Buyer asking for discount - just when we are agreeing completion date!

planemad

I would reject the request to be honest - to a point where I turned down a sale in 2008 (falling market) for a drop of £1k - they did this just before contract exchange day.
A perfectly fair and reasonable request but I do not like the feeling of hostage and it does not fit in well with my transaction beliefs.
The prospective purchasers then backed down and said they would pay our original agreed price in which case I declined selling to them point blank I told them I would now not sell to them under any circumstance.
They were really taken back and thought that they were in control - reading through the line it was one of their parents that told them to do it.

I felt sorry for them as they were FTBs they lost £800 mortgage arrangement fee, £300 survey fee and some legal costs - I came out on top after 3 months as I sold the place for £3k more and only lost £200 legal fees on the original sale which fell through so I yielded £2800 more.

I will say that the property was not my main residence and was a flat that I purchased in 1999 in a nice area right next to the train station with direct train to London in 25mins so I was not really to bothered that I could net sell - I also had paid of the mortgage a few years before.

PPPingu

I'll be very interested to see how this pans out. I'd be very surprised if they genuinely cannot get the funds at this stage.

soulsurfer

Well - we agreed £1000 reduction on the basis of exchanging week commencing June 13 and completion June 24.

We didn't exchange week commencing June 13 but were then told they were going in yesterday (21st) and that we would still complete this Friday 24th. End of the day yesterday, despite several phone calls - no answer as to what was happening.

Today - have had email from our solicitor. Still don't know if exchange took place yesterday (have asked her to clarify) - but their solicitor is asking more questions, one of which is for us to provide gas and electric certificates (they were told 2 weeks ago that if they want a gas and electric report then they can request and pay for it - house is only 15 years old!). They are also asking for completion on July 18 - a Monday as 'they are currently renting and need to give notice' - so they were never completing this Friday then were they? They haven't given notice to their landlord! I've gone back and said no to the 18th - we'll agree the 15th, which is a Friday that way we both only have to take 1 days holiday and have the weekend to get ourselves straight (we also have 2 children). If it means they don't move in on Friday and have to pay 3 days mortgage and rent - well quite frankly that's not our problem. After all the messing around they've put us through. They can use the £1000 they've conned off us to offset the payments.

So - still don't know what's going to happen!

Doozergirl

Oh dear. I think they're stringing you along.

I'd seriously consider accepting viewings on the house. I wouldn't be surprised if they take you another few weeks down the line and try to gazunder again.... It sounds like the electrics and gas is going to be another reason to renegotiate.

You won't have exchanged, she'd have phoned you immediately to let you know. Solicitors stop asking questions at exchange.

DonnySaver

The is quite often a favourite play from property developers. It recently happened to our neighbours. They were about to exchange and their buyer rang to say they wanted another 5K off.

Not on really.

franklee

As tenant I wouldn't give notice till contracts are exchanged either otherwise if the sale falls through the tenants end up homeless. Also I've never quite got the preference to complete on a Friday as if any problems arise there's probably no one to deal with them till Monday.

pimento

When we completed on a Monday, our solicitor suggested we ask for our funds on the previous Friday in case there was a hold-up on completion day. It meant we paid an extra weekend's interest on the money but was probably a good idea.

FWIW, I would start viewings on my house again if I were the OP, this can only end in tears.

timmyt

pimento wrote: »

When we completed on a Monday, our solicitor suggested we ask for our funds on the previous Friday in case there was a hold-up on completion day. It meant we paid an extra weekend's interest on the money but was probably a good idea.

FWIW, I would start viewings on my house again if I were the OP, this can only end in tears.

all switched on conveyancers get mortgage the working day before to avoid banks being slow in sending money on the day of completion and putting you in breach of contract.

some conveyancers don't - good luck with that :eek:

DVardysShadow

Doozergirl wrote: »

Oh dear. I think they're stringing you along.

I'd seriously consider accepting viewings on the house. I wouldn't be surprised if they take you another few weeks down the line and try to gazunder again.... It sounds like the electrics and gas is going to be another reason to renegotiate.

You won't have exchanged, she'd have phoned you immediately to let you know. Solicitors stop asking questions at exchange.

I would agree with that. I would probably go in a bit harder and send a message via the solicitor that they have 72 hours to exchange or 'return papers'.

I don't normally like ultimatums in house buying, but in this case, it seems that everything has been dealt with and they are just playing games. Well, life is too short, OP may lose the house they are buying, so it is probably better to take the hit and done with it.

timmyt

when asking for a discount, call their bluff and say 'please send the contract papers while my clients consider the price reduction request'