House buying - can I do this?
Discussion
Hi
Long story short - I have my eye on a house up for sale as a result of a divorce. The Vendor is very very bitter and is not taking anything less than full asking - it was his house before he met his soon to be ex who has run off with another bloke and now he has to give her half his house which I do sympathise with but am not a charity.
I am not prepared to pay this but do like the house. I wondered on the legalities of proposing a deal to the vendor.
He wants £245K for the house so he will end up with £122500. I am willing to pay £230 max. I was going to suggest I 'buy' the house for £215K then on completion give him £15K so he gets his £122500 in total and is happy. I get the house for £230 and I am happy. Can I ask my solicitor to do this or is it dodgy? I haven't approached the Vendor yet I am still mulling it over.
Long story short - I have my eye on a house up for sale as a result of a divorce. The Vendor is very very bitter and is not taking anything less than full asking - it was his house before he met his soon to be ex who has run off with another bloke and now he has to give her half his house which I do sympathise with but am not a charity.
I am not prepared to pay this but do like the house. I wondered on the legalities of proposing a deal to the vendor.
He wants £245K for the house so he will end up with £122500. I am willing to pay £230 max. I was going to suggest I 'buy' the house for £215K then on completion give him £15K so he gets his £122500 in total and is happy. I get the house for £230 and I am happy. Can I ask my solicitor to do this or is it dodgy? I haven't approached the Vendor yet I am still mulling it over.
Vron said:
Hi
Long story short - I have my eye on a house up for sale as a result of a divorce. The Vendor is very very bitter and is not taking anything less than full asking - it was his house before he met his soon to be ex who has run off with another bloke and now he has to give her half his house which I do sympathise with but am not a charity.
I am not prepared to pay this but do like the house. I wondered on the legalities of proposing a deal to the vendor.
He wants £245K for the house so he will end up with £122500. I am willing to pay £230 max. I was going to suggest I 'buy' the house for £215K then on completion give him £15K so he gets his £122500 in total and is happy. I get the house for £230 and I am happy. Can I ask my solicitor to do this or is it dodgy? I haven't approached the Vendor yet I am still mulling it over.
if you are asking then you know the answerLong story short - I have my eye on a house up for sale as a result of a divorce. The Vendor is very very bitter and is not taking anything less than full asking - it was his house before he met his soon to be ex who has run off with another bloke and now he has to give her half his house which I do sympathise with but am not a charity.
I am not prepared to pay this but do like the house. I wondered on the legalities of proposing a deal to the vendor.
He wants £245K for the house so he will end up with £122500. I am willing to pay £230 max. I was going to suggest I 'buy' the house for £215K then on completion give him £15K so he gets his £122500 in total and is happy. I get the house for £230 and I am happy. Can I ask my solicitor to do this or is it dodgy? I haven't approached the Vendor yet I am still mulling it over.
cpas said:
The vendor will gain nothing from this deal, but risks not getting the £15k from you - so why should he be interested?
Because the Vendor will get half the asking price for the property i.e £122500 which is what he wants to sell the house. He has rejected an offer of £235 from another buyer which would net him £117500. I am not dishonest that's why I am asking how to do this legally - I am not going to rip someone off for £15K, likewise I don't want to get ripped off either so need to get the solicitor involved. I am aware of the Stamp duty implications - it is a tiny difference though - I am not trying to avoid stamp duty. Edited by Vron on Thursday 15th July 19:52
Vron said:
Because the Vendor will get half the asking price for the property i.e £122500 which is what he wants to sell the house.
You also have the problem that you are deliberately attempting to stop the other owner of the property receive 50% of the property sale value. I know YOU are not, but that is how it is.I'd certainly suggest it , possibly more , ie less sale price more cash his way . There are many options available to make him see you have the funds to keep your side of the bargain after completion , some sort of escrow service or putting up a car of similar value as security , you hand him the keys and V5 at the exact moment the sale goes through.
I was rather fortunate in a house purchase in 2002 from a divorcing couple, on the first viewing the 'wife' suggested I offer £10k less than the asking price because she wanted the 'husband' to have as little as possible to carry forward to his new life and relationship. On the second viewing the husband suggested an even lower offer so that 'the b
h' gets nothing .
I ended up buying said property for £90k , £25k less than I would have paid if they weren't out to destroy eachother
I was rather fortunate in a house purchase in 2002 from a divorcing couple, on the first viewing the 'wife' suggested I offer £10k less than the asking price because she wanted the 'husband' to have as little as possible to carry forward to his new life and relationship. On the second viewing the husband suggested an even lower offer so that 'the b
h' gets nothing . I ended up buying said property for £90k , £25k less than I would have paid if they weren't out to destroy eachother
Yep, I suspect neither solictor would touch the deal with a bargepole. Only chance is direct with the vendor and both solictors kept in the dark - vendor then taking a big risk of course, if he gets found to be acting in such a way as to deceive his ex out of her fair share then I expect he could be in for a further rogering later on.
Has the ex moved out, if so then I suspect it's less about the amount of money and more about delaying giving her money - he can only do this once house is sold so why would he be in any rush - he gets to live there and not give her her half yet... if I was him I'd up the price
Has the ex moved out, if so then I suspect it's less about the amount of money and more about delaying giving her money - he can only do this once house is sold so why would he be in any rush - he gets to live there and not give her her half yet... if I was him I'd up the price
I would be very very wary of doing something like that when you don't know the full story.
You might think you're doing him a favour but for all you know the vendor could be a wife-beating paedophile and you've only heard half the story.
If it was me, I'd offer what you want to offer and be done with it. There is no need to involve yourself in their personal issues.
IMO.
You might think you're doing him a favour but for all you know the vendor could be a wife-beating paedophile and you've only heard half the story.
If it was me, I'd offer what you want to offer and be done with it. There is no need to involve yourself in their personal issues.
IMO.
To echo most thoughts i think its a very very dodgy area.
Neither solicitor would touch it, and even if they did, they would have to disclose the deal to the wife in the process.
If its worth taking that much of a legal risk on the house, is it not worth paying the extra to secure the deal?
IMO if the house was perfect I would be paying the extra for it, not trying to work a dodgy way around it. If its not worth the extra, then walk away.
Neither solicitor would touch it, and even if they did, they would have to disclose the deal to the wife in the process.
If its worth taking that much of a legal risk on the house, is it not worth paying the extra to secure the deal?
IMO if the house was perfect I would be paying the extra for it, not trying to work a dodgy way around it. If its not worth the extra, then walk away.
Vron
do you know what the husband & ex wife are doing in terms of furniture & fittings in the house?
S
eta: they may well cave eventually I bought my house as the result of a divorce put my highest offer in, they said no, i said fine & left them to stew, they came back 6 weeks later asking if the offer was still on the table, the rest is history. so it will eventually come down to how much they want to be rid of each other over the proceeds of sale
do you know what the husband & ex wife are doing in terms of furniture & fittings in the house?
S
eta: they may well cave eventually I bought my house as the result of a divorce put my highest offer in, they said no, i said fine & left them to stew, they came back 6 weeks later asking if the offer was still on the table, the rest is history. so it will eventually come down to how much they want to be rid of each other over the proceeds of sale
Edited by trix-a-belle on Friday 16th July 10:14
It won't be solely his decision as to whether to accept the offer - and if the apparent sale price is only £215k then there's no way the other partner will accept, surely?
I've seen a house on the market for over 4 years now which is presumably being sold for a similar reason - originally (well, for the first couple of years) it was up for £375k, then down to £355k for a couple of years, and more recently down to £325k. While ultimately your seller is not going to sell if he holds out for more than the market will give him, that doesn't help you as buyer.
I've seen a house on the market for over 4 years now which is presumably being sold for a similar reason - originally (well, for the first couple of years) it was up for £375k, then down to £355k for a couple of years, and more recently down to £325k. While ultimately your seller is not going to sell if he holds out for more than the market will give him, that doesn't help you as buyer.
I made an offer on a house (looking from a developer point of view) to a divorced couple, house had been on the market for 1 year, neither would spend money on the property so it was extremely run down, and he would accept the lower price but she wouldn`t.... I assume as the house is in joint names. So the property as far as I know still hasn`t sold.
The interesting thing is who has the house in their name ? If its joint then they both I assume by law have to agree. If its in his name only then I can`t see this being fraud as he owns the house, HMRC might have issues with the stamp but Im sure a deal can be done if he wants to avoid bank accounts. I think you need to look the house up on the land registry.
The interesting thing is who has the house in their name ? If its joint then they both I assume by law have to agree. If its in his name only then I can`t see this being fraud as he owns the house, HMRC might have issues with the stamp but Im sure a deal can be done if he wants to avoid bank accounts. I think you need to look the house up on the land registry.
Not sure if the house is in joint names or not - he said she is entitled to half so I guess so. On the wedding photo he showed me she appears to be a 'mail order' bride in the region of 40 years his junior.
The EA has rung wanting to know what happening and I have told them it has to be a straight discount off the price for me to consider and it would have to be less than the £235 he has already rejected.
The EA has rung wanting to know what happening and I have told them it has to be a straight discount off the price for me to consider and it would have to be less than the £235 he has already rejected.
cpas said:
The vendor will gain nothing from this deal, but risks not getting the £15k from you
I agree.What guarantee are you going to give the vendor that the £15k will be paid over? Who's liable for the Vendor's tax liability for this, what HMRC will classify as, income? Is the divorce settled already or in the process of being dealt with? If it's not finalised then an unsupported income of £15k is going to cause problems for the vendor.
Don't forget there are two sides to each story. For all you know the vendor could be a pedo who fiddled with kids so their spouse left.
No matter how you dress it up your proposal is intended to deceive the spouse of the vendor. In effect you're proposing that the vendor engage in fraud.
Add to that tax avoidance (against both you and the vendor).
If the vendor refuses to lower their price then either pay the extra or walk away.
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