Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

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

53 replies

kerala · 31/03/2008 14:59

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.

OP posts:
surreygirl · 31/03/2008 16:37

My friend did most of the above and took out the putty holding in the plastic 'windows' in her shed. She did have the buyers from hell!!

I too would hold my ground - same thing happened to me, I told my buyer that they had 24 hours to exchange else my house was going back on the market. Speak to your estate agent - mine were fab in this instance as they didn't want to lose their fee!

We exchanged on the original price, next day. Buyers were total PITAs though after sale!! :-(

ThingOne · 31/03/2008 16:39

This is perfectly legitimate although shitty. I have heard tales of people doing this to sellers and then moving in to find dirty houses devoid of lightbulbs, loo roll and all manner of accidental breakages .

I hope you can manage to feel superior if nothing else. And remember to leave the oven dirty.

bran · 31/03/2008 16:49

Don't damage anything. I would be very tempted to leave one of ds's poos in the loo if it happened to me though, if I was really annoyed then one of dh's in the other loo as well (extremely toxic). I think they would get the message.

Tell them that you are thinking of letting your house and renting in your new location instead of buying, and bluff them back.

Original poster
kerala · 31/03/2008 16:57

We are offering to deduct half of what they want. Now more wait and see. Its very stressful and I cant get excited about the move as everything tinged with dread that it wont happen.

Well I was going to leave them flowers and now I wont. (Am evil you wouldnt want to cross me...)

OP posts:
bran · 31/03/2008 17:13

Don't forget that they have something to lose too, they have already spent money on a survey and all the legal fees. They probably won't be that keen to pull out either, so stand your ground.

clam · 31/03/2008 17:15

And make sure you tell all the neighbours what they've done.

hifi · 31/03/2008 17:29

we had this years ago with a flat we were buying, horrible venders. day before they wanted to up the price by 2k, we said stuff it, we bought for original price.

MrsGuyOfGisbourne · 31/03/2008 18:24

Kerala - total sympathy - has not yet hapened to us but I am expecting it to next week when we exchange. As I am not buyiing elsewhere in our case I would tell him to stuff it and immediately re-market at the price less 1% ie not sell to him but to soemone else out of sheer spite, but in your position that would not make sense. The agent will be desperate not to lose the sale - so leave it to him/her to broker - they can't be exactly rolling in house sales now, and will have targets to meet to justify to their sharky areas managers - et them do some work for their commission!!
Unbelievable how despicable some people can be.

NorthernLurker · 31/03/2008 18:29

I certainly wouldn't damage the house but i wouldn't paint behind the bookcases as I plan too so that the room looks ok when we move out either!

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 31/03/2008 18:34

I'd crap on the floor the day I moved out.

MrsGuyOfGisbourne · 31/03/2008 18:36

SKSS

Stephen99 · 15/05/2008 23:50

so what happened?!!!

uberalice · 16/05/2008 08:06

That's awful. I think a change in the law is well overdue to stop this kind of thing. In Scotland the law protects sellers against gazumpers and gazunderers.

DarthVader · 16/05/2008 08:10

Stand firm and say no.

Your buyers want the house and have already paid for a survey, they are not going to pull out for £1,000 or whatever it is

mamablue · 16/05/2008 08:26

There was t.v. program about this last week. Gazundering it is called and is about to become common in the current housing climate. There are websites popping up telling people how to do it effectively. It is just downright mean but not illegal. Some people on the t.v had been told on day of exchange to lower price by £20,000 or the buyer would pull out! The websites encourage buyers to 'Gazunder' within 24 hours of exchanging so as to make it as hard as possible for the seller to say no. Horrible!!

paros · 16/05/2008 13:42

I havnt read all the thread but I think you should write in weed killer on the lawn "Wan**rs bought this house "

paros · 16/05/2008 13:46

Oh and if leaVing light switches and door handles turn them all up the other way .VERY ANNOYING .

noddyholder · 16/05/2008 14:24

Better to negotiate a good reduction at the start this is just mean but is very common atm.I have offered very low on a house yesterday which they are considering and if they accept that will be it i wouldn't dream of asking for even more off.

lucykate · 16/05/2008 14:54

take the keys from the double glazed windows, twice we've moved and not been given keys to the windows, which were all locked!, it's a right pita to have to locate the window manufacturer and get hold of new keys

TheDullWitch · 16/05/2008 15:07

We had same thing on eve of exchange. They were foul yuppies. Made up some nonsense about velux windows had condensation. Utter crap. We d already agreed to reductions after the survey.

We pointed out we couldn't delay exchange because otherwise our son wouldn't be registered for his new school in time for Sept. They said - I quote - "Another £500 and your son can go to school!"

I d planned to leave bottle of wine, list of shops, make house perfect, but instead we barely cleaned it and took out all the lightbulbs and nice wall lights and posh door knobs, leaving with horrible ones. And also the rail in the fitted wardrobe, which meant they couldn t hang up clothes. It was really mean, but they were foul.

It is a real mistake to be petty and mean with the people you're buying from. After deal is done they can exert total revenge.

WowOoo · 16/05/2008 15:08

This happened to us recently. We stood our ground (they wanted 5%) and they came back with original offer. Risky for us but it paid off. The cheek!

amner · 16/05/2008 15:14

Cheeky gets !

Do you have to leave your loo seats ?

Just asking as I'm trying to replace mine and just found out they are £89 each

Leave a bunch of weeds neatly tied like a boquet instead.

God..... the nerve of some people ......

CountessDracula · 16/05/2008 15:15

this happened to us once
we passed it up the chain

surreylady · 16/05/2008 15:43

when we purchased our first house the sellers cut the fitted cutlery drawer from the newly fitted kitchen with a knife (leaving jagged edges) and took out all the light bulbs - had no problems - got on with them beforehand clearly they were just very tight - not suggesting you do this but I am sure you feel less inclined to be generous with items that you could recoup monies on when treated like this.

unconvinced · 16/05/2008 16:46

I happened to me today as well, we are selling a 2 bedroomed flat and took a lower offer from the buyer because he could move quickly! 3 months later we still havn't moved forward and today hes asking for a reduction in price to reflect the market. Little shit