What would you do? Re-negotiate on offer or press on? Thoughts wanted

smithyn

Situation:

• Offer accepted on a non-newbuild house, 8k under the asking price, back in April 2023 (although original asking price was probably a little top heavy as the property needs a little bit of work, however, there were no other similar properties on the market that we liked, so didn’t have any other options).

• Secured mortgage at 4.5% for 2 years, mortage offer valid till early November 23.

• Instructed solicitors but yet to do level 2/3 survey or searches, so it is still early days and still possibility for red flags and we pull out.

• The vendors are a couple who are separating so added complication of 2 chains, and their solicitors have been very slow, and there is a chain which is not yet complete. One of the vendors chain is complete, but the others isn’t.

• For the one that isn’t complete, they have told our solicitors that they might be willing to break the chain to sell the house as they have a rental property which they could serve a S21 and move into, but that takes 2 months and no guarantee the tenants will move out.
  

Questions:

Opinions on reducing our offer at this stage?  

1. Market has changed even more

2. Progress with vendors is slow with a good offer that they would unlikely get now again

3. Our fix is only for 2 years, therefore higher chance that equity is eroded if value falls when comes to remortgaging (hindsight should have gone 5-year fix)

Mortgage broker has advised that whilst we can use the existing mortgage offer up to the value asked for, any change to application including change in price if we re-negociate or property would trigger a re-review and not guaranteed that it is accepted (so small risk that we loose our mortgage offer and back to applying for 5.5%+ mortgage) so would have to offer a lot lot less.

We are thinking about only proceeding if we see legal confirmation from vendors that they are willing to break the chain and copy of a served S21 notice, so that one of the vendors should have somewhere to go – any other thoughts on how to play this?

Or try to find another property now (ideally with no chain) and if the mortgage re-review is sucessful on that property using the existing mortgage offer, it will be valid for another 6 months giving us time to complete and restart all over again on legals. 

However, nothing good on the market and asking prices are in cloud cuckoo land still - everything reducing on right move though...

Thanks.

jemima82

legal confirmation that they are ‘willing’ to break the chain doesn’t mean anything, and you having sight of an S21 is of no benefit.  You wouldn’t know if it was valid (gas safety, deposit protected etc) and even if you did - their tenants are under no obligation to move out upon its expiry.

I’d say sit tight or keep looking.  You don’t know that they won’t get the same offer from someone else.

gazfocus

As above, the party that isn't yet complete offering to move into their rental property isn't as straight forward as it seems. Firstly, they have to get the tenants out. If the tenants struggle to find somewhere else (which they may well do given the state of the rental market at the moment), they are not going to become homeless just to satisfy the landlord or their agenda. 

Secondly, if the landlord has a buy to let mortgage on the property, or even just landlord insurance, they're actually not allowed to live in the house themselves. If they have no mortgage, it would require them to switch their landlord insurance to residential insurance.

I don't know what the solution is unforutnately, but I wouldn't be pinning your hopes on this seller moving into their rental.

NameUnavailable

You are thinking of asking for a reduction in price (agreed) because of what exactly?

If you feel your offer was too generous then yes, offer less but be prepared to lose the property.

You really should wait until you get your survey in case that throws up issues that mean you would need to think about renegotiating.

As for the idea that the vendors will move into their currently tenanted rental, forget it!

bluelad1927

If the housing market was on the up would you be looking to pay the vendor more?

Lavendyr

bluelad1927 said:

If the housing market was on the up would you be looking to pay the vendor more?

Ah, the frequent nonsense question. Of course the buyer wouldn't be looking to pay the vendor more - that's not how sales and purchases work - but the vendor might be considering asking more. Sigh.

MultiFuelBurner

I would walk away and find another property quickly. This one has another 3-6.months of back and forth til completion imo.

GDB2222

Lavendyr said:

bluelad1927 said:

If the housing market was on the up would you be looking to pay the vendor more?

Ah, the frequent nonsense question. Of course the buyer wouldn't be looking to pay the vendor more - that's not how sales and purchases work - but the vendor might be considering asking more. Sigh.

People here are extremely willing to take a high moral stance with other people’s money.

Jonboy_1984

I would start booking other viewings through their estate agent, and make the point you are not sure this one is going to complete to apply subtle pressure.

We bought a property coming off the rental market and tenants didn’t leave when anticipated, luckily only 3 or 4 weeks of stress at the time….

TisMeBill

With a mortgage agreed at 4.5%, I would not want to do anything to jeopardise that as it's unlikely you will get another rate that good in the near future.

TheCheerleader

Why haven’t you had a survey yet after 3 months?