Can a vendor and a buyer agree a deal without telling the lender

frenchbaguette

We asked out seller to do some works to the property after the survey flagged them up. They agreed they were fair but requested giving us £2000 instead so we could do the work afterwards so as not to slow things down by waiting for them to be done. 

We agreed but when our solicitors were told they said they had to ask our lender and they said no, it could only be done as a reduction in price and we'd have to reapply for a new mortgage product with them which would easily take 2 months according to our broker. As well as taking too long, completely defeating the point, the drop in house price would not effect the amount of money we physically had access to to do the work we want done so there is no point in that really.  
We have made contact with the seller directly and agreed with them to do the exchange of the money privately without the solicitors involvement after completion. Obviously with nothing legal on our part to ensure they pay of course but we have already decided it's not worth holding up the process for £2000 at this point as we're so close to exchange now in theory, so we'd rather take the gamble really. 

Can we get away with this or are we likely to fall into problems with it? 

davidmcn

"I'd like to commit fraud, can you all please advise me whether I'm likely to get away with it?" isn't really in the spirit of the forum.

MWT

Remember the first rule of Fight Club...

Thrugelmir

Do come back and let us know the outcome. Risk is all yours.  I'd have played hardball and had the property price reduced myself. 

frenchbaguette

Point taken. I'll call it off then
 It just seems so unreasonable that there isn't the option to do what we have agreed is fair without delaying the entire chain for several more months. Reducing the price of the house by £2000 will allow us to keep £300 back of our deposit which is not enough to do the work that needs doing. It's just very frustrating. But I can see you are right and it is not worth the risk. Thank you. 

Thrugelmir

Don't worry about holding up the chain. Somebody has to be last! If matters are that close to completion. Should be possible to expedite matters and bring about a swift conclusion.