Can we renegotiate after referendum

9ja4life

Our buyer asked for a reduction the morning after brexit which also happened to be the day we were supposed to exchange. We politely told her where to get off. Yes, the chain fell apart but we're in rented anyway. We took the property off the market and rented it out within days. Our tenants are renting briefly whilst looking for somewhere to buy so suits us. We also had a line of renters waiting to rent. We'll remarket it next spring.
You can try. You'll either succeed or get a no.

upoiupou

Alpaca wrote: »

In other words, if, because of what's going on in the market, the buyer would genuinely be willing to pull out, then it makes sense from both parties' points of view to re-negotiate to a price that's lower than previously agreed.

Which begs the question, why don't more people see it this way? I guess the answer might be to do with the fact that as humans we don't always act only according to what makes sense considering purely rational and economic considerations. Feelings and emotions come into things as well - in fact you only need to look at some of the responses in this thread to see there's quite a bit of emotion involved here!

What are the purely rational and economic considerations of the OP in this situation?

They have not presented any solid evidence for reducing the offer price. Their own sale is proceeding at the same rate. They have noticed some price reductions in listings in the area of purchase for the last few weeks since the Brexit vote but not apparently before that so there is no control group to compare to and I don't know what statistical significance criteria they are trying to apply to their recent observations, if any. They have mentioned a Zoopla estimate decrease, but these are not reliable anyway and it's too soon for any actual sale price information to have filtered through to make estimates like this meaningful. I don't see any hard facts. Just the OP's feelings and emotion.

I see far more rational thinking from the responses that take the pragmatic view that some will try to renegoiate at this stage but the altered offer is likely to be poorly received by the vendor. That seems perfectly rational to me.

shortcrust

We don't know what's going to happen yet so I think trying to renegotiate at this stage is opportunistic. I'm in the process of buying and intend to stick to the agreement I made.

Out of interest, in times of rapidly rising prices is it common for sellers to ask for more money between accepting an offer and exchanging?

AnotherJoe

Mickygg wrote: »

Of course it is a risk. People like me would not continue to sell to someone asking for a price drop due to fear factor brexit. Would be too risky as I would suspect before exchange they would insist on a reduction. I would remarket it is that simple.

Stop telling people there isn't much risk when renegotiating price because of fear factor brexit when of course there is a good risk the seller might not sell to you!!!

^^^^^^ this is the key point, it's not just about saying no and thinking things will proceed as before , but forestalling that the buyer will try last minute to screw you over again.

Of course there is always a possibility the seller will accept a lower offer but there's also a possibility they will find another buyer or even say they will accept your offer and then last minute insist on an increase since you will have spent money by then. They may even prefer a lower offer from someone else. When emotions come into play which they usually do on a house sale, people don't necessarily make decisions based on just the financial aspect.

VM1305

My advice to the OP would be to think carefully about how much they like the house they are buying. If they are genuinely willing to walk away because of concerns about the market then be clear about this before trying to renegotiate, don't mess the seller around because of emotion - it's not fair. I wouldn't use Zoopla to inform your decision.

The OP is in a really good position if they are selling and are maintaining their price with their own buyer. On this basis I would be much more confident continuing with your purchase.

I do understand the concerns about Brexit and market uncertainty, but it's far too early to see any significant impact. Perhaps in the South East and London (I don't live there so only aware of what I read in the news), but in many areas of the country sales are going ahead as usual. I am buying in a popular area and houses are still selling quickly after coming to market, with no obvious price reductions - although, I don't know what prices are being agreed of course.

The housing market in the UK works very differently in different areas so everyone on here will report different experiences. I bought a house in 2006 in an area where prices in 2016 have only just recovered, whereas in other areas prices bounced back really quickly post-2008 and then subsequent price inflation was huge. You always take a risk if you are buying in the short-term, no one really knows what will happen in the next 5 years.

We agreed our offer on the house we are buying before the referendum (quite honestly I didn't think the result was going to be Brexit, clearly neither did the leave campaign :eek: )!! I did have a wobble with all the doom and gloom news that followed the referendum and considered whether we should continue with our purchase. I did loads of research on the internet (which was absolutely no help whatsoever!!) I found old newspaper articles - some from 2004 which predicted massive housing crashes over the next 4 years (never happened), and some from 2006 which predicted ongoing increases and we all know how that turned out! I'm sure some people play the housing market very well and good for them, but very often all the predictions in the media are unhelpful.

So in conclusion I don't think the result of the referendum is proving to be that bad yet because interest rates are still low and people always need to move. But I could be wrong of course. However i'm going ahead with our purchase because it fits our current circumstances and desire to move and we haven't tried to re-negotiate with the seller because of the referendum. I haven't found any evidence to encourage me to do otherwise.

Good luck

indianabones

9ja4life wrote: »

We'll remarket it next spring.
You can try. You'll either succeed or get a no.

Do you think you're be putting it up for the same price?

9ja4life

indianabones wrote: »

Do you think you're be putting it up for the same price?

Yes for the same price. And if the market has dropped, we'll keep it as an investment property till whenever.

hazyjo

shortcrust wrote: »

Out of interest, in times of rapidly rising prices is it common for sellers to ask for more money between accepting an offer and exchanging?

Yes, some do. If someone doesn't come along and gazump you, the vendor may decide it's worth more and ask for an increase.

Someone tried it with me once. I pulled out (after telling the EA to tell them where they could stick it). Lost the next house after survey (they pulled out with no reason). Took nearly a year to buy altogether - my buyer hung on (I stuck with the same price even though prices had SHOT up in that time). The woman I ended up buying from dropped considerably so I wasn't that upset.

Good friend of mine was trying to sell up to a year before Brexit. Market was rising. His buyers offered(!) £10k more to help him find somewhere, then another £10k a couple of months later. He still couldn't find anything so had to pull out in the end.

Jx

abankerbutnotafatcat

bigfreddiel wrote: »

I don't believe it! Prices where I live have gone up since BREXIT. These agents just speak a load of old cobblers! fj

Do you live in an inner London flat? The property in question was an inner London flat.