Gazundered at last minute!!

sebtomato

Cissi wrote: »

What a load of rubbish!

Sorry to have a different point of view from yours.

Cissi wrote: »

But the point is that all of this should have been thought through well before the day of proposed exchange!

The English system allows for renegotiation until the exchange of contracts, and most sellers had no problems with that concept until recently, gazumping buyers.

The buyer is just leveraging that system since the overall property market is not doing so well currently. The market has moved to be a buyer's market. I think the main issue is some sellers have a sense of entitlement of some profits they should make on a property because "you always sell for more than you bought".

We could argue on whether the actual English system is flawed or not (Scotland or other European countries have different systems), but the buyer just does what she is entitled to to get the property for cheaper. It's a called a property market after all.

dippenhall

Hi all,
Well after all sorts of to-ing and fro-ing we exchanged today at £1500 off the originally agreed price! So all this hassle and loss of good will for £1500. I suppose she'll be happy to have got something off, I feel she's achieved something. We were planning to leave her curtains, blinds, lawnmower, garden tools etc (not mentioned in the inventory) and show her how everything in the house worked as she was worried she wouldn't know how to work the heating/showers etc, well that won't be happening now!

ILW

Cissi wrote: »

What a load of rubbish! The original price paid by the seller has nothing to do with it at this point - it was all a matter of negotiation at the time the deal was agreed!

Best of luck with it all.

The deal is not officially agreed until exchange, up to that point it is still in the negotiation stage.

RAS

dippenhall wrote: »

We were planning to leave her curtains, blinds, lawnmower, garden tools etc (not mentioned in the inventory) and show her how everything in the house worked as she was worried she wouldn't know how to work the heating/showers etc, well that won't be happening now!

Chances are that will cost her £1500 in the first 6 months.

DVardysShadow

dippenhall wrote: »

Hi all,
Well after all sorts of to-ing and fro-ing we exchanged today at £1500 off the originally agreed price! So all this hassle and loss of good will for £1500. I suppose she'll be happy to have got something off, I feel she's achieved something. We were planning to leave her curtains, blinds, lawnmower, garden tools etc (not mentioned in the inventory) and show her how everything in the house worked as she was worried she wouldn't know how to work the heating/showers etc, well that won't be happening now!

Yes, leave it all switched off and turned off, central heating and plumbing drained.

Cissi

ILW wrote: »

The deal is not officially agreed until exchange, up to that point it is still in the negotiation stage.

I know that and probably expressed myself badly - what I was trying to say was that the buyer in this case hasn't done herself any favours by behaving like this and it doesn't seem like a well thought-through negotiation tactic. Sure, you can gazunder (or gazump) until the last second, but only if you're actually prepared to go through with it. This woman has made her position incredibly weak by jumping from £20k below to £2.5k below and showing panic at the idea of starting from scratch.

It was the argument about "why should the buyer pay for the seller's profit" that I thought was a load of rubbish (and still do). That has absolutely nothing to do with the price actually agreed. All that matters is the law of supply and demand. Vendor sets an asking price - buyer makes an offer - they both adjust their positions as far as they think it's worth to them - if they overlap, there is a deal, if not, they walk away. Simple. "Fairness" (as in "why should they make a profit at my expense") doesn't come into it.

It's well possible that the house in question isn't worth the price agreed. The big question for the buyer at this point has to be whether the difference between what she will have to pay if she wants to go through with this purchase and the costs already incurred (surveys, solicitors fees...) makes it worthwhile to walk away at this point. Since she's already negotiated herself back up to just £2.5k below the agreed price my bet is that she won't walk away (or she simply isn't rational, which is also possible).

Edited as I only just saw the OP's update: well done for not caving in at a lower point, and a pity that the buyer was so obtuse as she's probably lost more than £1500 by losing your goodwill, as you describe.

Edited again: oops, thanks wuckfit

Eric1

sebtomato wrote: »

The English system allows for renegotiation until the exchange of contracts, and most sellers had no problems with that concept until recently, gazumping buyers.

not to mention other tricks, such as disclosing problems only after the buyer has paid for surveys etc.

Gwhiz

ILW wrote: »

The deal is not officially agreed until exchange, up to that point it is still in the negotiation stage.

Whilst true, the issue is more one of integrity. Anyone gazundering (or gazumping) is a nasty piece of sh** in my eyes. If you're unhappy with the price why wait till the zero hour to re-negotiate? The reason is that there is no real room for manoeuvre for man people so they are backed into a corner. Whilst it may be legal, it's most definitely reprehensible behaviour.

wuckfit

Cissi wrote: »

I know that and probably expressed myself badly - what I was trying to say was that the vendor in this case hasn't done herself any favours by behaving like this and it doesn't seem like a well thought-through negotiation tactic. Sure, you can gazunder (or gazump) until the last second, but only if you're actually prepared to go through with it. This woman has made her position incredibly weak by jumping from £20k below to £2.5k below and showing panic at the idea of starting from scratch.

It was the argument about "why should the vendor pay for the seller's profit" that I thought was a load of rubbish (and still do). That has absolutely nothing to do with the price actually agreed. All that matters is the law of supply and demand. Vendor sets an asking price - buyer makes an offer - they both adjust their positions as far as they think it's worth to them - if they overlap, there is a deal, if not, they walk away. Simple. "Fairness" (as in "why should they make a profit at my expense") doesn't come into it.

It's well possible that the house in question isn't worth the price agreed. The big question for the buyer at this point has to be whether the difference between what she will have to pay if she wants to go through with this purchase and the costs already incurred (surveys, solicitors fees...) makes it worthwhile to walk away at this point. Since she's already negotiated herself back up to just £2.5k below the agreed price my bet is that she won't walk away (or she simply isn't rational, which is also possible).

Edited as I only just saw the OP's update: well done for not caving in at a lower point, and a pity that the buyer was so obtuse as she's probably lost more than £1500 by losing your goodwill, as you describe.

You should probably edit again: vendor means the same as seller.

oldone_2

dippenhall wrote: »

Hi all,
Well after all sorts of to-ing and fro-ing we exchanged today at £1500 off the originally agreed price! So all this hassle and loss of good will for £1500. I suppose she'll be happy to have got something off, I feel she's achieved something. We were planning to leave her curtains, blinds, lawnmower, garden tools etc (not mentioned in the inventory) and show her how everything in the house worked as she was worried she wouldn't know how to work the heating/showers etc, well that won't be happening now!

Let us hope you don't come back here in 6 months time and start a thread saying your buyer exchanged contracts 6 months ago, and is still refusing to complete.

Given her track record so far, I think your buyer from hell is only just warming up.:D