Buyer tried gazunder before exchange

[PickNMixwe]

Selling a house but I've already moved, so though I'd like to complete sooner rather than later, there's no chain, just the buyer due to move from rented upon completion.

It is a very good house in a popular area. There were multiple offers back in June when it went on the market, it was priced low (my choice) as I wanted to get on with it. The buyer has a mortgage offer, survey with no known issues and all legal work completed.

We were due to exchange this week, but the buyer unexpectedly said they want to do some renovations due to parts being a bit dated and so they want a £10k reduction.

I have said no, the agent also advised me to say no, they've got a great house at a great price. Now I'm waiting to hear on Tues whether we're proceeding at the agreed price (which apparently they can easily afford). The agent is very decent and it won't cost me £10k to start again, he can easily get another buyer at this price, but the whole thing is very frustrating.

I think often buyers go ahead once a gazunder has been declined? They've spent a load on surveys and legal work. Feeling a bit fed up.

Hopefully the estate agent wouldn't be so unprofessional as to hand over keys without permission. The buyer can probably see the house is not being lived in anyway.

I thought it was gazumping. A guzunder is a chamber pot, because it “guz under” the bed.

They know it's empty as it was when they viewed with the surveyor recently. However that doesn't make me desperate to sell, a £10k drop is much higher than paying council tax etc for a while. It is insured, the agent won't charge more to remarked and I have insurance on legal costs.

Gazumping is when a second buyer comes in with a higher offer once the first offer has been accepted.

Gazumping is where Buyer 2 offers more than the price agreed between the vendor and buyer 1, and snatches the property from them that was. Gazundering is waiting until near completion to demand a reduction, in the hopes the vendor won’t want to lose the sale, @MyArtfulGreySloth.

Definitely hang on, they will probably go ahead and if not you have other interest.

You can be gazumped near completion too and there doesn’t always have to be another “real” buyer. In a rising market the seller can just say it’s now worth X and others are interested.

I thought it was gazumper/ gazumped.

Instruct the Agent either they exchange on the agreed date by Noon or the property goes back on the market £10,000 more than the agreed price! And Mean It.

Cheeky fuckers. If they wanted to renovate they would have known that from the first viewing and put their offer in accordingly. Do not budge, OP!

this isn’t gazumping

Agree with others - refuse, and set a firm exchange date. This seems a popular thing to do at the moment as ‘it’s a buyer’s market’. I think my own buyers are gearing up to do the same, as they are being a bit shady about committing to exchange, even though everything else has been done.

Yes, people used to like that one strangely enough, don"t hear about it now though. Is it worth losing a buyer in this market for 10k? I think no, and it may have been a "low" price in the seller"s mind but obviously this buyer doesn"t agree, just get the sale over the line and be done with it, what happens if the next buyer wants 20k off?

It isn"t a buyers market though, houses are still stupidly overpriced while mortgage debt is much more expensive, buyers are feeling conned and want to feel they at least got some money for new blinds or something from a seller who will be making a decent profit, unless they bought in recent years of course.

Still not worth it on 10k, unless you are talking about a 50 or 60k flat or something?

This!

Or raise it a £1000 and tell them you’ll only proceed on the new price!

It is! Cos it goes under 'guzunder' the bed.

Their lender must have valued it at the right amount or they wouldn’t have a mortgage offer, so no matter what pathetic excuse they come up with the answer should be no.

@PickNMixwe This happened to me - my response was that if they were playing that game then the price would be increased. The sale went ahead at the agreed price.

@KeepPumping you’re saying OP should just drop the 10k though as it’s not worth losing a buyer ‘in this market’ i.e. you see it as a buyer’s market. I don’t think it is actually a buyer’s market in all areas, it’s area specific. I’m buying, as well as selling, and there is very little coming on the market in the area that I want to buy, so anything half-decent has an inflated price. So if my buyer decides to try and gazunder me by £10k I’m not just going to accept it, as my area is also popular and I will sell again easily.

I was so cross when my buyer did this that I refused to sell to her even when she went back up to the agreed price. She kept contacting the estate agent for a month. Obviously I wasn't desperate to sell so I do feel for sellers that couldn't do this.

Definitely CF. I would ask the agent to be bullish with them, reject the lower offer and give them til the end of the day to sign the contract or it will be remarketed.

I’m going to make it clear, politely but directly, that once a price has been agreed after survey etc we will not consider any reductions or any extensions to the time they have to exchange. No one is playing that trick. My parents were badly messed around by a buyer that in the end my DF told the EA he wouldn’t deal with him if he turned up with the price in a bag of gold, because he didn’t want to inflict such a dickhead on our lovely neighbours. The house sold for the full price to the next folks on the list.

Yes, I would take this line as well. People who try this on need to be taught a lesson.

All it takes is for the US and Iran to kick off again one night and the next day bond yields will be bouncing all over the place sending mortgages higher, then the OP might be getting lower offers or zero views as people step back from the market again, they have come this far to nearly complete the sale why go back to the start over 10k, to prove some sort of point, my property is harder than your mortgage offer sort of thing?