money to just give away so I’d stick to your guns.

Just to be clear, you didn't "sell" the property. You're in the conveyancing process to sell it, and you're in a chain?

If your buyers are at the bottom of the chain then it's a common tactic. They know they hold more power, because the chain could collapse without them but they have little to loose beyond the survey and solicitor fees they have engaged (and some will only charge on completion so will cost them nothing at this stage).

They are idiots and terrible negotiators if they think they can just show up and ask for a lower price "just because". Normally buyers are a bit more clever and base this on some work required on the house.

You CANNOT accept this or renegotiate. They already negotiated once, that's a second time 3 months in, if you give in they'll certainly do it again a few days before exchange...

The only reasonable response is to tell them to let you know asap whether they still want to buy the house, as otherwise you'll put it back on the market.

I'm selling my house right now and have already told dh I'm.pulling out if we get this last minute. Our house is priced to sell 30k under its potential market max if it had everything done. So no 10k off for a new kitchen etc. It's had that taken into consideration already.

Can you say no? And mean it? Did come straight after the survey? On the back of the survey? It seems not?

Why on earth did you communicate this to the rest of the chain, how, and what exactly did you say to them?!

Obviously post-sale they can’t renegotiate the price.

Bottom of the chain. FTB

We had similar and did similar. You have to mean it though. Our sale went through.

First of all, it’s not months after the sale. The sale hasn’t happened yet. It’s months after the accepted offer. Not that I think you’re being unreasonable, but just to point out it’s prudent to remember that nothing is final til it’s final with property buying/selling.

Without reason to devalue your property, they are clearly just trying it on and also clearly need the money because they have overspent. It’s not your issue. Decline and keep firm.

We had a CF do this, the day before exchange. No reason, he just thought he could chance his arm. Not only did we refuse, but we told him the house was no longer for sale to him, at any price. He then tried to complain to our solicitor! Twat.
Someone else bought it at full asking a couple of weeks later.

offered to speak to the rest of the chain, but the buyers never replied. It feels like a simple tactic — they’ve been quiet for over a week and a half, probably hoping we’ll cave. We’ve told our estate agent that the price is the price. We know they’ve already paid legal fees and surveyor costs, and we’ve paused any activity with our solicitor.

Because they don’t want us to go to the rest of the chain, it really seems like an attempt to push the price down.

Told our estate agents “not a penny off” that’s our instruction, if we lose onward purchase so what we will find another and set an example from the attempted guzunders

My friends had similar. They were told “there had been a mistake” and their buyer could only afford £25k less than the agreed price. They were also the beginning of the chain… They did persuade the whole chain to accept £25k less somehow. I’d have said no.

Honestly they have decided they don't want the house because they've found something they like more/are interested in a different area/don't want to move and they are being cheeky sods about it.

Buyer did it to me with my parents' house. Got almost to exchange and they pulled out because of their being no planning permission for the extension. It took me a 5 minute phone call to the planning office to find the planning permission! They could have done it if they'd wanted... I'm now back to square one with selling the place...

Yes, it’s just happened in my family.

I was selling a house for an elderly person who needed funds for care home. The need was urgent.

Surveys all good, house just needed a lick of paint, new carpets etc. Otherwise clean & empty.

Almost on the day of exchange given a drop in
price of £20k had already been agreed (in a very slow rural market) they wanted another £10K off.

I negotiated it up by £5K but overall they got £25k knocked off the asking price. We had to sell because relative’s funds were depleting.

The Estate Agent remarked he’d never in all his years in business had to desk with such awful morally dishonest buyers.

Years ago something similar happened to someone else in my family on the day before exchange. The stress was horrendous because he too was elderly and was downsizing to a rental. He had to agree but it was an awful thing to happen and was very stressful to a mild mannered old widower.

Ok so the house isn’t actually sold yet. That makes more sense.

Just say no, you are unable to move on the agreed price.

We had this happen to us as well. We managed to negotiate the same amount off the one we were buying so worked ok for us but was immensely stressful and immoral but selling houses splits people who are fair and reasonable and those who, well, aren’t.

That’s exactly what we said.

I think they’ll probably go ahead with the purchase and have just been given some poor advice from family or friends.

It’s odd that they don’t want us to talk to the rest of the chain when we offered to. Our estate agent even said that it could easily cause the chain to collapse if we did, which makes it all feel a bit tactical.