Help! buyer wants price reduction rather late on!

Hermoine

I reduced the price of the property I'm trying to sell back in November, as I was keen to get a sale before the winter really set in. I got an offer quite a long way below the reduced price, negotiated it up a bit and then accepted it. This was late November, and I then put in an offer on another property. The (first time) buyer had a survey done at the beginning of January, has a mortgage offer, and has been very slowly going through every bit of paperwork to do with the purchase, leading to much correspondence. A couple of weeks ago my estate agent reported that the buyer was concerned about the state of the roofs of the property and he had persuaded them to use a firm they used to do a roof survey. This took about 10 days to happen, and I've now been advised that the roof needs just under £10,000 worth of repairs, and they would like either it repaired before they buy or would like a reduction in price of £5,000. [The flat is one of 2 and under the leasehold agreement both flats have 50% of the responsibility for such repairs - so basically they would like me to pay the full cost of such repairs]. Obviously I can't agree to get the repairs done, because that would involve the agreement of the other flat owner, who might not want to do the work at this point, would want to get other quotes etc etc and by the time this was sorted out and the work was done, I suspect the sellers of the house I am trying to buy would have lost patience (they are ready to exchange). However, I am reluctant to reduce the price by another £5,000, given I've already knocked so much off the original asking price, and I am slightly suspicious that this is being brought up so late in the process, given that the original survey was done at the start of January - is it being done now as a way of forcing me to drop the price because they know I am keen to finish the sale so I can get on and finish buying the property that I want buy? I have seen the report from the roofing company, and I'm sure that they are generally correct but it is worth pointing out that neither roof is dangerous or indeed leaking, so while they need repair, it isn't something that needs to be done immediately. Has anyone else had a similar experience (either as a buyer or a seller) ?? I'm really not sure what to do.

Yorkie1

Do you trust the roofing firm and their amount?

ACG

Without knowing the state of the roof, its difficult to say.

If they were just trying to get the price down last minute to put you in a corner i would tell them to do one and give them 24 hours to proceed otherwise your pulling out of the sale - but im one of those people who would cut off my nose.

If however there is a genuine argument, then you have 3 choices - agree, refuse or try to negotiate. If you think their argument is valid albeit quite late, then maybe say you will offer £1k back to them if they complete by a set date?
Ammending the purchase price now, will result in a new offer needing to be made by the lender which depending on the lender could take a week or so.

Hermoine

Yorkie1 wrote: »

Do you trust the roofing firm and their amount?

Sort of - I wasn't entirely convinced about part of it - if I was considering getting the work done I would want a bit more explanation for some of it, and would ask another company for a quote as well.

reheat

Firstly, and very importantly, why are you not doing all this through your conveyancing solicitor?! You could end up in all sorts of a pickle by agreeing or disagreeing with anything off your own back, or via the EA! And your conveyencer should be able to help assist with the way to go. Are you on a fixed price conveyancing agreement?

If the reduction is for work to be carried out then it's not a new offer as such, just an agreed amount tacked into the existing agreement, which didn't impact our timescales when we bought our house and agreed to go halves on woodworm treatment needed in roof space.

Your buyer could be genuine, or could just as easily be pulling a flanker to get more money off. Firstly I would ask via your conveyancer to see a copy of the quote please, which is a very reasonable thing to ask. As much as anything else this lets them know you are not going to just blindly run where they point you. And it also susses whether they really have had a quote done. If it's a roofer they know, who's to say he's not done an inflated quote anyway, and might be in for a back-hander?! Ask your conveyancer if you should get your own quote done?

Then if the numbers really are as stated, offer £2000 off - again via your conveyancer! Even though you might be prepared to go further, need to give buyer the strong impression that that is it - no debate about it (even though if they bargain hard you might really be prepared to debate it). And needs to be done so as not to turn buyer right off.

But if you do this without your conveyancer's involvement you might spend money you didn't need to spend, or cause aggo you could have avoided.

kingstreet

I would ask to see the mortgage report and valuation.

I'd want to know the valuation now, any essential repairs the surveyor considers necessary and the value after such repairs.

Base your response on this data.

If the purchaser has voluntarily had a roofing report he may have suggested the contractor quote for something not actually necessary at the moment.

Yorkie1

The one thing which makes me think that the roofing report may well be half-decent is that the buyer used the EA's suggested roofer - it's not in the EA's interests to get a buyer to throw a wobbly?

Old_Git

you could say the price was reduced to reflect the work needed .

cooltt

Tell them to sign or pull out they're obviously pulling a fast one.

ognum

cooltt wrote: »

Tell them to sign or pull out they're obviously pulling a fast one.

This is easy to say when you haven't already made plans in your head for a new life in a new home!

You can do this but you do run the riskthatthey will walk, it is Russian roulette really.

You need to decide how important the sale is to you, how much you can afford to drop if any, and weigh up if you will be more upset by dropping the price by 2k or not selling.

It has to be your call. I would however say that I will drop xk but this is providing contracts are exchanged within 5 days otherwise the price reverts.

Sponge

Old_Git wrote: »

you could the price was reduced to reflect the work needed .

Agreed. Say the current price reflects the current condition.

I think they're trying it on. The roof may well need a few minor repairs (most do ), there's no way for us to know, but it may well only need a few hundred to sort. Anything more could just be 'betterment' and unreasonable for you to pay for, even slightly. It's possible their expert has inflated the price to put the frighteners on you, with a view to negotiate a lower, but still too high, price/discount.

Consider getting your own person in to give it a once over. You could get this done in a day or two. (I've done it.)