Sorry, I need to rant. I'm really distraught. I'm 20 wks pregnant and we have sold our house. We found somewhere ideal several weeks ago and eventually, after a lot of shite and chopping and changing from the vendors, made an offer that was accepted last week.
Because the vendors have been stung before by buyers pulling out, the urged their EA to check out our chain. Fine: he contacted our EA and reassured them. This wasn't enough for them (or him) and he then took the unethical step of ringing our buyers directly 
as he had their details on file from an old enquiry they'd made with him. As bad luck would have it, at that exact point they were having a nasty wobble with their mortgage provider, and had just that day been told that their previous agreement to extend their existing mortgage no longer held. 
He rang me (literally 10 mins after ringing to say his vendors had approved and accepted our offer) and told me the deal was now very shaky as the chain was insecure.
We did some pushing and phoning our end, and within 3 days, our buyers had sorted out a mortgage with another lender. They confirmed it with us this morning - a solid, concrete mortgage agreement. Too late.
Before that call, the vendor's EA rang to say, sorry, but the vendors have taken the house off the market and don't want to sell to you any more, as they have no confidence in the chain. I protested, saying we were literally about to hear a confirmation that the buyer's mortgage was secured. He kept on saying, they have no confidence. I asked him what on earth they were going to do (they have a buy-to-let mortgage on the house we wanted to buy, a last-minute move to secure the house they wanted). He said they weren't initially planning on renting it out either, and that he can't disclose further what they're going to do.
I think their previous buyers, who door-stepped them a week or so ago with a private offer 
have come to an agreement with them - and for all I know, with their EA too.
I'm just beside myself with fury and grief over this. (I might be over-reacting a bit, blame the baby hormones!) We were working so hard to sort this out, we went a bit higher when they started chopping and changing with what they were prepared to accept. And as far as I'm concerned, their EA has caused, or exacerbated, this whole situation. If he hadn't unlawfully contacted our buyer just at the moment at which they had a problem, his vendors would never have got cold feet about us.
Ironically, about an hour after getting this call, our own EA rang to confirm that our buyers have secured a mortgage and are good to go. 
Nice for them. We're probably going to have to move into rented accom until after the baby now, since there's very little on the market. Last thing I wanted to do. 
Sorry, I know I've bored on and on about this sale/purchase, but it started out so well and has ended so badly. At least we still have a buyer. But soon, nowhere to live.
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Bloody vendors! Wretched Estate Agents!!
ReshapeWhileDamp · 09/08/2010 13:42
TBH, I'm now thinking that these vendors have shown themselves to be so changeable and unreliable that part of me is relieved that we don't have to deal with them any more. It was always a niggle at the back of our minds, that they'd chopped and changed on this and that, so what was stopping them from springing something like this on us, even further down the road?
Still, I will steel myself to call their slimy, lying EA and tell him we now have a firm mortgage from everyone (ie, our buyers and us!) in the chain and can still proceed. But I doubt they'll respond - they have an alternative plan, I'm sure of it. I don't have their number and they've now moved into their new house, so can't really doorstep them. (Plus, DH is now away for a week and don't want to do it on my own!)
Snuppeline, I'm not sure about naming and shaming, but if there are any Oxfordshire MNers about, beware of dealing with a local EA who has a black and green sign and two 'B's in their two-part name! And believe me, I'm telling everyone I know locally how crap and unprofessional this guy has been. He really has screwed things up for us. I'm certainly complaining to the ombudsman and his company.
As to why our buyers told him anything, I'm cross about that too, but it's possible they didn't know who he was. He's lied to us in the past, so presumably he might have misrepresented himself to them on the phone. He claims they gave him that information themselves. WHY would they have? Not that they're necessarily blameless either.
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