What's the right thing to do?

lanclass_2

Would be really grateful of any thoughts/opinions.
We had an offer on our house which we accepted within a week. We had put our house on the market because we had seen a specific property that we wanted. However, we are still negotiating the price of the one that we want (it's a probate) and if we can't agree on a price we probably won't move. Our buyers (who are really nice) want a surveyor to come on Saturday. We have made it clear that we're not prepared to move into rented accomodation. We do want to move but I'm very uncomfortable that they're incurring costs when we might have to turn round and say we're not selling (ie if we don't agree on the price). Should I tell them to leave the survey a while longer or just reiterate that we haven't found a house yet?

morg_monster

I think you should tell them to leave the survey a bit longer. How long do you think it'll be before you agree the price on the probate place? if it's more than a week I would tell them the honest story and let them decide what they want to do. If they like the place enough they'll wait a little while for you.
If I was the buyer and knew you had let me shell out hundreds while knowing there was a chance that it was a total waste of cash, I would be fuming with you. Keep the good relationship and be honest with them, I think.

cashndash

you know the answer really! if you were your buyer, what would you want you to do??

Ulfar

cashndash wrote: »

you know the answer really! if you were your buyer, what would you want you to do??

Run away and find another property, would be my response.

There is also the issue that your estate agent will want paying, they have introduced you to a buyer and you have accepted the offer. That fulfills the estate agents obligation, even if you hadn't accepted the offer if it was at asking price the estate agent would still want paying.

G_M

Our buyers (who are really nice) want a surveyor to come on Saturday

That probobly means they have applied for a mortgage, incurred the mortgage application fee, and commited to the survey fee. Altering/postponing/cancelling the survey date will not get them their money back!

pie81

Ulfar wrote: »

Run away and find another property, would be my response.

There is also the issue that your estate agent will want paying, they have introduced you to a buyer and you have accepted the offer. That fulfills the estate agents obligation, even if you hadn't accepted the offer if it was at asking price the estate agent would still want paying.

I'm not sure this is correct. It depends on the EA contract. My contract with my EA says the fee is only payable on completion of the sale.

PasturesNew

So far as I am concerned (as a buyer), if a house is for sale it's for sale. I wouldn't then expect to find that the sellers were loonies and start !!!!ing about.

If you are only after one house why didn't you put your house on the market after you'd had your offer accepted?

Either course of action is inadvisable - and plain rude really.

You're either moving or not, but to say you refuse to move into rented smacks of somebody who wants everything to be on their terms.

You should have said all of this when your buyer's offer was accepted, not now.

PasturesNew

pie81 wrote: »

I'm not sure this is correct. It depends on the EA contract. My contract with my EA says the fee is only payable on completion of the sale.

Are you 100% certain of that? Usually an agent's obligation is to provide you with a buyer "willing and able to...." and if you pull out then they've met the contractual obligations and you'd still have to pay.

pie81

PasturesNew wrote: »

Are you 100% certain of that? Usually an agent's obligation is to provide you with a buyer "willing and able to...." and if you pull out then they've met the contractual obligations and you'd still have to pay.

will be checking... but pretty sure that I only have to pay if the sale exchanges, and can delay actual payment until completion. but will check!

gemstars

PasturesNew wrote: »

So far as I am concerned (as a buyer), if a house is for sale it's for sale. I wouldn't then expect to find that the sellers were loonies and start !!!!ing about.

If you are only after one house why didn't you put your house on the market after you'd had your offer accepted?

Either course of action is inadvisable - and plain rude really.

You're either moving or not, but to say you refuse to move into rented smacks of somebody who wants everything to be on their terms.

You should have said all of this when your buyer's offer was accepted, not now.

Couldn't have put it better myself.