AIBU to stick with current buyer rather than sell to tenants?

[Whotosellto]

I’m a landlord who currently selling a house. The tenants gave notice months ago and are due to move out soon. I received an offer on the house at asking price about 6 weeks ago which I’ve accepted. The tenants are now saying they would like to buy the house after the house they were buying fell through. They’re a family with 2 children and another baby on the way. They can’t match the offer already accepted, they’ve offered £10k less. They said they’re desperate. They’ve been ok tenants although they’ve missed rent a few times.

Would you stick with the existing buyer or accept the offer from the existing tenants? Would you feel more obligated to your tenants of a few years or to the buyer we have accepted an offer from already? Obviously the tenants could now refuse to move and cause issues which we need to bear in mind and they’ve offered less but we’ll save some costs by selling to the current tenants,
probably not £10k though.

Im thinking of sticking with the buyer we already have. AIBU?

But this seller would still need to pay the EA

I think that’s a shame. At least your considered selling to the tenants, probably many wouldn’t.

Honestly I find mumsnet so depressing sometimes.

I’ve just read through this thread, and the number of people who have no sympathy for renters reads to me as a lack of empathy.

It’s so insidious, and no doubt some on here will just say it’s ’landlord bashing’ but the instinct to side with those who have the power to make families homeless over families in need is indicative of so much of what’s wrong in this society. It’s interesting to be on a forum where people are happy to unashamedly side with the haves rather than the have nots (not just here, but so much racism & defence of colonialism etc throughout the site).

Good to read that some on the thread would do the right thing if it were them, but this has been my final straw on mumsnet.

It’s been a good 18 years or so but I’m deleting it now.

I’m staggered that the PP thinks that it is the owner’s moral duty to let down the people she’s already dealing with and who are presumably keen to buy a home in order to take a chance on selling to a tenant who has already defaulted on rent. Insane. If you want to obtain a preference from your landlord then be a good tenant and pay your debts when due.

Adulthood involves taking financial responsibility for yourself and paying your bills without expecting someone else to bail you out.

I find it depressing that so many people would so readily break their word in order to fulfil a personal preference. And then they argue that they're taking a moral stance.

It's not as if any of the parties here has given false information, misrepresented their position or suddenly shown themselves to be unreliable. Those might be reasons to go back on your word. A previously unforseen possibility coming up doesn't qualify. Unforseen things happen all the time. If giving your word is subject to nothing new happening then how can it be worth anything?