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Seller playing games
Dr_Moe_2
Posts: 23 Forumite
House on market for 265K for four months. Seller can't sell so he instructs a second estate agent.
I put an offer in at 250K as I wasn't prepared to go over the stamp duty threshold. Another buyer shows up (via the other estate agent) and decides to offer 250K as well as he wasn't keen on paying the 3% tax duty either.
The seller decides to accept both offers and a contract race starts. I was confident that I'd win it given that I'd recently sold my house and wasn't in a chain. The other buyer was in a longish chain.
Three weeks later, and after my valuation and searches had been done, the seller fills in the fittings and contents questionnaire and demands an extra £8,000 in fittings (to include things like laminate flooring) and estate agent's fees to be paid by the buyer. This wasn't in the original deal and wasn't even mentioned when I agreed to commit to the purchase. I refused to be treated in this way and told him that I wasn't going to pay a penny over 250K. Unfortunately for me, the other buyer accepted it, and now I'm officially gazumped.
In summary, the seller wants to keep the price at 250K but make an extra 8K by other means. Can he get away with it? Is this not classed as tax evasion?
Is there anything I can do in this situation or should I just move on and forgot about this sorry episode.
Your advice is very much appreciated.
I put an offer in at 250K as I wasn't prepared to go over the stamp duty threshold. Another buyer shows up (via the other estate agent) and decides to offer 250K as well as he wasn't keen on paying the 3% tax duty either.
The seller decides to accept both offers and a contract race starts. I was confident that I'd win it given that I'd recently sold my house and wasn't in a chain. The other buyer was in a longish chain.
Three weeks later, and after my valuation and searches had been done, the seller fills in the fittings and contents questionnaire and demands an extra £8,000 in fittings (to include things like laminate flooring) and estate agent's fees to be paid by the buyer. This wasn't in the original deal and wasn't even mentioned when I agreed to commit to the purchase. I refused to be treated in this way and told him that I wasn't going to pay a penny over 250K. Unfortunately for me, the other buyer accepted it, and now I'm officially gazumped.
In summary, the seller wants to keep the price at 250K but make an extra 8K by other means. Can he get away with it? Is this not classed as tax evasion?
Is there anything I can do in this situation or should I just move on and forgot about this sorry episode.
Your advice is very much appreciated.
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Comments
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The seller will be more than £8k out of pocket when the chain collapses. Move on, don't let it worry you and have the last laugh when the house is still on the market in 6 months time.
:money:0 -
Is there anything I can do in this situation or should I just move on and forgot about this sorry episode.
Your advice is very much appreciated.
I don't think there is anything you can do about it but I suggest you forget about it as it can mess with your head if you let it.
We had a vendor mess us about last xmas all for the sake of £5K. It made me feel sick for weeks afterwards when I thought about the stunt she had pulled. We thought we had found our dream house but it wasn't to be.
We stopped viewing for a while but then we did find the house of our dreams and the sale went through fairly smoothly.
Funny how you think you have found your perfect place but when it goes belly up you find lots of things wrong with it and wonder why you ever offered on it in the first place
:heart2: Love isn't finding someone you can live with. It's finding someone you can't live without :heart2:0 -
If it's still on the market in 6 months go back and offer £240,000.
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southernscouser wrote: »If it's still on the market in 6 months go back and offer [STRIKE]£240,000[/STRIKE] £200,000.
Corrected.
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You can just cross your fingers and hope it will be investigated.
The buyer's solicitor should pick up on this anyway and advise against it, or report it.
If investigated there isn't enough substance for the extras for it to stand up to scrutiny as a legit transaction.0 -
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It might be time to walk away. He is playing games and you have already had warning by agreeing to enter into a contract race. You can always threaten to pullout because he is not acting within terms , if he is serious he will drop his demands and you "win"
OP (buyer) has already pulled out as he wasn't paying a penny over his original offer. The other bidder has taken the bait.:heart2: Love isn't finding someone you can live with. It's finding someone you can't live without :heart2:0 -
Of course, if you want to UP your game... you could blackmail the seller by threatening to grass up their little illegal tax-dodging scheme .... unless he sells it to you for a lower price.
Just thought I'd put that out there.
Two wrongs DON'T make a right. But that doesn't mean you can't win.0 -
There is nothing wrong with selling fixtures and fittings on top of the agreed price, but £8K seems a bit steep,If I sold everything in my house that wasn't part of the building I doubt i would get £8K for it. what is regarded as raesonable has a fairly wide range I would say and is pretty circumspect, different people value things in different ways.
Personally speaking I would just walk away.0 -
PasturesNew wrote: »Of course, if you want to UP your game... you could blackmail the seller by threatening to grass up their little illegal tax-dodging scheme .... unless he sells it to you for a lower price.
Or the OP could wait to see if the sale to the other buyer falls through, and then grass the seller to the tax authorities if it does. While it's legal to sell fittings, I bet the IR has its' own view on what is legal or not.0
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