Buyers asking for £60k off just before exchange

[Loobydoobies]

Just as the header says. Suddenly wrote us a long letter ranting about interest rates etc, and asking for a huge discount.

We live in an area where property is scarce and holding its value ATM due to that. Told agent to tell them where to go. I am furious as we will lose our dream home.

He didn’t as far as we know - we’re in Wales and they were a local family. He understood completely that it’s normally the buyer’s responsibility to arrange and pay for a survey but argued that as we hadn’t queried why his daughter hadn’t done this, the onus was now on us to sort it out. Not a very logical argument 🙄

Thanks all. We have given them a hard deadline to shit or get off the potty. If there is anything concrete they want to negotiate on after their surveys, we will hear things out, but the current offer isn't something we are willing to entertain.

We don't have to move (though we are moving to be closer to family), and if they want our house they can pay a fair price for it as the market dictates.

Fingers crossed 🤞

Unfortunately the market is now in reverse. The current likley outcome is that if you re list you will be offered less than before. Its a tricky time to try and move and best avoided if you don't have to.

They are bonkers - if their mortgage offer is still valid surely they'd be pushing to complete ASAP before it expires not risk having to get a new deal.

@Whammyyammy I like your Mum's style!

I just don't get the English property system, (not familiar with the Scottish one which sounds a bit better). I'm orginally from New Zealand. Over there you sign a Sale & Purchase agreement when the offer is accepted. It's normal pay a deposit of around 10% of sale price held in trust with solicitors. It can have conditions on it (Finance, Survey etc) and if they aren't satisfied by the agreed date then either side can pull out.

But once the conditions ARE all satisfied the buyer can't drop the offer or pull out without potentially losing the deposit and the seller can't pull out for a higher offer either. It's pretty normal for the whole thing to take 6-8 weeks from offer to settlement (exchange) date, depending on the nature and extent of the conditions of course.

It just works and I just don't see why the UK can't do something similar.

I’d like to know why we can’t operate a better system either? Does anyone know why we do it the way we do in the uk?

Sorry in England that should have said.

I suspect the are having problems with the mortgage. Interest rates went up, and may go up again in September. Therefore the costs of a mortgage are a lot different from a few months ago
I would not reduce the house by that amount though if circumstamces permitted, I might consider a small reduction.

@Gerwurtztraminer
"I just don't get the English property system, (not familiar with the Scottish one which sounds a bit better). I'm orginally from New Zealand. Over there you sign a Sale & Purchase agreement when the offer is accepted. It's normal pay a deposit of around 10% of sale price held in trust with solicitors. It can have conditions on it (Finance, Survey etc) and if they aren't satisfied by the agreed date then either side can pull out."
In the UK (England and Wales), you sign the contract when the searches, survey and finance are in place. How can you sign a contract when you do not know what the condition of the house is, or whether a 20 storey block of flats is being planned next door, etc
In this case the contracts have not yet been signed, and either side can pull out, or suggest a reduction, etc

@milveycrohn
You sign a 'conditional' contract. That means subject to a satisfactory survey, land searches, whatever you want to state in it. If the survey or any other condition throws something up that you don't find acceptable, you can counter offer with a lower offer (for example to take acount of extra costs) or simply withdraw.

When Ex & I bought our first place the survey found a dangerous & potentially expensive electrical issue. We said the vendor had to fix that by 'conditional' end date or we'd pull out. He had it repaired - (turns out wasn't expensive but we weren't to know that).

At that point it became unconditional. During that next month or so, he subsequently got a higher offer but couldn't pull out.

Seriously, it's a fairly straighforward process and prevents a lot of the stress people here experience with last minute gaxumping or gasundering or just arsehole vendors & sellers adding extra conditions on at the last minute.

She went around the house pointing out things she wanted - even down to the little pot DP kept his kitchen sponge in 😕.

Wow! Some of these are hilarious but also awful! I thought I’d had it bad when I sold last year. First buyer wanted a drop of 10% a week before exchange, and was told to sod off. Relisted at a higher price with a different agent as the first one had been less than ideal in many respects. Second buyer wanted a 2% reduction the day before exchange. The market had shifted by then, and the lovely new agents had already negotiated them down to a request for a 1% reduction before they came to me with the revised offer later that day. Wasn’t ideal but was fair all things considered, (was just after the disastrous mini budget and associated rates hikes, and I didn’t want to lose my very good mortgage offer as my fix was about to end!) and I accepted it. Having a good estate agent really made a massive difference though, as both a buyer and as seller.

There is usually something on every survey so it's hardly gonna prevent people from pulling out for negligible reasons or wanting an outsized reduction.

Don't get me wrong the system is not perfect but much like a lot of things people are just NIMBY about it.

Enforcing a system where things become irrevocable early on would eventually mean lower prices, so people would end up clamouring to scrap it as soon as prices are not in a falling enivronment.

Someone did the opposite to me and upped the price after they had accepted my offer. I declined their price rise and walked away. I got a better place for less money and I believe they got repossessed. I have a feeling they were in negative equity and needed to sell at a higher price to recoup losses, but the market had fallen, so no one would have paid more.

@milveycrohn they have a mortgage secured, and told the agent it was fixed. Interest rates shouldn't have an impact of they have already secured a rate months ago.

The agent called them and pointed out a few things, so we shall see what response we have as they have been given a deadline.

That's quite like the system in the states. Much more sensible.

Your buyers financial situation is nothing to do with you and you needn't sympathise. Interest rate changes will affect their repayments for the duration of their mortgage loan, if they can't afford it then tough.
Stick to your guns and do not drop the price why should their financial ineptitude affect your affordability and financial future.
These are cheap tricks that are becoming increasingly tried very late in the purchasing when emotions, time and commitments are highly invested.

20 years ago I was buying a house and a few days before exchange the seller demanded £10k more - on a £125k house. They insisted prices had increased over the 8 weeks the sale had progressed. Bollocks.

I told them to bog off and walked away. The British house buying system has been ridiculous for a long time.

I ended up buying another house I never liked very much though.

I'm still crying at the buyer who wanted the wash-sponge pot!

🤣🤣🤣

That's very different from trying it on, just before exchange, though. The offer price is always subject to survey and due diligence, and it's normal to negotiate on the survey findings - it's a fair and recognised part of the process.

Dropping your offer just before exchange only happens to put unfair pressure on the seller.

Do you have copies of all the surveys? Tell them to do one and use the surveys for a more seamless next buyer :)