Gazundered and worried!

[Louise866]

We sold our house in early February to the first person who viewed it - she offered 10k under the asking price and we rejected because it had only been on the market 4 days and we had more viewings booked. She upped her offer to asking price the next day and we accepted. She then came round for another viewing and we were very accommodating - let her spend about 40 minutes looking round, didn't follow her around, made her a cup of tea even! All seemed to be fine until about 6 weeks later we were getting close to exchange and we get a call from the EA saying she's dropped her offer by 10k and if we don't accept she's pulling out! Of course by now we're invested in buying a house we love, which she knows. We were absolutely furious as there was no basis for the price drop, no survey issues etc, just because she felt like it. Anyway purely out of not wanting to lose the house we're buying we agreed to drop by 5k, but not 10. She agreed to this. Then she asked (via her solicitor) us to pay for a boiler service. We said no, because it's a 3 year old boiler and we've just dropped the price by 5k! She persisted with this for about 3 weeks before giving in and saying she'll pay for it and is sending a plumber round. Her solicitor has also pestered a lot about us taking out various indemnity policies for silly reasons (not anything like unauthorised extensions etc!) and the buyer has kept threatening to pull out if we didn't bow down to her demands. We've stood firm and she's given in on them. However we're due to exchange next week and she's insisting on coming back for another visit. I initially said no because she had a lengthy second viewing only in Feb and she's messed us about and blackmailed us into giving her 5k off! However of course she's said she'll pull out if we don't let her so I've agreed to a quick visit this week as long as exchange takes place soon after. I'm pissed off that I have to clean and tidy the whole house now and worried that she's not really sure she's going to go through with it or try get more money off.... apparently her solicitor has advised she must be allowed to come round again before exchange to check we haven't done anything to the house?! I've never heard of this and we're not going to view the one we're buying again. I don't really know how she's got the cheek to insist after her gazundering stunt or why she would want to see me after that?! She knows we are not at all happy about the whole situation.

I always view before exchange because I need to know that the place hasn't burnt down! On everything else she is being well out of line. We had a "I'm going to pull out!" vendor- at some point we just left him to threaten. He didn't pull out.

I'd get the EA to make it very clear that if she tries anything after this viewing, dropping the price or stupid demands about what she wants left, that they are under instruction to immediately get it back on the market and she will lose the house. I would have told her where to go after the 10k stunt. Given it was her original offer, this was her intention all along. She never intended to pay the price she offered and she is a shitbag for that.

HarryPottersMagicWand yep that's exactly what I think, it was her plan all along. She knew we had loads of viewings booked and she wanted it off the market so she offered asking price knowing full well she never intended to pay it. A big part of me wishes we'd called her bluff now but we so don't want to lose our new house. She's threatened to pull out numerous times since though over the boiler service / indemnities etc and we've stuck to our guns and we've of course she hasn't pulled out. She's coming tomorrow for her viewing and a plumber is coming to check the (ancient 3 year old) boiler 🙄 I'm just in shock that people can be so bloody entitled and difficult. We've asked nothing of our sellers, we just want to buy the house and cause no friction!

Yep, she's definitely had this planned all along. Got to admire her chutzpah really.

Just be prepared, as she will definitely try and get more off. The plumber is of course going to say your (perfectly fine, 3 year old) boiler is knackered and all needs replacing. Probably about 5ks worth?
I'd put money on it.

Oh god I am dreading it now 😫 What she doesn't know though is that we HAVE had the boiler checked ourselves for our own peace of mind (just refuse to do it for HER) and the plumber said it was absolutely fine, running perfectly and all the levels are close to perfect. So if she does try to pull anything we are prepared. In fact I'll just instruct the EA to put it straight back on the market and she might have a sudden bout of clarity then 🙄 Surely though the plumber who comes round isn't going to outright lie and say there's something wrong with it when there isn't?! Or am I naive?!

Ask to see the report and quote.

You are not naive. There is no point second guessing what her plumber is going to say. Do insist the EA get the plumber's name and his Gas Safe registration number. If he won't provide it then any report he provides is worthless imo. Your boiler has been registered after installation I take it?

Anyway don't gas engineering out service stickers on them? With the date and next due?

We've paid for a boiler service for our buyer. And when we purchased a house some years ago when their wasn't a service document within the last 12 months we got the seller to service it for us. It's quite normal and sometimes lenders require it where they are lending 95% of property value. The third viewing is also normal- we've done it with all 3 houses we've bought and our current property being sold has also had a 3rd viewing.

What is not normal is the chipping away at the price. I would just hold firm. We are due to exchange on Thursday (it won't happen as buyers solicitor is useless) but we will hold firm as we need every penny to move.

You should definitely do the viewing see what she's like to your face!!

Shadowboy we did actually have a boiler service booked and were prepared to pay for it in the interests of moving everything along... until she pulled her gazundering stunt and then we cancelled it and refused. I mean why on earth would we hand her 5k and then get the boiler serviced too?! She's on another planet. It's a really good house which has been fully renovated and she won't need to lift a finger in it. She's also a cash buyer and doesn't need a mortgage so it's not a requirement from her lender, she's just a cheeky cow imo.

She'll drop by 5k after her viewing tomorrow, to get it for the price she wanted.

Please say fuck off.

Harrypottersmagicwand

Totally agree with you. She is a shitbag for doing that. All those potential buyers the EA had organised to view the OPs home and the current buyer just wanted rid of them as part of a longer strategy to get it for the price SHE wanted to pay. I know everyone only wants to pay what they HAVE to pay for a property but that's pretty underhand of her.

Hope everything moves smoothly for you going forward OP.

Good luck for tomorrow.

I know you really want your new house but I'd honestly love her to pull some stunt and you can tell her where to go and she panics after losing your house. She obviously does want it or she would have pulled outone of the times that she threatened to.

Well she's been for her viewing and I went out but I ended up seeing her briefly when I came back (because she stayed for 25 bloody minutes) - she tried to apologise to me for the 'bad blood' but had no explanation for why she had done it, I just told her I didn't want to speak to her and we thought it was horrible how she'd treated us. She just said she was 'sorry I felt that way' and insisted it wasn't a calculated thing. Whatever. Anyway we're supposed to exchange asap but I don't know what will happen now. The plumbers told me that the boiler was running well and perfectly safe but there was a couple of minor issues with it, but more just nitpicking kind of things. They advised that she may try get us to have work done to it but as it is perfectly well functioning and safe we can say no and suggest she she has that done when she moves in if she wants.

We will see... 🙄

Urgh. Well if she does, you can counter with your own report on it. At least she knows she has hacked you off.

What an awful person she is. Somehow the apologising got the bad blood is even worse than if she just ignored it. If the sale goes through o certainly wouldn't be worrying about leaving the house in a spotless condition.

Yeah sod that. I wouldn't clean a thing. She can use her 5k to get cleaners in if it is that bad. (I'm sure it won't be o/p)

I'd also stop mowing the lawn if the sake goes through. I wouldn't put weedkiller on all the plants but I'd be tempted too. 😂

Oh I'm not cleaning it, not a chance! Stupid woman, before all this happened I would have left it spotless and left her a bottle of wine etc and wished her well. It makes me feel quite sad that we're now selling it (possibly, if she doesn't pull out) to someone like this. It's tainted it all 🙁 I don't know why people think it's ok to behave like this and cause other people so much stress. I couldn't do it. Don't offer that much if u aren't willing to pay it!! She only apologised because she knows I'm fuming and it would relieve her conscience about it. Well I'm not giving her that satisfaction, people like her think they can do what they like and it's all fine. If she thinks she's been fair and reasonable then there's no need to apologise is there?

It's perfectly reasonable to have a final viewing just before exchanging, and most solicitors will advise to do so.You commit to buy the property in the state it was on the day of exchange so you'd better make sure of what you are doing!

that said, of course she had it planned all along. Your new house is worth the £5, don't get upset about it now.

She is an idiot though. Finger crossed it goes smoothly with the exchange, she can end up with a filthy house, no light bulb anywhere and all sort of minor inconveniences - as long as you did not commit to sell something in the inventory, it's for you to take.
Don't leave rubbish in the house though, legally she can charge you for the cleaning if you signed that the house would be empty.

Its done now, if she pulls out, just put the house back on the market. Presumably she had a survey done by now, does she have a mortgage? If so, she also paid for the mortgage fee and she is liable for her solicitors fees if she pulls out now.

You know what, I honestly 100% believe that this will haunt her in the future. Karma, if you will. Good things happen to good people, and she has proven she isn't a good person.

I have an acquaintance who did this to someone (I've never been able to look at her I'm the same way since), and in a very small way that karma has come full circle. Its nothing serious, more an inconvenience on her part, but the mean side of me does chuckle inwardly when I see her.

Go and distract yourself by planting some spring bulbs in the lawn, maybe spelling something rude....

She doesn't need a mortgage and hasn't had a proper survey (just a surveyor friend of hers popped round for 10 minutes) so it's hard to know how committed she is really as she won't have forked out TOO much money. I don't know, hopefully she'll just proceed now but I'm not holding my breath. I won't leave any rubbish or anything like that, I've imagined all sorts of revenge plans in my mind haha but in reality I won't do any of them, I would just end up feeling a bit bad then and I'd rather walk away the bigger person. Im just not cleaning it to be spotless like I would have done normally. I hope seeing me face to face has showed her it's not ok to treat people like this, but that might be wishful thinking.

It's an awful process, people should not be able to change their mind so late in the process, costing a fortune to others.

hope it goes through, it's a nightmare.