Am I being unreasonable?

RelievedSheff

The mortgage company has valued it at £320k with the lease as it stands. 

I can completely understand the vendors reluctance to accept a lower offer now when the lender is more than happy with the agreed price and the terms of the lease.

The choice is of course yours. Would you regret walking away from this property for the sake of £10k?

RogerBareford

HotPantsCruiser said:

Won`t the vendor just run into the same problem with the next potential buyer though?

Probably not because there are a lot of buyers who only care about what the bank value it at.

So they will bid as high as they need to secure the property over the other interested parties and then if the bank agree with the number then they are happy to go ahead, which is one of the reasons why prices are increasing so much.

propertyhunter

Some people can even buy if the bank devalues it because they have a large deposit and want the property badly enough - although I admit this is probably in the context of 'forever homes'. Nevertheless, 10k is nothing in the grand scheme of things - similar properties might not come around for a few months, and by that time the price of comparables could be 10k higher than what you're willing to pay now. 

Belleofthebooks

Neither of you are being "unreasonable" to be honest. 

I can understand your reluctance to go ahead with the agreed offer if the home buyers survey came back lower than expected and you don't feel like your getting a fair price BUT you were happy when you made your original bid and the bank did not have a problem with the valuation. A house is only worth what someone is wiling to pay for it, there is no exact science to these valuations. 

As for the flat sold back in August, that was 6 months ago. prices have moved onwards and upwards.

The seller is not being unreasonable, he doesn't owe you anything, he doesn't have to sell his house to you for an offer he's not happy with and you don't have to buy the house for a price you are not happy with. Either pay the agreed price or if not comfortable then walk away and find a house with a price you are comfortable with. The seller has every right to not accept the lower offer. 

getmore4less

Was that August one a completion date or accept ed offer date.

Check the listing for what it was marketed at and how long it had been on.

If the area is still showing upward trends that original listing could be 6 months old if that was a completion date.

hackneylou

iSilent101 said:

Hi MSE, just looking for some opinions to help calm my nerves.

So me and my partner (FTBs) have offered £320,000 for a property that we really like. The lender approved the mortgage and valued it at the offer price.

However, our homebuyers survey came back with a valuation of £300,000. As we really still liked the property, we decided to get a second independent valuation completed from a more local surveying company. It also came back at £300,000. When we looked at the comparables, we saw a flat in the same block was sold for £295k in August 2021 (not yet in land registry but confirmed with estate agent that sold it). The flat is on the ground floor, ours is the first floor. But it has the same floor plan.

When we made the offer, we did this thinking the lease was 110 years, as this was confirmed by the estate agents and seller. However, we have since found out the lease is 99 years.

Considering all of this we decided to try and renegotiate the price to be £310,000. The seller is very unhappy and is refusing to budge.

Are we being unreasonable?

Hi, you keep talking about the lease being only 99 years but that is perfectly long enough and won’t have affected the sale price in any way whether it is 110 years or 99 years. 

The fact is they had already turned down an offer of 315k and only accepted your offer because you raised it by 5k. It seems that 320k was their bottom line so if you like the flat I think you should just proceed with it rather than potentially losing it (and all the costs you have incurred including for your 2 surveys) for the sake of 10k

warby68

I think the way I would rationalise this for myself is that there have been 5 votes, your offer, vendor's acceptance, the mortgage valuation, your homebuyer's report and 2nd valuation. 3 of those 'votes' were for £320k aand so £320k wins.

Sometimes there is a little extra price for doing business - in a hot market and for a property you love £10k on top of your ideal bottom line is not excessive on a £300k plus property. For valuations that level of variance is also normal.

Down to how much you want the property versus how much the seller wants rid. 

Noneforit999

If you want the flat, pay the £320k.

If I were the seller and I know your lender had valued it at £320k, I wouldn't be budging either, especially if I had received other offers in the same ballpark. 

Chris_English

I can’t get my head around how it can be unreasonable for the seller to not want to accept a lower offer than they already have.

Why would they do that?

Chronotrigger

I would tell them the 310 is a final offer take it or leave it and mention you will walk away if not accepted by the end of the week. You are still paying 10k over the valuations and add to the fact the lease length isn't as initially advertised.

In my experience mate there is always something better around the corner for you.