Concerned about relative concealing info in house sale

[Sempersecunda]

I have a relative who is desperate to sell their house and has received a very good offer that they are considering accepting. The buyer has offered a down-payment now to secure a sale with completion in a few months.

Two things concern me:

1. That offering a down-payment with later completion date is simply a way of securing a house with an attractive offer only to then whittle down the price before completion.

2)The property suffered flooding in the recent storms and I do not know if this has been revealed to the buyer. I feel it should be. If the buyer does not find out about this before completion, could they then sue my relative if they find out they did not reveal this before the sale?

Any advice much appreciated - thanks

I've never heard of anyone putting a down payment on a house purchase. Very unusual. Is it a refundable deposit? I don't think that a down payment will make later renegotiation on the price any more or less likely. The buyer could still do this without a deposit, so I'm not too sure what you mean.

The house seller will have to fill in a form at some point that will cover such things as flooding. If he doesn't answer honestly then he could well be sued at a later date.

A proper survey done by the buyer will show up flooding risks anyway.

Building survey I mean

A solicitor will sort this all out for your relative, that's what they're for, don't worry about it.

While making a deposit is unusual I have heard of it before. Basically the other party is making sure that your relative does take the property off the market and won't let anybody else view it.

It sounds like this ''few months'' could well be quite a few months. If I were selling a house and a buyer made an offer but couldn't complete for several months then I would keep it on the market and let other people carry on viewing my house because so much can happen in that time.