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

I agree gazundering is bad practice, but the you described seller didn’t need to sell. OP will be losing money on this flat every day in a market where it is very difficult to find a serious buyer.

The OP needs to find out ASAP if the freehold owner owns the upper flat given the house is listed as “UNDER OFFER” inc both flats and “FREEHOLD”

Either….. 1/ the upper flat is owned by the freeholder or
2/ the flat owner has agreed a private sale with the freeholder who is selling the property as a whole.

The OP now holds stronger cards and I would definitely use them given the EA has behaved underhandedly.
They are working for competing clients.

I would suspect they have NOT prioritised OPs interests above those of the freeholder.

This whole thing is truly suss 🤔

What on Earth is going on? Before even buying the second flat are they trying to sell the whole thing? I

OP, you do realise this puts a different angle on it. Your flat is of significantly higher value to the freeholder than anyone else and the lease length doesn’t matter to him or her.

I’d get more agents round asap.

OP for Gods sake make your solicitor aware of what the EA is doing.
There is a clear conflict of interest here.

I agree you could loose more than that if you have to start again but say yes but it needs to complete by x date

I'd wait it out. Like you say, it's already cheap. People saying London market is flat aren't thinking of a property priced to sell with all its faults acknowledged, a good investment. Move agents because they vouched for thischancer.

It’s all very curious because it turns out the upper flat is under offer as well.

The photos advertising the house are the same as those of the upper flat only so I’d guess the owner of the upstairs flat is the freeholder who owns the leasehold to OP’s and is taking the opportunity of the OP’s sale to sell both as a whole house.

A developer is probably buying both: as a renovated house on that road goes for 1.6-1.9.

In which case OP’s in a strong position because the buyer won’t want to lose the purchase of both over 8k. And the freeholder won’t want to lose the sale of the whole property.

I know this market well and £500k is a good price if the OP can’t afford the lease extension/renovations themselves. £492 perfectly reasonable but obviously being gazundered stings. Unfortunately the OP is very out of touch with how much work costs in London now, 20k won’t touch the sides. A 90 year lease is almost impossible to shift, let alone 70.

Estate agent is meant to be your agent as the seller, not buyer's. This sounds suspicious. If all falls through on this you should look into whether you have a cause for complaint. Do you have a solicitor you or even your parents found, not one recommended through the estate agent.

I have no legal qualifications, just property team experience in local government and I'm very opinionated. If you have a decent solicitor who is independent of those doing this to you, prepare your questions before discussion as solicitors charge fees in 6 minute units. If you don't, that's something else to consider.

I would bite their hand off. I have had my parents property on the market in South Wales for a year. The market is dead. I have reduced the price a few times and nothing is happening. Meanwhile the bills have to be paid each month. I also live a long way away but I don't have siblings. It's a total carcrash.

Oh tell them to fuck off and agent to put back on the market

They would have paid out money they would lose as well

Flats are very slow to sell at the moment so if you loose this sale another one might not come along for a while.
Even if you got another buyer quickly, it could take 6 months if there is a slow solicitor and chain involved.
Is that woth £8k?

Someone can call the agent and point out there are 2 flats and 1 house, all under offer, no mention of any leasehold and see what they say

"And they are ALWAYS on the side of the buyer, rather than the seller. "

No, estate agents are on the side of estate agents, and making more money for themselves. I suspect, from my memory, that the problem is here, the estate agents should be working for the seller, but often offer to refer potential buyers to their solicitors, or to a firm they "know", who seem to take care of everything. So then both sets of solicitors are tied to the agents, not acting as the seller's solicitors and the buyer's solicitors.

I think that this should be illegal. I'm a former legal secretary. I was lucky when I bought my house because I asked for the phone number of a former colleague who had gone to set up a conveyancing department of an expanding firm. We had worked in the same local govt place, and she was a very experienced and qualified conveyancing legal executive rather than a solicitor, but she was well qualified to do what she did, and yes, she was acting for me. At that time I wasn't working in conveyancing, but I'd done a brief course in that and some basic info about court systems, which not only helped me get a job, it helped me know that I needed my own solicitor acting for me.

Not unusual at all. My kids will also have an estate that comprises just my two bed flat (also in London) that cost £495K in 2007 and I have little doubt won't be any easy sell either due to service charges and length of lease. Not everyone has shed loads of cash or stocks and shares to leave as an inheritance, you know!

DD1 was very shocked when I told her this recently: 'So all your money is tied up in your flat?' she said incredulously, obviously thinking I was a Boomer sitting on £££ of equity and cash savings!

That appears to be part of the problem. If OP has her own solicitor that's much better. But often estate agents refer both sellers and buyers, which leads to severe conflicts of interest.

I think this should be made illegal.

I am commenting on the initial OP and their subsequent posts.

Whilst not morally sound, the request of a drop in price is legal. It is business.

Given that you cannot fund the lease extension or the renovation costs (which you have vastly underestimated) the cards are with the buyer in this instance.

I would sell and stop pontificating over what it should and could be worth and how much of a loss 8k is to you. Allowing indignation and a sense of principle to affect this sale, would be folly in my opinion.

It's not worth the stress and anxiety. You could make back some of the 8k in interest from the cash.

I’d only take it if they were prepared to meet me in person and ask for it whilst being filmed for my You Tube film called gazundering prick asks for discount. Funny how they only concluded on exchange day that the lease and refurb costs exceeded estimates. For the lease extension one they must have legal documents with a date on showing when the costs were disclosed, same with the builder doing the refurb - make them show you these and demand they explain the timing.

Twas ever thus. In 2000 we sold our 4 bed house to downsize. The estate agent was also Winkworth in another area of London. He was 'in bed' with the family man (aka developer) who bought the house and promptly demolished it to build two on the plot.

I would accept it but its a dirty way to do business. Hide some prawns behind the baseboard in the kitchen or under the floorboards. They will stink the place out and the buyer will go crazy looking for them. One bad turn deserves another.

Tell him the price has increased by £8k for being so cheeky. Tell your estate agent to start earning their money and to actually work for you.

Me too given the circumstances.