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.

I’ve sold several houses as a single woman and there’s always a Dad doing this sort of thing. It’s cheaper to put your packed boxes in storage for a few months than lose £11k on the sale.

Yeah 6 visits would be a red flag. If they're old enough to get a mortgage, they're old enough to not have mum and dad hold their hands. Mum and dad who potentially haven't bought a house for a long time.

When I sold the family home, the buyers tried this on.
I was aware that there were some issues to be addressed, and made no bones about them when showing the couple round, saying that the asking price had been adjusted accordingly. Essentially, it was a "fixer-upper", nothing major if the purchaser had any DIY skills, and, crucially for a family but not for me, in the catchment area for a very good school.
The offers came in so quickly, the photos of the house didn't make it to the EA's window! I had another viewer while they were "thinking about it" who was especially interested in the loft space, which already had good access, flooring installed, and, apparently, excellent light aspect for an artist's workspace.
They rang me up to make a lower offer, and I told them, quite truthfully, that I had just turned down an offer from said artist but could easily get back to her if they had changed their minds.
They agreed so promptly, I think they had been swayed by ill-informed advice, and saw sense.

Stick to your guns op.

The Scottish system wouldn't prevent a buyer doing this exact same thing though, would it?

Well you aren't really, are you? You did the same to the people you were buying from.

We Thought they was decent at first “they don’t come across like they would do this” I think. Influenced by family or friends. They far too quiet.

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When I sold in England in 2006 I was very naive, the buyers tried every trick in the book to reduce their offer price but with no justification whatsoever. I just said no each time and refused to budge - but it was an eye opener. They had to go with the original price eventually, because they really wanted the house.

So you’ve not sold your house, you’ve not even exchanged yet, you’ve accepted an offer and the buyer has dropped it. So far so normal. Just say no.

Just for information, the sealed bid process which legally binds the buyer is not always used in Scotland. Sales can be done in the same way as in England with contracts not binding until exchange, and with exchange/completion on same day. Family were selling house in Scotland, with the whole chain in Scotland. They did not have a sealed bid process, simply accepted an offer from someone they knew. The person at bottom of chain collapsed it on the day everyone was supposed to exchange/complete/move because it turned out they didn't actually have a mortgage in place. All the removal vans had to turn round and unload again. The other people in the chain managed to stick together until a new buyer was found and the sale went through several months later. Extremely stressful for all concerned.

Some people are fucking cheeky cheeky bastards!!!!

When I was in my 20s and 30s aqaintances would often say that they look at obituaries to seek out a house to buy. That was over 30 years ago. Seems that things haven't changed.

Always be aware of parents who accompany adult children. They absolutely think it's still their money.

Yes I was asked for 12k off a sale just before completion. I gave 5k although I absolutely begrudged them as we had already accepted a low offer. I was annoyed but had had a sale fall through a few months previously and it wasted so much time and money. Now we have moved I don’t think about it but I think it’s a crap thing to do as it’s manipulative- friends said I should have refused to pay it as they had spent money and wouldn’t want sale to fall through- who knows what would have happened

If you think that’s bad I sold a house that the buyer dropped the offer by 200k the day before exchange! I declined obviously.

All’s fair in love and conveyancing.

Until you’ve exchanged you don’t have your house or your price.

i am a mortgage broker have been for 10 years and my guess is either - they were promised a gift of a deposit and now can’t get it or they have done something stupid like get a loan/car on finance and now the don’t meet the affordability criteria of the mortgage company

We had this when we were selling our house a few years ago, we'd put an offer on another house and had it accepted but I still told the estate agents we wouldn't be dropping the price and to remarket the property ASAP, you do have to be serious in doing so though.
Came as a shock to the buyers they ended up offering us an extra 5k if we continued with them.

It also happen to a friend, buyers wanted 20k off and unfortunately friend had to say yes as they would have lost their new house.

So its not a new thing, just a piss take.

OP, push back hard if you can.

This happened my friend last year.
The husband was a pompous oaf and know it all.
Came in at the last minute wanting a 10% discount.
When she refused he withdrew his offer, they too were about to close.
He had mistakenly thought he had my friend caught because of her move to a larger house.

She was buying her parents large house so was not stuck at all.
She accepted hiswithdrawal via the solicitor.

He was horrified and tried to back track, but my friend had had enough of them.
He called to the house to try and speak to them and she told him she would call the police.
He couldn't accept that he had FUFO.
His wife wasapparently devastated.

EA went back to the underbidder, they came to a very quick agreement and the house was sold.

It was hugely stressful for them.
Last minute stunt pullers are the absolute lowest of the low.

The Home Report up front is helpful in that in reduces scope for re-negotiation subsequently - or it should do. Other than that I can't see any real difference between the two systems assuming it's the standard offer/acceptance/exchange.

I think you're being too kind to the buyers suggesting there's anything other than a desire to feel they've bagged a buyer.

You are correct,it would be exactly the same.either party can withdraw up until the conclusion of missives without any liability
Missives used to be concluded very quickly,that’s very unusual now
Having said that gazundering is still pretty much unheard of ,and solicitors have to withdraw from acting is asked to submit a lower bid

This is really very wrong of them!

However, if you suggested going to the chain (which I know you haven’t yet) to see if the £11K could be sorted that way then aren’t you doing the same to the rest of the chain? Whether it’s finding the £11k that way or simply getting £1k off from the rest of the chain, isn’t that the same?

FTB house prices are dropping they’re probably panicking they’ve over paid

I’d be asking the estate agent to remarket it, that might help ‘focus’ them

It’s not the sealed bid process in Scotland that binds the parties, it’s the conclusion of the missives