Private payment to seller

sc32365

Hi,
Just looking for some guidance on if I can make a private agreement with the seller of the house we are buying.
At the start of buying it they said if we offered an extra 5k they would move out early and break the chain. The estate agent advised against it saying it could get messy so we didn't. 
We are in the conveyancing process and it turns out my partner knows the seller, we are still keen to move earlier than agreed completion date. 
Are we able to contact the sellers and say we will give them money to move out earlier? This would just save redoing the forms and going through their estate agent. Or are we not allowed to do this? We don't want to do anything illegal or fraudulent but can't find any guidance on this.

Thanks!

Sam 

user1977

sc32365 said:

Are we able to contact the sellers and say we will give them money to move out earlier? This would just save redoing the forms and going through their estate agent. Or are we not allowed to do this? We don't want to do anything illegal or fraudulent but can't find any guidance on this. 

If you don't "redo the forms" then what are you going to do if you pay them £5k and they just pocket it? You'd need to put it into the contract. It also effectively becomes part of the price as far as your lender (and HMRC) are concerned, so yes, mortgage fraud and tax evasion may be issues.

sc32365

Well we know the sellers well so would have to trust them but don't want any risk of fraud etc so will just do it through estate agents, thanks! 

user1977

sc32365 said:

Well we know the sellers well so would have to trust them but don't want any risk of fraud etc so will just do it through estate agents, thanks! 

It's the solicitors you need to do it through, not the estate agents.

eddddy

sc32365 said:

Well we know the sellers well so would have to trust them but don't want any risk of fraud etc so will just do it through estate agents, thanks! 

There's absolutely no benefit to getting the estate agent involved. Typically, estate agents have no legal training - and over the years I've heard of many estate agents come up with some really weird advice.

When you say the seller would "move out early", do you mean...

• you move into their house before you've bought it?
• or, the seller will exchange contracts and complete sooner if you pay them £5k?

If you mean "move into the house before you've bought it" - if the seller's solicitor hears about that, they will be giving the seller the strongest possible advice not to, because...

• If the seller has a mortgage, the seller will be breaching the terms of the mortgage,

• If you pay £5k and move in - then for some reason don't complete (e.g. your mortgage offer is withdrawn) - the seller has no legal way of getting you out of their house in the near future.

(And out of interest, if the sellers move out early, do they have a place to live until you've bought their house?)

sc32365

No as in to move the completion date forward, at present completion is scheduled for 4 months time. We are first time cash buyers and estimated earliest completion is 26th of June so it is bringing the agreed completion date forward that's all. I've sent an email to my solicitor so will just wait to hear thanks.