Difficult buyer

Annie1960

fawnyb wrote: »

. Am going away in 10 days and wanted all enquiries to be answered by then so I can relax.

No chance.

You can't relax until you've exchanged.

theGrinch

should communication should be via your solicitor. as said, you need to start talking with the agent regarding the underbidders and opening that channel.

I would not change anything prior to exchange if at all.

mrsmazza

We had the buyers from hell, they tried to knock us on money twice, wanted this checked , that checked, at our expense. When they had the survey done they attended as well and went round with the surveyor.. ( We used an online EA and that didn't help as they had our phone no.s and email )
Day of exchange they tried to knock 10k off the price. We said no and pulled out. Put property back on the market with a local EA then after 3 weeks got 20k more.

Rosetinted

Fawny, if you give your buyer all the power, he'll happily take it and continue to make silly demands. The seller is the one who has the power in this relationship, not the buyer. You have this one house he wants, whereas there are dozens of other people out there with money looking to buy.

It sounds as though the more agreeable you are and the more you say you'll do or look into things for him, the more he'll ask for. I'd personally tell him (via solicitor or EA) that he viewed the property and made an offer based on what he saw, so that's what he's buying and you won't be changing anything.

You need to stop dealing with him directly, as others have said, and get the solicitor and your EA handling communication. Stop answering his calls and don't return answers to queries unless they came via EA/solicitor. He'll probably feel more of an idiot calling a busy solicitors' office and whining about a cat flap he already knew was there, which may help to dam the flow of silly demands.

As someone else said, it sounds like he's either angling for either a way to back out of the sale or, more likely, reasons to suddenly drop his offer just before exchange of contracts and expect you to put up with it. That may have been his intention all along with bidding over the asking price: kill off the competition and then hold you to ransom when it comes to exchange time and everyone's invested in things going through.

pinkteapot

If you end up with a different buyer, DON'T share contact details. Do all communicating via the EA or solicitor. Not necessarily solicitor, as others have said. For things like "will you fill in the cat flap?", the EA can be the go-between. It'll be a lot quicker and less formal as the EA will just ring them, ring you back, etc. Solicitor will probably write letters and wait for replies.

You're paying the EA a good chunk of money, let them be your agent and that means dealing with the buyer.

You could tell the buyer to stop contacting you directly and to direct queries through the EA.

xylophone

Obviously I don't want to lose the sail

Veering off course?:)

It seems to me you'll need to be polite but firm - tell the buyer it would be preferable for all further questions to be directed to your solicitor/the estate agent.

fawnyb

So the saga continues....

The purchase of our new house is all ready to complete and has been for about a month now. The sale of our house is also ready but this difficult buyer is being a complete !!!!

His solicitor sent in writing that he wants he cat flap removed. And oh he also wants a carpet changed because he says it is damaged (it is not) just some normal wear and tear at the join between a room. It had been suggested by both our solicitor and the estate agents that we just get the most disgusting, cheap carpet to replace it. Which would not look good and wouldn't match anything else in the house. The thing is we don't have the money to waste on doing things like this. Especially when we don't need to. I have now sent a picture to the solicitor of the said damage and she has passed this on to his solicitor!

Anyway my solicitor wrote back and said that we would not change the carpet but would contribute £100 towards the cat flap removal but only on completion. He wanted to works to be done prior to exchange so that he could come and inspect the work! I think it's still a bloody cheek that he is demanding these things but he has us over a barrel.

He told the solicitor that it was an insult that we offered such little money and when asked how much he felt he should be offered he said he didn't know because it wasn't his area of expertise. He also brought up the fact that he is paying £10000 over asking price. What a surprise that came up! So we have decided to bite the bullet and just pay a builder to sort the cat flap out as long as he agrees to exchange and complete by Friday! We explained this to our solicitor on for day but heard nothing so we are expecting an answer on Monday.

We are starting new jobs in a new town at the start of sept so we have a little bit of time pressure. If we didn't we would have for sure held out and refused to do anything until he either cracked or pulled out of the sale. I am close to telling him where to go anyway and putting it back on to the market.

We're so stressed and just don't know what to do. We just want to move. Ahhhh!

mrginge

Sounds to me like this difficult buyer has in fact negotiated you into position where you to do exactly what he wants.

For every diificult buyer there's a desperate seller.

fawnyb

Well we really have no choice. We want to move asap! He's a complete !!! and from what we have been told by the EA he is rude and they have never heard of such ridiculous demands!

mrginge

fawnyb wrote: »

Well we really have no choice. We want to move asap! He's a complete !!! and from what we have been told by the EA he is rude and they have never heard of such ridiculous demands!

Point proven.