Gazundered day before exchange

[BenjiCat]

We were all on track to be exchanging this week with completion on for the end of next week. We were waiting on our buyer's searches etc for some time and they finally came through earlier this week.

Call this morning from the estate agent. Buyer has dropped their offer by £15k due to 'immediate issues flagged in the survey' with no details about what these are, no copy of the report and no estimations on how that figure has been calculated. We've said we'd need to see the report to understand the basis for their drop (and to potentially renegotiate... No promises). But they've been reluctant to do this and says they'd be happy to proceed with exchange tomorrow still should we agree to the £15k

Fuming does not cover feelings right now !!

Good for you. Let us know how you got on.

Good luck.

I hope they backtrack and all goes ahead

@HermioneKipper

Arseholes! I bet the market has gone up since you agreed to their offer too. I’d say to give them a deadline and if they don’t agree to exchange then the property is going back on the market at an increased price.

If they do agree to proceed, don’t bother with any niceties eg cleaning the house properly, leaving them champagne or useful notes about the house. They can get to fuck!

On our last move we were treated like this, common in the area according to the estate agent. We negotiated it down so we took a £2500 hit, didn't do a thing, left a load of stuff that otherwise would have gone to the tip, didn't clean the cooker or even run the hoover round, took lightbulbs out, it was actually worth the £2500 not to have to run around doing stuff! Dropped all the keys into a big envelope, having removed all the identifying details too, probably took them ages to sort out as some were from old locks no longer there. Petty but very satisfying!

@JudgeJ
That's not great advice - my friend did this but to a lesser extent and was taken to court and had to pay costs.
It's rare but it can happen because you are breaking part of the contract.

@JudgeJ we are taking a seller like you to court at the moment

Good luck OP. Hope it all works out for you.

MelbourneTerrace thanks for that, I really wish I had done this five years ago when we moved. Last time I posted about it on MN (in the context of a discussion about how to inveigle a school place) I was roundly told to get a life and that it was none of my business what the buyers had done with our property. That suggested to me that a lot of it goes on and people will do ANYTHING to secure the required address. In the case of our home, as I said, our CF buyers had already lied through their teeth to get their boys into the excellent primary close to our home despite living in a (disadvantaged) town 10 miles away where they didn't want them to go to school. They were then facing the challenge of getting them into the excellent secondary, and therefore bought our house which was in the catchment area. That would have been fair enough, but they lied blatantly throughout the process: claimed to be first time buyers with cash (we should have been suspicious of that), wanted a copy of our Council Tax bill which (like a fool) I innocently gave them, pretended to be planning where to put their furniture etc. Then the CFery occurred and I insisted on exchange within a week which they did. Subsequently they never moved in, let the place out (it's still let out now), and have never lived there. They have continued living in the disadvantaged town but have lied their way into school places for their boys, taking them away from local children at a highly-oversubscribed school. Cynical, selfish, obnoxious CFery at its finest. Yet here I was told off and told to get a life, and asked why I cared so much so long after the event. Double standards.

Great update. You’ve done completely the right thing. They are CF’s

[quote Notmoresugar]@JudgeJ
That's not great advice - my friend did this but to a lesser extent and was taken to court and had to pay costs.
It's rare but it can happen because you are breaking part of the contract.[/quote]
Is it contractual that you have to clean the property and leave lightbulbs? If I had known that I could have taken many previous vendors to court!

@CrackerJack2021 - thanks for your update. 'Get a life' response on here...until it's one of their children who misses out on a school place because of the CF's.🤔

@JudgeJ you’re lucky you weren’t taken to court. Being awkward with unlabelled keys is one thing (and understandable) but leaving your stuff in the house is black and white breach of contract. Better to find ways to satisfy yourself that don’t leave you at risk of legitimate legal action!

Our vendors left a load of stuff in the bins, shed etc when we moved in and our solicitor took it very seriously - vendor came back and took it the next day otherwise we would have pursued them for costs. Don’t advise people to do this!!

@JudgeJ. You’re lucky you didn’t get taken to court. The last house we bought was unoccupied. The sellers left junk in an upstairs rooms, hid rubbish in the garden shed and garage, and left both front and back gardens like jungles. We contacted the solicitor as soon as we had access and saw the state of the place. We threatened with court action and eventually they coughed up for what it had cost to hire a skip for the stuff they left and to clear the gardens - it’s breach of contract not to keep the house in good order until completion.

@JudgeJ wow you sound awful.

I have fairly extensive experience of the housing market in England having bought and sold several properties of my own over the last 35 years and also in my role as a Building Society Manager. IME the vast majority of delays in the process ( at a conservative estimate I would say 95% of them) are down to the gross ineptitude, inefficiency and lackadaisical attitude of conveyancers and solicitors. I have never dealt with one I would use twice or recommend even to my worst enemy.

I wouldn't advise doing most of what @JudgeJ did because it could come back on you. But I think it's natural to want to retaliate against buyers who try and wangle a fat discount for themselves at the 11th hour.

Is it contractual that you have to clean the property and leave lightbulbs? If I had known that I could have taken many previous vendors to court!

The standard terms used by most solicitors don't require you to clean the property or leave lightbulbs. However, some solicitors add a "clean and tidy" clause to the contract.

Leaving piles of rubbish is a breach of contract as it means you are not giving vacant possession. You won't get into trouble for a small amount or rubbish but, if the buyer incurs costs having the rubbish removed, they can make a claim against the seller.

Well done, so pleased to see this update.

Good luck!

@Bythemillpond

Mildura

But you can go through all the credit checks and paperwork about earnings etc and get a figure indicating how much, depending on the property you can borrow. How else do you know your budget.

That’s not a mortgage offer though.

Good girl. Hope they see sense 🤞

Good luck - you’ve done the right thing. I had something similar but as a buyer - the seller upped the price by £10k during the process, then again! At that point I walked on principle. My solicitors charged me for the work they had done, but I was able to sell the survey to the next buyer. Seller was a total arse.

Good luck Op!

Hope goes ok

Tell them:
“We refer you to the reply given in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram.”

I really hope it pays off, OP. What complete and utter CFs!!!!!

I just have to say, your thread title makes me smile because the word is gazumped. But I know what a gazunder is. It's a potty that "goes under" the bed. Are you from the Midlands too? x