Buyer is concerned about the garden…

UnderOffer

I’d be surprised they would pull out over the garden. As FTB it can be exciting to sort out a garden and decorate indoors etc., it allows you to add your own style and ideas, we weren’t put off by the overgrown jungle that was our first home. 

Your buyers saw the garden at viewing and would have offered based on this. 

donutandbeer

Bendy_House said:

Have a word with your own solicitor to confirm what 'clear' the garden is, as it's strange their solicitor would have said this specifically? But almost certainly it's the standard 'clear' it of rubbish, tools, furniture, gnomes, pots, and the half-buried supermarket trolley. This is normal, and also obviously applies to the actual house and garage too.

They should have no expectation whatsoever of the ACTUAL garden being any different to that viewed at the time of their offer.

It does sound a bit worrying, right enough, if the EA remarked "concern", but just bear in mind that you will, of course, be complying with all the requirements to clear out the property, so this is not an issue of your making.

Having said that, since you have yet to exchange, then the buyer - just like you, the seller - can pretty much do what you want if you are so inclined. And there is ultimately little or nothing the other side can do about it.

So, I think I'd (ie all of you involved in the sale) make the decision now as to how you'll respond to any attempt to renegotiate. Just HOW much 'over a barrel' do they have you? Does the EA or buyer KNOW this?

Good chance they'll be reassured when they view again, but in the event of them trying to renegotiate/gazunder, try and have your response ready. Ultimately, tho', you only have partial control over what could happen;

They are ok about continuing.
They try for a discount, you refuse, and they accept this.
They try, you refuse, they pull out.
They try, you agree, you take a hit, the sale moves on. In which case, give some serious thought as to what drop is acceptable.

You don't know the chain position of the buyer - are they also under pressure? (Ah, they aren't - they are FTB?)

The house is owned by your husband and his brother, and your b-i-l is involved in the chain? Yikes! Complicated! What about you and your hub - what would this mean to you two? Would you and your hubby be able to shrug it off and simply remarket? If so, then - this is tough - but the person who mostly needs to make a decision on how much 'hit' they might possibly have to take to not break the chain is surely your bil?

Most likely there is nothing to worry about - it'll all be fine. But, I think frank discussions now might be worth it, primarily between your hub and his bro? (And you, if this is your main residence). They are the ones most directly - and financially - involved in this, so perhaps some groundwork now (no - I don't mean 'garden', I mean financial 'planning') might be worth it, rather than wait for a response and then panic?

I mean, you and your hub and even your

I thought that since we replied saying we will clear all tools & trash in the garden they didn’t say anything back then they must just mean that. I did find it weird that their solicitor even bothered asking this but whatever. I suppose they might just want to check if we have indeed removed our stuff. We have removed a great deal already but there are still things we are taking with us so those are still in the garden in a corner.

Yes it’s a complicated situation. Husband and I are moving in to family member’s house for now before we find a place. We are already scheduled to move this Saturday because this is the only weekend that works for us. In turns of financial hit, we (bil & us) have discussed and agreed that we obviously would rather sell at a lower price than the whole chain collapsing. Well finger crossed they are not going to be too unreasonable.

donutandbeer

UnderOffer said:

I’d be surprised they would pull out over the garden. As FTB it can be exciting to sort out a garden and decorate indoors etc., it allows you to add your own style and ideas, we weren’t put off by the overgrown jungle that was our first home. 

Your buyers saw the garden at viewing and would have offered based on this. 

Yes exactly we think they offered based on what they have seen at the time, and we even cut some weeds because obviously since then (late March) there are some new weeds coming up. We were really worried when they asked about clearing the garden, because frankly who ask that? Are they going to nick pick on all the scuff on the wall that needs a lick of paint? I tried to clean the house thoroughly, scrubbing all the kitchen cupboards, but there’s only so much I can do. 

Flugelhorn

it may simply be wanting to see if the garden is big enough for seating / swing / hot tub  etc etc - if there are any comments - just start raving about what a magnificent wildflower and wildlife friendly garden it is 

donutandbeer

Thanks for everyone that replied and sorry that it’s a bit difficult to respond to every comment on phone. 
 
It would be very difficult for us to remove all plants, garden is not small (160 m2), and to be honest it hurts me to have to dig them up myself and destroy perfectly good plants… We got lovely giant rosemary bush and sage bush, lots of things we grew from seeds and lots of plants we bought from garden centre (definitely not cheap but we enjoyed them). I don’t care what the next owner wants to do with the garden, but I can’t bring myself to destroy it. I had hoped that we can find a buyer that wants to keep all the plants and have the energy to maintain it, but all the offers we got were from FTBs with young kids looking to start a family and probably have a lawn so their kids can play. 

I certainly will miss the garden, we are looking to buy something with a smaller garden but I would never want a lawn. 
 
As if today is not stressful enough, the light switch for the downstair bathroom just broke down. I ran to wilko when they opened at 8:30 and managed to buy a light switch. Just replaced it and it works now. I know it’s a small and simple task but I’ve never changed a light switch before. It’s not like any reasonable person will be put off by a broken light switch but I really don’t want to spook the buyer. 

warwick2001

I know its easy to do, but I suspect your worrying far too much about this. The example of the light switch shows you are almost panicking about it. Like everyone else has said, try to relax. 

The buyers have seen the house and garden, and liked it enough to offer to purchase it. Obviously not everything will be perfect for them from the get-go, but if they have got this far, its unlikely they'll pull out over having to landscape the garden to how they want it (they offered on how it was, not how it could be). They may ask for a reduction in price to pay for the works, but that's up to you guys to decide if that's acceptable or not. It sounds like your garden was actually a selling point, a 160m2 garden doesn't come along that often (unless they are very common where you live?). I would love a garden that big, mine's about 40m2.

Good luck, and like I said, try to relax. Chances are all will go well, and the sale will progress smoothly. And well done on changing the light switch, DIY skills like this may be very valuable in your new home.

youth_leader

Good luck today.  Hopefully your first time buyer will have a great fixed mortgage deal, and won't want to rock the boat by trying to offer less, as their mortgage offer would have to be recalculated.  

Maskface

Surely you buy in the condition it was when you agreed? It didn't have a cleared garden so to make such demands now seems a little too late. I know you don't have the luxury but if there were no chain and I had got this close to exchange before they started messing around like this, I'd just be telling them the property is going back on the market if they aren't serious buyers.

liberty_lily

Good luck with things today and please don't get yourself in too much of a panic.

I agree with other posters that it would be incredibly unreasonable for your buyer to be making such demands...especially at this stage in the proceedings. 

Your garden sounds lovely - I'm also one who prefers loads of plants to a lawn so it would be perfect for me 🙂

We once purchased a house that had been let to several tenants whilst the landlord lived overseas in America. When we viewed the house there were shoulder-height brambles covering the whole (large) garden but we wouldn't have dreamed of requesting these to be cleared as a condition of purchase. After completion we discovered a circular metal garden table with attached seats - like the spokes of a wheel - buried on its end in the undergrowth which had of course grown taller in the intervening months...oh and a partially collapsed air raid shelter 🙄

Over the years we've bought many rundown 'project' properties but have never insisted on anything other than garden tools, ornaments, rubbish etc be cleared from the - usually untidy/overgrown - outside space. 

Bendy_House

donutandbeer said:

I thought that since we replied saying we will clear all tools & trash in the garden they didn’t say anything back then they must just mean that. I did find it weird that their solicitor even bothered asking this but whatever. I suppose they might just want to check if we have indeed removed our stuff. We have removed a great deal already but there are still things we are taking with us so those are still in the garden in a corner.

Yes it’s a complicated situation. Husband and I are moving in to family member’s house for now before we find a place. We are already scheduled to move this Saturday because this is the only weekend that works for us. In turns of financial hit, we (bil & us) have discussed and agreed that we obviously would rather sell at a lower price than the whole chain collapsing. Well finger crossed they are not going to be too unreasonable.

Absolutely best of luck today

To be clear - it is an unreasonable and illegitimate expectation of a buyer to have the garden changed in any way from what it was when they viewed and made their offer, other than for all the movable objects to be removed. Even then, folk often agree for certain items to be left. So this is NOT about you 'modifying' or tidying your garden in any way such as removing plants, cutting down trees, strimming 'wild' areas! It can only be about the objects that they saw when they viewed, and that's fair enough.

If your garden was predominantly lawn, and neatly mown when they viewed, then they should expect to find the lawns pretty neatly mown when they moved in too. If your garden is of a 'wild' type, then that is exactly what they should expect too.

Possibly they were 'concerned' by the fact your garden is somewhat 'wild'! Ie, they misinterpreted that as a plot that has simply not been maintained, and that there could be all sorts of items hidden in the tall grass! :-)

I'm pleased you have discussed the matter, and seemingly agreed on a way forward. In the remote chance you do have to do this - drop the price a little just to keep the chain going - then take it on the chin, as matter-of-fact as you can, because in the medium to long term it'll not mean a jot. It will have been the right decision for you to have made, and it allows you to move on - that's it. Yes, it'll annoy that someone has 'pulled a fast one/played a dirty trick', but some folk are just like that, and they'll soon be a distant memory.

The future is what matters :-)