House vendor keeps asking for more cash - What to do?

[Deleted User]

Principia wrote: »

Is there any reason why you have to give him the £2k before completion? If not then just make the payment subject to completion (or exchange if you have to compromise). After all he'll be living in the place until completion.

Agree with this.

dominoman

Principia wrote: »

Is there any reason why you have to give him the £2k before completion? If not then just make the payment subject to completion (or exchange if you have to compromise). After all he'll be living in the place until completion.

He's not asking for the money now. He wants it added to the sale price to compensate him for the costs of finding somewhere to rent.

Given how much over asking price we are paying, and given that he has got us to raise the price three times now, I feel he is pushing it too far.

penguingirl

What if he then looks for rental properties and realises that they are more expensive than he thought (or he needs a 6 month AST), will he then ask for another 2k? Seems like every time they've asked for money you've given more, so they're going to keep asking! Personally if I was going to agree to cover rental costs (which I wouldn't) I'd also be looking at exchanging asap and going for May completion date. Seems like they want the extra time and the extra money?

movilogo

Agree, then just before contract exchange change your offer to 20k less due to 'market instability' and tell him to **** himself.

I'd say instead of just 2k more, offer him 5-6k more and tell him you wouldn't offer anymore. Then after ensuring he had arranged a rental accommodation (paid deposit etc.), just pull out

Seriously, forget about this house and start looking elsewhere.

ethank

Just say no

marlot

When I moved to my current house I had a vendor like this. And then I found out that he'd been lying to us about the planned completion date. We'd sold and were living in a rented, our dog was in a kennels and he was planning to delay completion for an extra month. (we'd agreed a price on the proviso that we'd complete by half term).

We suggested he pay half the extra rental costs. He refused, so we started looking elsewhere. We found somewhere and pulled out.

He rang me, offering to drop 2.5k off the price. I said "no, the chance for being reasonable was a week ago - you had the chance to contribute share the extra rental costs and refused". Over the next week or two the offers got bigger and bigger - ending up at £12.5k!!!! We never did relent, and he lost his dream home he'd been hoping to buy. Part of me felt sorry for him, but we'd found a much nicer house.

hazyjo

I would say no, I don't have it and it can't now be added to the mortgage as the valuation has already been done (presuming it has!).

I would offer very sweetly to sort out another mortgage - but only if he pays the £2k costs

Jx

Snakey

It's only natural to want to teach this greedy, unscrupulous person a lesson by walking away, but in a rising market he'll find another buyer prepared to pay the new asking price (automatically giving him a delayed move date, too) - a nice reward for his shabby behaviour while you lose the house and all the money you've spent on the purchase so far.

Set your sense of fair play aside for a moment. Do you still want this house at the new price, yes or no? Act accordingly. Nothing else matters in the long term. You and he will have no future dealings regardless of whether you buy or walk away, so don't let your feelings about him (or how you perceive he feels about you) feature in your decision.

If you decide to go ahead, protect yourself against any further shenanigans by making it conditional on exchanging today with such-and-such a completion date.