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?

They are being completely unreasonable.

Are you in a chain with your property?

Stand firm.

Maybes it's a sign this isn't the right house with the boiler issues.

They are smelling weakness because you backed down when they refused to reduce the price again over the boiler. I absolutely wouldn’t cave. It hasn’t been cold enough for burst pipes yet. But may be damp. You’re taking on a house that hasn’t been lived in for months, which is ok apart from the fact it hasn’t been heated.

I wouldn’t be paying them the 2k. They are just trying to attack you when they think you are most vulnerable. But they want to sell so would be crazy to withdraw over 2k.

What disgusting morals they have. My advice would be to stand firm and not pay an extra penny.

If you do get the price sorted, then make absolutely sure you inspect the property immediately before exchange and again before completion. That’s sensible anyway but even more important when dealing with these sort of people.

You need to try to keep your composure.
Do you really want this house and to move asap?
Then I'm with another poster, you go back and advise that obviously with moving, every single penny you have is tied up before Christmas. You've been able to find 300 as a goodwill offer. Leave this until the day or two before.

Absolutely holding my ground and not paying a penny more. We are due to complete this Friday, so if we don't exchange today then moving Friday may not be possible!

It's really put a sour taste in my mouth, and right now I'm not sure I want to go through with it!

Not quite true as there is such a thing as simultaneous exchange and completion where you do both on the same day. But who wants that kind of stress?

@Twiglets1 with our vendor I absolutely do not want that 😅

Just hold the line. Say exchange as agreed on the contracts our we walk and you will have nothing but House that’s not selling

Call their bluff OP, they're just trying their luck. Unbelievably greedy and selfish of them! They won't want to re-list, odds are they'd end up getting offered less now by someone else anyway.

I'm no sure about actually getting someone else's boiler serviced, but I'd have certainly wanted it checked over for Co2 emissions if it hasn't been regularly serviced and looked after.

You have to stand your ground, no matter what happens. If it's not happening this Friday, tell them you'll exchange but completion will have to be in New Year now, that way you can have Xmas in a warm home with hot water.

The problem is with these sorts of threads is you rarely get the full story and the people shouting advice aren't the ones who have to put up with the consequences as a result of the decision.

Why were the contracts finalised in August but exchange is not taking place until now ?

Because our buyer pulled out, I did put this in my first post

You’d need a revised mortgage offer so there’s no hope it would exchange today even if you agreed.

AFAICT you negotiated 2K off when you were in a position of strength (the survey), now they are upping back 2K when they are in a position of strength ?

At the end of the day you either want the place or not. If it is a low value place then maybe the 2K is a hefty hike. But if it is a 500K place then to me it would be fairly negligible in the grand scheme of things.

Otherwise you have to sit back and hope they blink.

If you actually can't afford the 2K then your decision is made for you.

The thing not to do is make it personal. At the end of the day it is either worth spending 2K for you to get the deal done or not.

People who pull stunts like this at the last minute for no reason at all are just awful. They are trying to prey on weakness. Perhaps it's good that you don't have the extra £2000 so will be forced to say no because it can be tempting to just pay to get the deal done in these circumstances.
Honestly, I think they are just playing games and will proceed anyway if you say no because they have more to lose leaving a house with no heating unoccupied over the Winter. I expect the total lack of heating would invalidate their insurance if a pipe blew and they could be faced with a large bill. The house may start to develop other problems. Apart from that, they had no other interest so it's obviously priced higher than most potential buyers were prepared to pay. The likelihood is that they would get less if they re-listed rather than more with the SDLT increase from April and unemployment rising.

I think your actions come down to how much you love the house and how desperate you are to proceed with all the information.
If you really don't want to lose the house, say no to the extra 2k and hopefully they will back down.
If you are now in two minds, you could consider reducing your offer to take account of the boiler or simply pulling out and looking again in the N Yr.
Good luck whatever you decide.

I would get solicitor to go back and tell them it's is the agreed price on the signed contracts or withdraw the purchase offer

I would also be asking myself what else might the vendor "do" before you take ownership of the property IF you leave them dissatisfied by not meeting their last minute demand for more money? By "do" - I mean malicious damage. On that basis, I wouldn't want to deal with them - they have demonstrated exactly what type of people they are; do you want more of that?

Called her bluff, gave a deadline to respond and lo and behold they backed down, agreed at the original price. Contracts being exchanged as we speak!

well done. We had all sorts of shenanigans when we sold our last property/bought this one. 20 years ago next month. It was so stressful (similar 11th hour price changes, 6m from offer to sale due to one person in the chain only wanting to move on a Friday and another on a monday!!) - to the point of being traumatising (the buyer of our old house used to sit outside ours when he knew my DH was away and I was home alone with a new born) - that we actually haven’t been able to face going through it again. Will one day have to downsize, but I may sell and then rent so that we are not held hostage to the price changes 5mins before exchange.

Well done!

Congratulations!

Thank goodness - and I should think so too

Yeehaa ! You can get the packing finished now !

Well done. Despicable behaviour from the vendor.