AIBU - Vendor should pay?

[AliciaW]

DH and I have had offer accepted on house. We are chain free and keen to move. The property has leased solar panels. We have told the vendor we would not want to continue with the sale unless the lease was "bought out". Vendor has agreed with this in principle. He is elderly and very keen to move closer to his daughter who lives abroad therefore wants to conclude things ASAP. He has had a quote for the lease to be bought out which comes to £13k. He wants us to pay half of this (so around £6.5k). This is I suppose where we have a philosophical disagreement. It is my belief that he should be responsible for the entire cost as he decided to take out the lease and if he wants to put the property back on the market and try and find a buyer for the property with the lease in place thats his decision. The main thing it will cost him there of course is time as that may take several months. We could make a contribution towards the lease buyout...DH has suggested £3k. Not trying to cause the vendor more stress but do feel he should have been aware this might be an issue before the sale if he had good advice from EA. The agreed offer on the house was £330k. AIBU here?

It's pretty difficult (perhaps impossible) to judge because we have no idea if your original offer was under or over the market value of the property. If you are already getting a good deal then suck it up. If not, walk away unless the full cost is deducted.

If someone else wanted to offer on the property, and would step in if you now pull out, would the 6.5k be worth losing the house over?

YANBU about the vendor needing to be aware of this but maybe other buyers would be happy to take on the lease.

Have you suggested the £3k?

How much do you want this house? Are you prepared to walk away if the vendor doesn't agree?

The vendor has lived there with leased solar panels and appears to be satisfied. But if the vendor pays out £13k or £6.5k to buy out the lease, it is not he who will benefit from the ownership, it will be you.

Rather than let an elderly man deal with the transfer of leased panels to owned outright, he could make you an allowance so that you can complete this part of the transaction after completion. Otherwise this will add some time to the transaction if the Land Registry has to amend the title.

Sorry to say, I do think you're being unreasonable.

I don’t think you are being unreasonable, and we have walked away from a property purchase before for this exact reason. That said, how much do you want the house?

All that matters is whether you really want the house and he really wants to sell

I was advised by EA and solicitor not to offer on a house like this - most mortgage companies won't lend om a house with another interest on this, so was told it would be cash buyers only.

If you pay towards it now and haven't exchanged, there's no guarantee you won't get gazumped or something else will stop the sale.