Vendor asking for more money on exchange day

[cathyburke]

After a long few months we were finally ready to exchange, this was supposed to happen last week but keeps being delayed and we are due to complete on Friday.

Backstory the property we are buying had been on the market for a while, we offered on it and then reduced our offer by 2K after a survey which the vendor agreed to.

Our sale then fell through as our buyer pulled out, the vendor offered to keep the property off the market for a month if we paid them £1000. We said no, thankfully we got another buyer a few weeks later and they had no interest on the property so we were able to proceed again.

Fast forward to today, at the moment of exchange and our vendor is now demanding an extra £2000, reverting to the original offer price.

All contracts have been signed with the renegotiated price ready to exchange, assuming the vendor also signed at the reduced price.

I think it's worth mentioning that a couple of weeks ago we had the boiler serviced and it has been condemned and needs replacing of which the vendor will not reduce the price for or contribute and was pushing for completion despite us not being able to get the boiler replaced before completion. They are quite happy for us with young children to move into a property with no heating or hot water just before Christmas.

We are standing firm with our original offer as we are having to fork out an extra £3000 for the boiler but the seller is adamant that they will not accept anything less than the original offer.

Interested to see what others would do in this situation?

We ve got someone buying a property from us and they’ve just declared they are £20k short. They used their fathers bank account to prove funds 12weeks ago.
Yes
They really do exist

No
We are not reducing the price.
Happy to re market

What have your solicitor and the estate agent advised?They see this kind of crap all the time.

Subject to their advice I'd be going for a 'no we haven't got the money available to do that so with regret we will have to pull out' kind of reply. They sound ghastly, I wonder if they've done this before? Definitely don't go back for a 3rd go if this falls through, sometimes there are good reasons (eg owners/vendors) why some houses stay on the market for years...

Is the house empty then?

I'd just say no - are we doing this or not? And stick to it. They know you'll be packed and have already spent a lot on getting to this point. I'd stand firm.

They saw you coming!

I’d double bluff them and say you want to reduce the offer price by 3k due to the boiler.

Unfortunately we already tried this, they refused and threatened to pull out we didn't exchange within seven days - this was 10 days ago. It is now them holding everything up!

We will absolutely be standing firm on this one, there is absolutely no way of they are getting an extra penny out of me!

But the vendors would have ongoing council tax and utility bills to pay whilst they found a new buyer willing to pay the new price they want. It'd probably add up to more than £2000 very quickly! Also, any new prospective buyers would be shown round a freezing cold house without a working boiler. The house being unheated for several months at the coldest part of the year could lead to frozen pipes that burst... Karma is a wonderful thing

Why was the request of extra money even passed on to you? It’s so cheeky the agents should have told them no absolutely not.

I would tell him to f right off.

It is blatant and outrageous to ask for that £2k now, especially when there is additionally since original price reduction the boiler to replace.

I would say that's my offer. Take it or leave it. Friday 2pm. Not done? Ok. F off. I don't have to sell my house or move, I'm ok.

Stand FIRM.

Do even better. Give them a deadline themselves on Friday and if they don't meet it, everything is off.

Really.

I mean, think twice about this house. What else might be wrong with it? I almost wouldn't buy it now on principle. ..

Why hasn't their EA shut this down? How much is the agreed price on the property?

Agree
Although It depends if they’ve used up their free council tax period
Utility bills yes, unless they’re turned off which as a seller would be silly I suppose. However apart from standing charges there’s not much else.
They’ll need ( or rather should) keep their buildings insurance.
It will come to more than £2k ( possibly ) but depends if they think they’ll get more at a later date and whether they are happy to wait.

It’s also worth mentioning it will spread the CGTax over a longer period so could lead to a reduction easily ( if it’s liable )

I wouldn’t do it for £2k its really small fry. Well I wouldn’t do it anyway as a seller, but as you’ll have seen our buyers are trying it on for £20k.

( OP hasn’t said the boiler doesn’t work )

Absolutely a no from me op stand your ground

We were in a similar position but it was our buyers who threatened to pull out if we didn't reduce just before exchange.

Fortunately for us, we were in a much better position than they were, we didn't call their bluff, we were never going to accept a lower offer, it didn't affect the sale, they still went ahead, obviously just trying it on!

I think you need to give them a deadline to sign papers for exchange ( in writing) otherwise you will pull out, maybe ask your solicitor to draft the letter. You need to signal everyone that you are serious so after sending this letter, call EA straight away and start booking viewings for the next week. Don’t wait for the deadline. If it will be resolved - no harm, if won’t - you need to move fast.
Don’t tell EA that you hope that it will be resolved, tell them: Let see what else you’ve got on your books we need to get things moving asap.

The agents are exactly that, agents. They are not the principals and so can advise , but they cannot refuse to pass information on

Many councils don't give any council tax reduction at all these days.
The building insurance is likely to insist on the house being heated if empty over the winter, therefore the utilities will need to remain on.
I thought OP said that the boiler isn't working at the property they were due to move into with children in December?

The boiler doesn't work, it had a leak and was rusty, could potentially replace the parts but expensive to do so and warrants a new boiler.

Heating and hot water I'm guessing has been off since the last tenants moved out in April this year.

Difficult one but I seriously think they won't pull out at such short notice. They won't get a new buyer anytime soon with an out of service boiler!
Our buyer got hit with the new 2nd home stamp duty and was going to pull out and it wasn't a bluff. We couldn't take the hit so went down the chain asking for contributions - it worked. However our buyers solicitors messed up and didn't get the paperwork done in time. Due to the fact that the buyer was pushing so hard for a completion date previously, he ended up swallowing all the extra costs himself. We exchanged last Thurs and completed Friday. It was a real rollercoaster!

Refuse!!

I am so sorry you are being treated like this. It is beyond incomprehensible the way some people behave when buying/selling houses. And dare I say it, the more cash people have to play with, the more some of them seem to want to mess around - as it is a game to them, it’s not their precious home/life/mortgage/credit they’re gambling with. It’s fun for them to say “and we got them to back down at the last minute for an extra 2k haw haw!” Fuckers. I’m sorry. Fingers crossed it works out for you.

This is all true but nothings certain
Many councils do allow nothing to be paid over a period
If the house has no mortgage you don’t have to have buildings insurance
Not all insurances insist on the heating being on. Some insurance companies insist an empty house should be heated but only if the external temperature gets to a certain point.
Op said the engineer condemned the boiler ( ours was condemned here because it was very old and needed some work to get it going. In the short term we had it fixed and then we changed it two years after moving in )
We also don’t know what % the £2k constitutes which I think is important. On a £100k property it’s 2% which is a lot, on a £1mill it’s 0.2% which isn’t.

Nevertheless Its all guess work as OP doesn’t know the owners situation.
Theyre probably playing games as they’ll know OP has already spent a lot so far.

Hold firm, OP. They know exactly what they're doing. Seasoned CFers no doubt and just hoping you'll blink first.

Sounds completely unfair. Surely if they don’t sell to you they will have to pay get the boiler fixed before putting it back on the market also

@cathyburke massive squishes. I’d stand firm and call their bluff.

is also be looking at a back up plan.

rally all local friends, family and acquaintances and beg as to who can possibly take a few boxes/bits of furniture in here and there for storage (do make a list as my chap forget who had what) if it all goes wrong.

then it’s somewhere to stay. If you have to be out on Friday ( I forgot the date) who could take you in for a weekend or week?

ask on local community pages and friends and families if anyone has an empty house inbetween tenants or awaiting sale that you could rent for a month just to make plans..

If it falls through you don’t need to solve everything in one day/week etc.

no point paying the blackmail money and not being able to afford to do anything with the property. I’d take it as a sign from the universe that it isn’t meant to be and something better is around the corner.

if this falls through - you’ll manage. You’ll find something else and in 1/5/10 years it will be barely a memory and just a short blip in your story together