Buyer tried to gazunder. Can we take the drawers from fitted wardrobes?

AlexMac

And you shouldn't hang kippers behind the radiators of below the floorboards, as the "investor" won't live there so it will only hurt their tenants

newbridge

Agree with last few posters about negotiating price(that its not investors fault that market is about to drop). You can try negotiating for the house you are moving too if you think its value would be affected. Or else you are just taking a hit too as a buyer.

Davesnave

Removing your drawers in response to a massive change in circumstances is rarely a good move.

As someone who lost 16 months of time, 2 properties and about £60k in the last Crash I can only smile at your naivety.

Housebuyer2019

I’ve had time to reflect overnight, and yes you’re all completely right that it’s not my buyer’s fault we’re in this situation. The penny has dropped that this is a far graver situation that I first thought, so fighting over drawers pales in comparison.

In any other situation though I would be furious that our buyer has gazundered. Although I do feel that our buyer has got our flat for a fair price given that we’d already agreed the sale at £8k below asking price because he is a cash buyer (and it was realistically priced for a quick sale so we could secure the house we’re buying). We listed our flat back in November when the market was quiet, whereas a flat in our building went up for sale 3 weeks ago and they accepted an offer a week later at £10k more than our agreed price.

We are thinking of approaching our vendor to let her know what’s going on. We’re not going to push her for a reduction in price yet because she has been great throughout the process and i‘d hate for her to think we had planned this all along. I would never set out to gazunder someone. We will wait to see what our buyer comes back with. If he insists on a reduced price we will have to see if we can negotiate the discount. Then we will approach our vendor with a price if necessary, or ask our estate agent to reduce their commission to absorb some of the cost if they feel we won’t get another buyer in the current climate. The price we’re paying for our onward purchase is what our surveyor said as being at the ‘top end of reasonable’. We do think we’re paying slightly over the odds for it but the seller wouldn’t budge at all on her asking price so after weeks of trying to negotiate we gave in and offered full asking price. She didn’t have any other offers on the table and only had 6 viewings in the 8 weeks it was on the market. Perhaps she would be more willing to negotiate given the current market conditions and the fact she has already moved out.

newbridge

You can ask the seller again....lot has changed(and will continue in coming days) in last few weeks.

Housebuyer2019

newbridge said:

You can ask the seller again....lot has changed(and will continue in coming days) in last few weeks.

Thanks, we’re going to see what the state of play is on Thursday then take it from there.

Kyresa

If he's buying with a buy to let mortgage he'll need to let the mortgage company know the reduced valuation of the property as the purchase price on the offer won't reflect that on the Transfer! 

MoneySeeker1

Personally - I'd leave dud lightbulbs and stop cleaning the place right now (so it's dirty when he takes it on) and that will help alleviate your feelings on this a bit. But I'd be cautious about taking the drawers.

Don't try and push this on to your sellers shoulders by demanding a lower price from them - because, if you did, then you would be just as bad as your buyer and hurting a perfectly innocent person.

Housebuyer2019

Kyresa said:

If he's buying with a buy to let mortgage he'll need to let the mortgage company know the reduced valuation of the property as the purchase price on the offer won't reflect that on the Transfer! 

Thanks but he’s a cash buyer

Davesnave

MoneySeeker1 said:

Personally - I'd leave dud lightbulbs and stop cleaning the place right now (so it's dirty when he takes it on) and that will help alleviate your feelings on this a bit. But I'd be cautious about taking the drawers.

Don't try and push this on to your sellers shoulders by demanding a lower price from them - because, if you did, then you would be just as bad as your buyer and hurting a perfectly innocent person.

I think you are missing the point that the buying/selling situation has radically altered during the conveyancing process. When this happens and the reason is unforeseeable, like a bad survey, a legal problem or an economic shock like we're experiencing, re-negotiation is appropriate and it shouldn't be labelled gazundering.

Responses one might make to true gazundering are therefore completely inappropriate.