Can we hold buyer to his offer?

markelock · 23 October 2008 at 2:50PM

the question is, would you agree to a punitive charge of £10k in the event of a withdrawal? The answer is no. quite simply, it's too restrictive and unfair.

Once you've exchanged he will be liable for damages (assuming the solicitor is half decent), for perhaps 10% of the purchase price.

If £88k is all you can get, and you really do have to move, then £88k is what you should accept.

If he drops it again, go back to whether you have to move or not, whether you can afford it (It would appear as though you can't) Look long term and see whether £2k lost now would be offset by the benefits over 10 years?

or tell him to go away. politely.

howler_2 · 23 October 2008 at 2:50PM

tavarishink wrote: »

Are you completely insane?
£88K on a £95K property is not so insulting that one should resort to petty pranks to feel better.
The seller knows that in this market they will probably not get a better offer so they are accepting it, but how is that the buyer's fault and why must the buyer be punished?
If they exchange at £88K, then everyone wins.

Quite agree. Sellers need to accept prices have fallen and are still falling - get over it.

LisaLou1982 · 23 October 2008 at 2:51PM

No, you cant hold the buyer to the original offer. If you went down the deposit route, your buyer would have to agree to it and then both of you would have to arrange it with the solicitors and that would cost you more money.
Accept his revised offer and ask your EA to go to the agent you are buying your property off and revise your offer based upon your circumstances.

LittleMoo · 23 October 2008 at 3:07PM

Thanks everyone for your replies, some of them made me chuckle which I needed today! :rotfl:

You've all said pretty much what I expected, it's just nice to know for sure, even though there's not much we can do about it.

We only have £5k equity in our current house, hence our reluctance to have to drop the price further but as you all say - it's a buyers market!

We're going to review the situation tonight. If he sticks at £88k and honours it then we'll be fine. If he tries to drop further later on we'll either have to force the price down on the house we want (seems so mean though!) or drop out and look for somewhere cheaper, in line with the new value of ours.

Really don't want to stay where we are at present if we can help it. Just last night there were 4 police cars, a dog unit and an ambulance outside - not a great area to raise a child!

markelock · 23 October 2008 at 3:28PM

assuming you don't live in between a police station and hospital you're right to want to move.

if your buyer is offering less, don't feel bad about offering less in turn. everyone will be doing it. the person selling you will probably be doing it too.

this is business, which is what house buying/selling has become, to a large extent you have to look after yourself, just be honest and straightforward about it, and morally you'll be able to justify it all.

maryotuam · 23 October 2008 at 6:53PM

I don't see why you can't just pass on any drop from this buyer to the people you are buying from. Their house has dropped in value since you first put your offer in and they will be very reluctant to lose you. No doubt they would have to reduce their house price if you couldn't complete through no fault of your own and would have also paid out for surveys etc..

brummybloke · 23 October 2008 at 7:07PM

take thw hit, it is how much extra? 2k? i know the fear is there for him to drop further. i had the same sort of thing, however just say you will drop it to that price on the condition the deal is completed in 6 weeks maximum.

once he has started spending money out on survey, it shows he is serious or semi seriious, then it is a case of being onto your solicitor almost daily, you deed holder, infact you pretty much will need to do everything yourself to get the deal through quickly.

on the flip side, it shows you have decent emergency services. i dont think there are 4 police cars for the entire area i live in.

neverdespairgirl · 24 October 2008 at 1:56AM

going2die_rich wrote: »

if you do sell, do some things before you leave to make it horrible for him when he gets there. Such as leaving some dead fish under the floorboards, in the attic and signing up the address to a few things in his name. maybe a couple of dozen double glazing quotes and guttering. He'll get hounded for ages afterwards. Perhpas even set a few mice out in the attic?

What a half-witted, nasty post. The OP should either accept or decline the offer, nothing else.

LilacPixie · 24 October 2008 at 2:09AM

take the hit and reduce your offer on the house you are buying by a similar amount. If your sellers say no then just walk away, rent somewhere for 6 months and save what little equity you have. The market is still falling and won't bottom out for a while IMO so really you have nothing to lose.

gastroboy · 24 October 2008 at 10:17AM

Littlemoo: As others have said, take the hit, and get the difference off the person you are buying from. Tell your vendor that your chain is going to fall through because your buyer wants to reduce by £2k due to market falling (say its 3.5% reduction on agreed price) and you cannot afford to take that hit (not enough deposit so bank will not lend etc...) and you have been advised to take 3.5% off your asking price now but you want the sale to go through so you'll settle for £2k off from them to allow the sale to proceed.

and don't think of it as a loss because you will lose MUCH much more buy telling the buyer to go away.

good luck

Can we hold buyer to his offer?

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