I’ve come here to get some opinions from people removed from the situation.
We had an offer accepted on a house in September, the house fits our, very specific, needs and although we would like to improve it over the years (new kitchen, bathrooms, maybe extension) we would be planning this to be a home for 20 years.
The house is an adjoining paddock, a couple of acres, which is ideal as I have always had horses (prior to kids) and when the little people are bigger I would like to get another.
We were all set to exchange on the Monday before Xmas when our solicitor calls to say that the sellers want to impose an Overage clause (also called uplift/ clawback) on the land. In essence this means that if planning permission is granted on the land we must pay a percentage of the increase in value to the sellers. We felt completely blindsided as we had never even heard of this before that date.
Aside from potentially building a couple of stables in the future we have absolutely no plans to develop the land. (Why would we, we love the house because it is rural).
I can’t decide if we should cut our losses and walk away now.
Now the seller is threatening to put the house back on the market next Monday. We feel backed into a corner and bullied.
Initially we were dead set against the overage (especially as it was dropped on us at the 11th hour) but having had time to look around at what else is on the market (nothing that meets our needs), thinking about the 15k extra we will have to pay on another property (as it’s doubtful there would be a house we would complete on before the SD holiday ends), the £2k+ we’ve already spent on conveyancing, searches, surveys, inspections etc. and many other factors we had decided that we would be open to the overage (as long as we negotiate terms that we are ok with)
Are we stupid, should we walk away, is this fate giving a massive warning sign...