Buyer wants a price reduction on day we were supposed to exchange

[kerala]

Grrr!

Anyone else had this? It seems really bad form to me. We only agreed the price 6 weeks ago and market was pretty dodgy then so we thought we had factored the economic climate into the price.

Now they want a 1% reduction because of various made up reasons about the house - but its obviously because of all the doom saying on the news. We have paid for a survey on the house we are buying and are leaving town in 2 months with DH job so have no option but to move so if this falls we will be seriously seriously inconvenienced. Just so cross and feel they are being underhand.

they're trying it on tell them to f-off!!

Did you agree to it?

This is very common in a downturn and is a horrible thing to do.Gazundering I think its called .Can you afford to reduce as you may well get less in another few months with a different buyer.Otherwise if you can afford to last it out say no or meet them halfway

Gazundering! Great word for it.

We have gone back today agreeing to half of what they want ie the true costing of what the minor works would be.

I just think its a rotten way to behave and wouldnt consider doing that to the chap we are buying from (polishes halo). The price is already reduced from the asking price so really dont think they are getting a bad deal anyway. Makes me want to tell them to get stuffed. Am sure we could get another buyer as our flat is attractive and has a lovely garden and went within a week of being on the market. But it would scupper us up timewise and would mean we would lose the house we are hoping to buy and they know we are leaving town and moving 2 hundred miles away so are probably confident about gazundering us.

Well you know I reckon they will pay for it in the long run because you would probably have left a few bits for them when leaving your house- blinds / shades / file with instruction leaflets for appliances / bottle of champers! but you will probably be less inclined to do that now - so that small reduction may cost them more in lost goodwill - silly people! Good Luck with your move

Just to say we had a similar problem on one occasion - although not on the day of exchange! DH was prepared to tell them to F*ck Off but I was reluctant to go through all the hassle again so I ummed and aahed a lot with the estate agent and he agreed to cut his commission so that the sale would go through. Worth a try...

you might have to suck it up but i wouldn't be inclined to do any cleaning/hoovering on move-out day!

Probabaly need to take light bulbs and toilet roll holders and every fucker that isn't screwed down too!

What else can she take -

The toilet seats?
Grill pans and oven shelves?
All curtain poles?
Radiator covers?

Any other ideas?

You can see that it is bad news to screw with Twinkie can't you?

Obviously dig up all the plants.

Take all the internal door handles.

The old ones are the most annoying - this is one of the oldest tricks in the book and an awful thing to happen.

We had it happen and explianed that we then would not have enough money to move so "whatever" they brought the house at the originaly agreed price...they were trying it on.

Hope all goes well

bath and sink plugs

Door handles

numbers on front door

im am a revenge master

Oh...and leave something fishy too - cheeky greedy bastards

Do you have double glazing - you could pop out the beading take out the double glazed units and stick a small knife into the seals - only do one panel in each room though or may look dodgy - the units will fog up and need replacing at cost to your new buyer of course!

dont flush toilets for a couple of days

Make huge curry to take with you night before

Fridge crisper drawers

I think you should leave the house as is Don't start taking it apart v childish and if you really don't want to reduce it don't.

It's worth speaking to the estate agent to see if they can persuade the buyers to accept your offer of half. The agent won't want to lose the sale, so may be prepared to reduce their commission or put pressure on the buyers. Don't forget that you are paying the agent's commission, not the buyers, so they should be acting in your best interests.

On moving day, drop copies of the house keys through the letterboxes of all the local asbo families.

take less care of walls when moving furniture

Loosen ubend

Take out one screw in each plug socket and light switch - that would drive me bananas!

Take the little plastic cuffs that hold the light shades on too!

Don't forget that you cannot take anything which you have already said you will leave, nor anything which is fixed to the walls, etc. - at least without replacing it. E.g. you can take expensive or matching light fittings, but must replace them with cheaper ones.

Don't do anything which may lead to a claim against you later.

Am shocked at some of these revenge suggestions! I presume you don't want to lower yourselves to your buyers' level by buggering around with your double glazing or any of the other ideas bandied around?!?!

At this stage - and for 1% - I would say take the money and run. Hugely annoying/humiliating but I think there are people prepared to be a lot cheekier than that. Estate agent may be able to broker your 0.5% compromise but, really, if you were happy(ish) with the original offer, I would just swallow hard and do what you have to.

My friends house was sold to developers - they bought a whole road it seemed. On exchange day they dropped their price by £20K, and said take it or leave it. If he left it would not have been able to sell as everyone else had completed, flats being built etc so value of large house was totally eroded!