Seller demanding £33k extra on exchange day

[Firecat84]

After weeks of harassment from our sellers about the process going too slowly (it's been about 5/6 months due to us losing one set of buyers halfway through - we've been chasing solicitors like crazy trying to speed everything up) we were due to exchange yesterday. On the day however, we received a message via the vendors' solicitor saying that house prices had gone up so much in the time it had taken the deal to go through that they wanted an extra £33k (they gave a whole bunch of other vague reasons too, which I think boil down to they've had to pay for an extra term's private school fees?!!) Obviously we don't have this money and even if we did we don't want to give in to such horrible tactics. The vendors aren't in a chain going up - I don't know where they're moving after this.

The house had been on the market for a while when we made our offer and had been reduced twice. I believe we were the only offer (it has potential but needs quite a lot of work). We offered £8k under the lowest asking price. At the time there was plenty on the market in the area and now there is nothing we could afford. All the houses available are bigger and nicely finished, which does give the impression prices have gone up, but I think it's a bit misleading.

We are financially stretched to our limit as it is but are in a flat with a baby and desperately need more space. We've spent so much time and energy (and money) on this move and we're just exhausted and depressed by it all. My family want us to walk away and not give any money to such horrible sellers. What would you do?

It is awful that the law allows people to do this, huge sympathies.

Agree don’t walk away. I would say to agent that you are unable to pay more , will exchange at agreed price but that you assume they are unlikely to go ahead so please whilst waiting to hear what seller going to do could the agent sort viewings on anything suitable and are there any valuations they have done recently on properties likely to come on.

Shameful behaviour.

But if you can't afford the extra £33, then you have no other option than to decline. I can't imagine they think you're going to agree to this blackmail. They obviously have other motives.

I'd go with the suggestion to say you're willing to exchange today at the agreed price.

Leave the ball in their court.

Definitely stand your ground. Bastards.

You’d also need to get a revised mortgage offer as the sale price has changed. Let the blame of the sale falling through lay at their feet.

Wow, my house took 5 months. Seems like your process was only a bit longer than average.

So sorry to hear this OP. If it helps this also happened to me over 20 years ago. Slow legal stuff (mainly down to the seller's solicitors, I had sold, was in rented and ready to proceed) then just before exchange the seller decided she wanted to up the price. I really couldn't afford it so had to say no. She didn't pull out. She did attempt to sell me so of her furniture, curtains and carpets for very inflated prices. I would have liked them but not at those prices so I politely said no. When she left she took the door handles and lightbulbs but left me a pot plant as a gift and a nice letter. It sounds calmer twenty plus years after the event than it did at the time when I was in a total tizzy (she also demanded out of the blue on one day that we exchange that day, I had to run out of work to sort it). It worked out in the end and I'm still there many years later. I really hope it works out for you. Good luck

I had a clause like that in my contract in 2019. My estate agents turned into utter wankers towards the end of the contract because of it. So wooly worded that they insisted I pay MORE than originally agreed to sell if I pulled out, and that I pay it same day.

Now every time I spot someone on Facebook asking about estate agents in the area I message them and warn them to avoid this clause.

I’m not sure I’d be willing to buy the house at all. Maybe if they reduced the price, but not for the agreed price. I don’t think I could let go of the resentment and be happy in the house if I wasn’t compensated at their expense.

Good luck don’t give in!

Buh bye.

5/6 months isn't unreasonable, in my opinion.

It is very, very unlikely the vendors will have to pay their agent if they pull out. Most contracts are “no sale no fee”, so unless they’ve exchanged there is no fee due for whatever reason they don’t go ahead.

Your timescale isn’t massively longer than average - they are foolish chancers - you don’t have the money - tell them you will exchange this week at the agreed price . Ask your solicitor to start the exchange process ...so offer them an exchange and then sit back and wait ... don’t make any other comment . Either they’ll exchange or they won’t so don’t waste energy arguing

So they are greedy for wanting an extra £33k in line with a rising market but you are not greedy for offering £8k under lowest asking price in a falling market.

If you think you can get more house for your money - go ahead. If they can get more now - then they'd be mad not to. If house prices suddenly took a dive because the Govt hiked stamp duty are you saying you wouldn't negotiate a drop? It's a market.

Sorry for you OP - it's a shit thing to happen - but it's not evil of them any more than it was evil of you not to offer asking price.

In old MNet speak "no" is a complete sentence. Life has a funny way of turning out op. Similar happened to friends of ours 20 or so years ago and they lost the house. The other purchasers enrolled their child at the same school and were distraught that shortly after moving in, thousands of £'s of dry rot was found. No structural survey in either case. Our friends ended up moving out a tiny bit too a nicer house near better schools and inadvertently dodged a bullet.

Tell them you are thinking about it and then leave it as close to the exchange deadline as you can eg. minutes, to then say no.

There are two possibilities here:

1 - They are trying it on, and will still proceed at the original agreed price if you refuse.

2 - They really do want the extra £33k, which you can’t afford and wouldn’t pay even if you could because they are cheeky bar stewards

In either case the response is the same. You just need to say a definite no to them.

Came to this quite late but hope you've been able to exchange at the original price. Good luck OP.

Some people really are arses when it comes to house-buying and selling, I was also completely stunned at some of the comments made on the thread where the MNers posted the pictures of their house to ask why she'd not had an offer after some viewings.

The system really does need an overhaul. I don't like the Scottish system of "offers over" but I think in general it's a better system.

Good luck today, OP!

I had this, with smaller sums of money. I gave them 24 hours to exchange, and the EA gave them an incentive (I wasn’t party to that).

Viewed every similar house within a mile during those 24 hours, but here I am. Found out later that they were habitually dishonest.

What horrible people.

Stick to your guns and as PP advised and don't be the one to pull out of it comes to that- let them be liable for the fees.

Good luck!

This happened to me in 2002 when prices locally were rising by 20-25% a month. We were on the verge of being priced out and were asked to pay an extra 10% as FTBs on an ex buy to let. We had offered their asking price. They were serious and had put the house back on the market and were showing people around.

Awful behaviour. Our solicitor wanted us to walk away but we couldn't. We paid under 10% in the end, the exchange day they pulled out on was my birthday and I remember spending the whole day crying rather then the celebration we planned.

I'm sorry this has happened to you, hopefully you don't have to give in to the despicable fuckers.

Explain it to them as you have done here. You have put in an awful lot of time and effort for the house, you are stretched to the limit and unfortunately don't have the means to give an extra 33K. You are still prepared to go ahead at the agreed price but if not, unfortunately you will have to walk away.
They may back down....they may not. But you will have at least tried before leaving them to it. I'm really upset for you though, I remember how stressful buying and selling is....it's not for nothing that I prefer to rent in my older years, I've always found it far less stressful.

@blobblob

So they are greedy for wanting an extra £33k in line with a rising market but you are not greedy for offering £8k under lowest asking price in a falling market.

If you think you can get more house for your money - go ahead. If they can get more now - then they'd be mad not to. If house prices suddenly took a dive because the Govt hiked stamp duty are you saying you wouldn't negotiate a drop? It's a market.

Sorry for you OP - it's a shit thing to happen - but it's not evil of them any more than it was evil of you not to offer asking price.

@blobblob the difference to me is that the offer stage is at a point where there is far less pressure to agree. The day before exchange after 5/6 months is an unreasonable pressure point.

OP: No, you can’t and shouldn’t agree to this. Good luck!

@dementedma

Tell them you are thinking about it and then leave it as close to the exchange deadline as you can eg. minutes, to then say no.

Or never respond back with a “no”.

They either have another buyer who is willing to pay more, or they are trying their luck and asking for an insane amount so you’ll give them every penny you can spare.

Either way, I thought some more about it and I would be willing to exchange and pay 5k less than originally agreed and give them 15 minutes to agree. If they don’t, the price I’d be willing to pay decreases 1k every ten minutes they take longer to agree.

@blobblob

So they are greedy for wanting an extra £33k in line with a rising market but you are not greedy for offering £8k under lowest asking price in a falling market.

If you think you can get more house for your money - go ahead. If they can get more now - then they'd be mad not to. If house prices suddenly took a dive because the Govt hiked stamp duty are you saying you wouldn't negotiate a drop? It's a market.

Sorry for you OP - it's a shit thing to happen - but it's not evil of them any more than it was evil of you not to offer asking price.

You are missing that they are doing this on exchange day. There would have been no issue with them rejecting OP’s offer under the asking price, or negotiating prior to accepting it. Offering over or under the asking price is just what happens when you sell a house - are you saying houses should only be sold for the precise asking price? Have you bought many houses? They never go for the exact asking price.

OP would only be “as evil as them” if she had offered £8k below the agreed sale price on the day of exchange. That isn’t what happened at all. It isn’t evil to make an offer on a house, FFS.