Buyer wants £8k off parents' London flat just before exchange

[LondonSeller]

Parents flat for sale as they passed away in london - Took 18 months to get probate sorted out but finally got it - Property listed with agents and it is in dated ocndition and needs work - Also has a 70 year lease. EA told us not an easy market

After five weeks advertising price agreed at 500K which was a bit lower then we had hope for but EA told us buyer is known to them and this would be very quick sale

Was meant to exchange on Friday and EA has come back and said buyer is ready to exchange, has sent deposit monies to his solicitors but wants a reduction of 8K. EA has said this is less than a 2% drop so not massive and believes we wont get better if we reject the offer

Buyer is cash purchaser investor so quite rare and I worry that if I dont accept property will be stuck for months for anothr cash buyer who might offer lower.

I live in Scotland and the flat is in London so I am miles away - Paid to have the place emptied and solicitor fees so am already down. By contrast buyer has not paid anything other than a few hundred for solicitor fees - No mortgage, no survey fees nothing

Whats the best angle here - Call buyers bluff and risk losing the sale or take the money and run. Feel quite cross as this money was going to be used for real stuff and to clear debts

Fair point but still ... in this current market ... their advice stacks up.

Are you paying the second home rate?

I’d be furious but I don’t think there’s much you can do unless you want delays/pay council tax etc for however much longer. It’s a dirty low down thing for the buyer to do and having read this several times on here, I said to our agent that if our buyers try this, I’ll re-market (although now I’ve found a house, I don’t think I could/would).

No, it will be our only residence.

The exact thing happened to me this year with the sale of my parent's house. We offered 2k as a gesture and they accepted.

Could you offer an amount off but not the 8k?

whether you walk away really depends on your time and headspace but meeting rhem half way may work @LondonSeller

and your only property?

Take the money.

The London property market for flats is rubbish, the short lease would make it very difficult for another buyer to get a mortgage and frankly an 8K drop on 500K is nothing.

Yes it is annoying but but it is better than wasting more time marketing the flat again after it took so long to get probate and find a buyer and risk not being able to sell for months...

Your parents need to fall over themselves to keep this sale on, as not a chance they will easily get another sale with a poxy 70 years remaining

The buyer is doing what everyone else is doing in this awful market. I will take my money and run. Cut your losses is my advice. However, I am pretty sure the buyer is getting better treatment from estate agents. This is why people won’t never be able to buy anything when prices come down bar shit places. EA are dodgy and in bed with investors.

OP I’ve just seen the link.
It’s a good area where prices have held up better than most eg central or prime London.
So:

1. how many viewings
2. other offers?
3. What are you paying WW? They can reduce their fee if so keen for you to accept lower.
4. ask in writing what other dealings they’ve had with this buyer.
5. is the buyer a connected party
6. why is it only a month? All these negotiations happened within a month?
7. who calculated the cost of extending from 70 years?
8. who owns freehold

lastly, it’s not impossible the buyer will see this thread.

East Dulwich has only gentrified in the last twenty years or so. It used to be a very affordable area.

If the buyer is the freeholder, is the £8k being deducted off the sale price to cover service charges up to completion if OP/Estate doesn’t have the cash up front to cover this?

So many questions 😊

Your first sentence sums up what I spent a paragraph trying to explain! Asset rich cash poor is a great way to phrase it, and it does fit with what OPs said about the family and situation.

We have a rental too, but I don’t believe that affects stamp duty as it will be our primary/only residence. My conveyancing costs (spent a long time looking at them yesterday because the credit checks required need the full breakdown of the source of funds) list the stamp duty at just over £22k, solicitors are aware that we have a rental.

We’re selling the rental to the tenants using the 5% discount scheme. They deserve it, they’ve been great tenants. They’ve only just started the process.

OP says both parents are dead.

@LondonSeller I live round the corner from.this property.
I'm not up on prices but honestly I think you should relist .
I'll ask my friend who has much better idea than me but probably won't hear until tomorrow.
Why is lease renewal so much?

Why didn't it sell when it was marketed last year, OP?

OP is the buyer either the current freeholder or someone who is also buying the freehold and other flat? Of itnis either I suspect they know that they know the estate is in debt (£20k owed to the freeholder, £100k owed to the bank) and have smelt blood.

TBH I would take the hit and get out. It is a nightmare of a flat that no ordinary buyer would touch with a bargepole.

@limetrees32 the lease has fallen below the marriage value - that jacks up the lease renewal costs.

It sucks but that is why you don't let leases fall below 80 years.

EA told us buyer is known to them and this would be very quick sale

I wouldnt trust your agents as far as I could throw them.

They know you're far away and dont know the area.

Id relist with a different agent.

Ah, you’ve been gazundered. So stressful: I am very sorry to hear it.

A friend of mine had a similar experience with a London family home recently. He refused to accept the lower price and the buyer crawled back saying “OK we’ll buy it for the agreed price then”.

He told them to fuck off, that he wasn’t selling to them and I felt a massive wave of admiration for him (given we were gazumped when we bought the property in which we now live and just sucked it up so as not to risk losing OUR buyer).

It is a dirty dirty trick, played by people who have very questionable morals.

The issue, of course, is a broken system, which entertains both gazumping and gazundering with no sanction.

No you're right, I dont know why I assumed that it would be cheaper for a second property!! That 22k is the standard stamp duty for a house of that price anyway, I also thought it would be more like the other poster.

Ours would be 4k if bought by standard home movers, but only 1k if bought by FTB

Are you just going to keep questioning why posters are asking questions?

It's not adding anything to the discussion.

I believe it’s more for a secondary property? Dunno, I’d never be in that position.

Bite your tongue and take the reduced offer. I sold my Mum's flat last year and we had a similar situation. I turned down the offer and relisted it with another agent; it finally sold 6 months later (!) for less than the reduced offer. Flats are a nightmare.