I think our FTB will gazunder!!

[Potaytoe5]

Sold a while back and it's been dragging on for months- mostly because of solicitors not being able to communicate very well.
Our buyers are FTB, we are selling at a cheaper price to them. They included a clause that they will not try to lower the price any further after the surveys, which I realise doesn't mean much.

It took them a while to sort out the survey, which didn't show anything unexpected. The survey was over a month ago, but now they suddenly want to order two extra specialist surveys, and they want us to contribute to the price!!!
I said categorically no, they are free to have more surveys but we will not be paying for them, the house is a bargain as it is.

Am I right to be worried, I feel they will try to gazunder or pull out, although at this point we would just put the house back on the market. We will probably lose the house we're buying this way, but I wonder whether we could sell ours for more than we're currently getting anyway. Just very frustrated with it all.

@DrySherry Maybe, I hope you are right. Doing it when we were waiting for them to reply with the completion date is a bit late!

Found my old report when we were buying the house 8 years ago, trying to find the bit about damp.
The only thing we had were some leaks from the gutter that were repaired by us.
The wall where the 'damp reading' are higher than average is the brick wall between us and the neighbour, what could be the reason for this?
We had lots of boxes stacked against it, could it have made it worse due to lack of ventilation?
I don't think it's something to worry about though really, as the surveyor said upon leaving that there is nothing much to worry about!!

We did take about 7 weeks to sell it, but it was last summer, when the interest rates were very high and they are much better now.
I am inclined to check the quotes for doing our driveway, which is shabby and made us list at a lower price.

I would guess that you have found your reason for the damp. It is quite likely that boxes sta ked against a wall will elevate moisture levels. It is possible that the next door neighbour has some leak or other, but I've experienced similar regarding items in proximity to the wall.

I think you're over thinking all this. A house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay. They are entitled (if a bit cheeky) to ask you to contribute to further surveys, and you are entitled to decline. Same goes when / if they try and negotiate the price. They can ask, you can say no. It is the great game of house buying and selling.

If you believe your house is worth more than they are prepared to pay, then you find another buyer who agrees with you.

Actually I am with the buyers on this.

It is perfectly reasonable to want to have additional surveys especially on an older house and the surveyor often recommends on their reports that the buyer might want to conduct further specialist surveys.

If the damp reading are higher than expected it is likely that there is something going on (faulty gutter, broken drain and so on).

There is no guarantee that a new buyer will not do the same after the survey.

In fact I wish I had done that for my 1930 terrace as the drain outside the kitchen turned out to be broken and the surveyor failed to spot that this was causing some damp on the external wall.

If I ever buy another house as well as the main survey I will have the plumbing, electrics, drains and roof checked by individual specialists.

It is a huge purchase and you can never be too careful.

It is completely inappropriate to call them 'cheeky' and worse...

Also it was your mistake to agree on a drop in price first and have a clause in the contract about no reduction after the survey.

You should have agreed a small reduction only at the start and then wait to see what the survey came up with and how the buyers reacted.

I think a lot of people on this site are sellers/think like a seller which is why the take offence and always support the seller so it is not always a balance opinion that you are going to get.

They definitely pay for the specialist surveys themselves though but it is not unreasonable for them to do further checks.

@Startingagainandagain not unreasonable to do the extra surveys, unreasonable to ask us to contribute to them and very unreasonable to do so when we asked them for the date of completion!
Why not do it 1.5 months ago, when they got their survey results??
It just looks like they waited for the eleventh hour to gazunder.

None of us can tell you what will happen. If you are this unnerved by them then put it back on the market, you sound confident that it would sell again easily. FTB are notorious for being nervous and to be fair they are spending a hell of a lot of money these days, they were cheeky to ask you to contribute to the surveys but I have heard of worse tricks pulled by buyers.

Get rid of them. I will never sell to a ftb again. We've done it twice now and both times they caused massive issues and delays, surveys being one issue. They always decided at the nth hour to do them, then hummed and hawed a month whilst deciding what to do with results, then did more, etc. Our first buyers sent builders round after surveys, didn't tell them what they wanted them to quote for, didn't tell us either beyond "roof needs looking at" and then got arsey because the builder said the roof was fine, didn't need replacing and in expected/decent condition for the age of the property (100 years!) and wanted the builder to come again to requote?! Builder refused. Also wanted a discount on the property because we'd bought it £5k cheaper 18 months before 😂 as if we were moving for funsies and a profit.

We found buyers solicitors were half the issue both times, they used the "recommended" solicitors who dragged things out for ages and took ages to respond to any and all communication from our solicitors.

Even then though, they don't seem interested in chasing their solicitors to make sure it's happening, when we first bought in 2017 we were onto our (agent recommended) solicitors constantly to ensure that our happened quickly, but they were lacking. 2nd time we used the solicitors my husband's company used for everything as they paid for relocation, she was amazing and dealt with everything swiftly and put the others in their place when they were asking inappropriate questions rather than checking in with us to see if we were okay to share every nitty gritty detail about our lives. The third time we learnt from that and used a solicitor who came personally recommended (the other one wasn't able to take on the work due to personal leave!).

I think FTBs are often just super-scared and very un-knowledgeable about property. They're about to take on terrifying amounts of debt and have probably been living in rented places for a good while where every tiny issue was someone else's problem, so they have no instinct for what they should or shouldn't worry about. Remember that the standard survey one gets when moving uses things like "damp levels raised in wall, you should seek expert opinion about this" as a bit of a get out clause on just about everything, which if it's not your first rodeo you get used to but as a FTB, it's understandable that they might read that and decide they need these extra opinions. Definitely their choice and at their cost though. You can never guarantee a FTB won't get spooked and run, but I don't think this particularly means they will.

I think some sellers avoid FTM because some can be unrealistic about the whole process.

Given it sounds like there is no further reason to stall, I’d get your solicitor to say they either go ahead with their additional surveys this month (at their cost) or set a completion date. Otherwise you will remarket.

I think a lot of people on this site are sellers/think like a seller which is why the take offence and always support the seller so it is not always a balance opinion that you are going to get.

I completely agree with this. There is another thread where a buyer was just asking if a certain offer is reasonable with pros and cons about the house, and in came all the seller sharing their "trauma" lol because they had an experience with a buyer trying to drop the price (for reasonable reasons!). Mumsnet unfortunately attracts people with poor ethics/landlords/sellers who spend time A LOT of time on social media than actually fixing their rentals or properties. You'll see a few usernames that always appear in the comments and it's strange that they're always there, day or night.

@Sturnidae

Get rid of them. I will never sell to a ftb again. We've done it twice now and both times they caused massive issues and delays, surveys being one issue.

It does seem like you have a home that attracts FTB though? I think your post is an example of what I mean in my pp. Please think about how you come across, much like the OP and some others in the thread who think it's appropriate to name call an invisible person.

please find another buyer then 🙄

just say no. then move on. honestly, you need to LET.IT.GO. 🙄

@freeedum Maybe you can look at another thread to comment as you're clearly getting annoyed now?

Its certainly unusual to ask the vendor to split the cost, but I wouldn't say it's "cheeky"- if they are FTB they likely don't know how the process works. FTBs are usually more nervy, understandably, but it doesn't mean they're all inherently chancers on the make.

House buying and selling is difficult, but try and take the emotion out of it. It's a business transaction, and every party just wants what is best for themselves.

They asked, you said no, no problem. They may gazunder, although I don't think anything they've done here suggests that this is any more of a risk than usual. Anyone in any chain can gazunder/gazump at any point, such is the (broken) process in this country.

I understand how stressful it is worrying about it, as I'm trying to buy and sell myself at the moment, but trying to dissect and second guess anyone's motives will just drive you crazy.

Yeah, I can think of someone else who clearly needs to LET. THIS. GO. now...

Anyway, OP, nervous buyers are a nightmare, whether they're FTB or not. I've sold twice, and the buyers dropped out of both sales for reasons that the eventual buyers had no problems with at all.

Oh, and one lot tried to gazunder by a ridiculous amount in order to fix a problem. To which we said no. Another tried to get a discount before buying, to which we said no. Both times sold at the original asking price after remarketing.

From a buyer’s perspective your offence at their reasonable wish for additional surveys is alarming. Fair enough that you won’t contribute - nor should you. However YABU to suggest they have gazundering motives when they are following the process to protect the biggest investment they’ll ever make.

Also adding a clause that they won’t reduce offer no matter what is weird and it would make me suspicious about what you might be trying to hide.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that surveys often make alarming reading even when the property is in good nick. I doubt they have the experience to spot a serious flaw in amongst all the scary arse covering points the surveyors include. I suspect they have been spooked by the initial survey hence wanting a more in depth inspection. I think they sound perfectly reasonable.

So the sale was agreed about five months ago and contracts have yet to be exchanged? FTBs and all their (understandable) anxieties or not, you've been very patient with them; experienced buyers realise buying property comes with elements of risk no matter how many precautions they take.

I would have called time on the deal at Christmas in order to retrench and put the property back on the market at Easter. The property market's been dire for a while, but if you don't have to sell I would take the view that life's too short to tolerate the grief your buyers are causing.

If you do pull the deal, be prepared for unreasonable demands that you should compensate them for their outlay to date.

I agree with @DancingFerret

I would now be saying that if we don't exchange by date, we will go back on the market. Either they want your house, or they don't. Time to put up or shut up, after all these delays caused by them.

Likely they are just heing cautious as big purchase. Doesn't excuse the legnth of time they are taking. If their delays cause you to lose the house you are buying I would pull out and wait for abother buyer as it is affordable to you.