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.

Yes it basically says the roof is unsafe.

You are being taken for a ride on your own side, if you think all those fees are that extreme.

It's not exactly a big risk, and until the transfer is complete they can do and ask what they please and even walk away if they want just like you.

You house has no inherent value, it isn't worth something specific. It's worth what you can get someone to pay, relative to what you need and how fast you need it to move where you want to go (if there is somewhere).

Tell your estate agent to start arranging new viewings. Don’t let the potential buyers back over the threshold until after exchange.

Happened to my friend on the day of exchange. Their removal van was there, they were relocating to another part of the country to start new jobs and had a baby of a few months. They complied due to the stress. Not sure if there would have been another option; I've luckily never had to sell due a relocation.

Some people are chancers, OP, perhaps they like to think of themselves as savvy wheeler-dealers, who knows? I think it’s an arsehole, greedy move, especially when they were getting a good deal in the first place!

I had similar recently, selling my DM’s house to fund a nursing home. DM was running low on money so I was selling cheaply via online auction for alleged “speed and ease”. It was neither speedy or easy! First buyers had to pull out due to a family tragedy, totally understandable and horrible for them. Second buyer just seemed to be dreamer with no actual real plan or financial ability - weird. The third buyer seemed okay, then his solicitors were messing around, taking forever to do anything and missed the deadline for completion. Apparently buyer still wanted to proceed, but then DM died. Probate was expected to take a couple of weeks. While I was still in shock and trying to arrange the funeral, the buyer said he was willing to wait for probate but wanted 15k off the price. I declined and decided I longer had any wish to sell my lovely DP’s house to a vulture who was trying to actively profit from DM’s death. Buyer threw his toys out of his pram and wanted to buy it for original price, but as far as I’m concerned he’s scum and wouldn’t sell it to him at any price.

Play stupid games and win stupid prizes, I suppose. No I’m no longer worried about covering £7.5k per month in nursing home fees, I’m going to re-market it in spring via the traditional method. It’s emotionally difficult selling a loved one’s home in any event, we don’t need arseholes
making it worse!

Sound like chancers to me!

Our buyers tried this the week of exchange. By that point our chain was pretty high stress. They were FTB who had received all requested survey reports then sat on various pieces of paperwork for months before requesting follow up surverys so we were almost 6months in and tension was building with our vendor and others.

They asked for a price reduction with days to go to exchange, we were all signing and returning final paperwork at this point so far too late to attempt this in my view.

We said no, and reiterated that if we lost our purchase due to this request, we would pull out if the sale. We had multiple offers (this was 2021) so this was a genuine threat to them.

Our solicitor also pointed out, which I assume the estate agent passed on, that they would need to review their mortgage offer with their lender, they couldn’t just ‘pay us less’ without discussing with the bank which would have taken time they didn’t have.

They saw sense and we all exchanged as planned.

After my last two sales I would consider a slightly lower offer over selling to a higher offer from FTB again. The inexperience, default to cheapest conveyancer/ solicitor and just general lack of understanding of how things work has led to issues both times.

And yet that still doesn't mean they are sold. Given the amount of posts questioning the OP, clearly many people thunk her wording is bizarre

A firm no or you will pull out. If they still buy remove all the light bulbs when you go. CF's of the highest order.

Not everyone is part of a chain, some are sensible and organise cheap renting for a year or two and sell separately, or just already don't have to consider it.

If I was one of those, and I was less than 10 years ago, I would have pulled out just to mess your purchase up and moved on laughing if you made that threat, plenty of houses and plenty of time for me. So I wouldnt always be so sure of yourself.

Please update on Wednesday!

I think there is huge satisfaction when you are in a position to put manners on someone who tried to screw you over.
He was stupid enough to think he was the big man formally withdrawing his offer, not thinking for a moment it would be accepted.
Playing chicken with the wrong person.
They lost a great house that was well built with all work done to it by skilled trades.
He was bleating on that his wife was devastated.
Perhaps he shouldn't have tried to mess people around.

I thought the term was Sale Agreed.
I understood the OP, but SOLD is only really applicable after the selling party have received funds into their bank account.

In England a house is only "sold" when contracts are exchanged and a deposit paid. Up to that point either party can withdraw without penalty or seek reduction.

The Scots have a system of "fixed price" or "offers in excess" by a certain date. The parties are bound.

When we have sold houses I have always set the price at what we really want and made the EA aware that any messing around will end negotiations. The particulars make that clear

You sound very sure of yourself but I think you’ve misunderstood my post. It was in 2021 post lockdown as people sought outside space, London townhouse with a garden, it was a sellers market so not comparable to today in any sense. We received many offers over asking price.

If someone chances asking for a reduction the day before exchange and I lose my purchase, I wouldn't sell on principle. Simple. Plenty of buyers.

This has just happened to my mom, whole chain collapsed it was her buyers buyer he told them to sling their hook, but he had tried the same thing with my mom, told her to f him off but she wouldn’t listen . The house was on the market for a day. Only had one viewing since new year but the weather has been terrible. She is in a better place to negotiate now.

Do wonder if EA & solicitors are encouraging this, they are making lots of money on one sale. where my mom is buying this is the 3rd time it has collapsed for her.

Someone who doesnt need to buy and can wait, has far more of the control than you are trying to pretend you have over them. Always, including then.

You are the one with a house to purchase, something you don't want to lose, and a chain to have to stay in and deal with otherwise.

Even in late 2021 FIL was buying, he also didn’t' care - opposite of what you decided nobody could possible be doing at that time.

My warning was don't be so sure you might get a surprise (was my only point, you are free to sell and do as you please regardless of course like me and everyone). Your comment doesnt counter this.

Fees were an agreed percentage of sale price

I'd call their bluff and tell them it's OK as you had a second buyer willing to pay the full asking price. Then sit back and wait...

When you say the house was “sold” do you mean the sale was completed and the full
purchase price paid? If not, what stage is this sale at? Have you exchanged contracts or just accepted their offer?

That was very stupid of him, to not realise the change in circumstances meant the pressure on your side to sell quickly had gone and his bargaining position had disappeared! I’m sorry for your loss.

its very common, it’s “a tale as old as time “… they’re just trying to get so far down the line that you’ll be scared not to take the reduction and the chain will collapse if you don’t. But don’t do it, stick to your price. I’m old , luckily it’s never happened to me but they’ve obviously read it or been told about it and thought they’d chance it!

I had buyers who asked for £40K off on the day of exchange with no reason and then said they were out of the country an unable to discuss it. I honestly think they thought I would agree to it as I was in a chain and they were first time buyers. Obviously I told them to get fucked and the whole sale fell through. Some people are just idiots.

My thoughts exactly!

@Rhaidimiddim it's not legal in Scotland but it happened to us! Day before we closed the buyer came back and demanded a £13k reduction based on the home report (which they had had for months). We said no, they came back in the afternoon and offered to buy it if we reduced by £5k we refused and cancelled the sale. Back on the market and we did sell eventually but it was a very stressful process.

Our lawyer was of the opinion the buyers lawyer had been watching too many episodes of Suits.......

House sold months ago
No it didn’t. Exchange of contracts is House sold
even on the day of exchange never take it as a given. It happened to a friend of mine.