Chain - near collapse

[londonfieldz]

We put an offer in on a house we love. We'd done all our maths and were putting everything we could in to afford this place.

Our current house went under offer to a chain free buyer (although it's not been as quick as one would imagine), we were all ready to exchange, except now our buyer is saying that the valuation on his mortgage (he's remortgaging another property to release funds), has come up £55,000 short.

We aren't in a position to increase our offer on the house we love to make up the difference, and our buyers are saying they're at their max too. The estate agents for the property we want to buy are dealing with that one, as well as the onward chain. They say that there's no way that either of the vendors above us will be willing to suck up that shortfall. Which I guess is understandable. However, our estate agents are saying that we just need to put in a revised lower offer on the property we love, and the people above us will just need to suck up the price difference if they don't want this chain to collapse. We're in London and his argument is that proportionately the split is nominal in terms of the price of the houses.

Has anyone had experience of this? Hope I've made sense.

I'd email the estate agents in the chain , and explain, 55k is alot of money but how many is in the chain and how much is it compared to the house prices ? Market is slowing down everyone could lose that waiting for buyers.

There's our buyers and then two above us (the two above us are being dealt with by the same agent). It's a lot of money, so I wouldn't blame them for not wanting to go ahead. But in terms of proportion of house value it's not much split across two.

I'm just not sure how to play it. I don't want to piss anyone off basically but there's not much we can do. We've added a small amount of extra savings we had to show willing, but that's all we can afford and it doesn't do much to negate the shortfall.

Then tell them that , ultimately it's not something you can control if you can't bridge the gap. Can't your buyer remortgage the house he is in now to bring in some more money or is he selling both to fund yours ?

Yeah I suppose it's a bit out of our hands isn't it. He's in rented currently. Can't help but fee he's playing a bit of a game, but I trust our agents and they think that's all the funds he has available.

Im a bit confused. Who is it that needs an extra 55k? Your buyer? They're trying it on. Unless you're selling ultra-high price houses & can afford to take the hit, which it seems isn't the case, then all you can do is remarket your property as far as I can see it. Gutting I know!

No harm asking the question further along the chain though.

Hmmm your buyer needs to come up with his share of the £55k...

All parties would need to take a hit including him!

If he's remortgaging another property he's not as broke as he makes out is he, sounds like a complete game player!

That's what I feel like but they're adamant there's nothing left. I think we just need to put forward a new offer based in the drop in price on our place and see what they say. Suspect we'll loose it though which is cutting. We've obviously paid for surveys and searches etc.