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Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Property/DIY

Is this seller dodgy?

21 replies

Allbymyselfagain · 08/06/2016 20:55

I put in an offer on the 25/4 and it was accepted after a week of tooing and froing. Sorted a conveyancer, paid for seaches and mortgage fees.Mortgage was sorted 11/5 and I was told I would have sight of the valuation survey. This never arrived so I booked and sorted a full survey to be done on the 2/6. Waiting on the report from the surveyor but I called my solicitors to find out no searches have been done as they are still waiting for the contract pack from the seller.

I called the agent on Monday and they said they would chase the sellers solicitors. So far nothing, should I be worried about the seller pulling out as they don't seem to have any interest in pushing this from their side. FTB and spent quite a bit so far so getting worried now.

OP posts:

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wowfudge · 08/06/2016 21:11

Our sellers took quite some time to get going with things - turned out there was an issue with their title and they got their solicitor to sort that out, but didn't tell the EA who we were in contact with.

Ask your solicitor to contact theirs and see what is going on.

Spickle · 08/06/2016 21:30

When sellers appoint a solicitor, their solicitor has to send them lots of forms to fill in and return, along with a request for fees for obtaining searches and title deeds. Sellers don't understand that the buyer's solicitor cannot start any work until the sellers have returned all the paperwork/fees back to their solicitor, who can then forward the pack to your solicitor.

Your sellers will have to fill in a Property Sale Questionnaire, Fixtures & Fittings Form (and Leasehold Questionnaire if leasehold property), along with signing a Client Care Letter, Search Letter and fill in an Identity document along with primary and secondary ID and have it witnessed by a "suitable" person. They have to provide funds in advance in order that the title deeds can be obtained from Land Registry. They will also be expected to forward any supporting documents mentioned in the Property Information Form (i.e. certificates/guarantees/building regs/planning permissions for work done etc). They are quite lengthy questionnaires too!

There are a lot of things to sort out before your solicitor gets the draft contract papers so don't worry too much, I'm sure it just feels like a lot of time has passed by because you and your solicitor have not had to do much so far!

wowfudge · 08/06/2016 23:01

Spickle - I sorted all of that out for our sale in a couple of days. Plenty of people don't or can't as they aren't organised.

Spickle · 08/06/2016 23:20

wowfudge - yes, I'd get it done very promptly too, but many of our clients take weeks and weeks to send back forms, completely oblivious to the fact that the buyer's solicitors are waiting.....!

Allbymyselfagain · 09/06/2016 08:09

Ok I feel slightly less stressed thank you, I didn't realise it was so much information. I'm hoping to exchange mid July and complete end July. Is this still a likely timeline? (Before i phone up and yell at the estate agent)

I hate being a FTB, I'm second guessing everything in case I piss someone off!

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wowfudge · 09/06/2016 08:14

Your solicitor will not - and cannot - book searches for you without the contract pack from the vendors. Why don't you ask your solicitor to contact theirs and see where things are up to? If they are anything like our vendors they'll go on holiday without telling anyone either!

MeMySonAndl · 09/06/2016 08:15

Mmh... Not sure about this one... The sellers pack may be big and complex but you can easily go through it in a fraction of the time. Six weeks is far too long, and if the seller is going to be slow throughout the process it can become costly for you (especially if your solicitor is not working for a flat rate).

I would ask the solicitor to ask theirs what is holding them from submitting the forms. If it is pure laziness or a piece of paper that can delay the sale for months, I would pull out.

Allbymyselfagain · 09/06/2016 08:29

My solicitors chased theirs last Friday and I phoned the EA on Monday. My solictor is flat fee so I'm not too worried about that cost, more worried about the amount of money I have spent so far on mortgage app and survey etc and the fact I'm living with family who want to sell their house but they can't until I move out.

I'll phone EA again today and grumble, I'll save all out yelling for another week or so....

OP posts:

venys · 09/06/2016 09:09

Also you won't get sight of valuation survey as that is only for the bank. Home buyers will at least give you a fair idea of the condition of the property. Yes the sellers pack is lengthy and if the owner was not organised before it can take a while to complete especially if it is leasehold, had insurance claims on it etc.

Spickle · 09/06/2016 11:10

Sorry of course the sellers don't have to pay for searches - buyer does this. So one less form to fill in, unless they are also buying (assume they are?). Yes some people are very organised, but many are not.

Allbymyselfagain · 09/06/2016 13:06

venys I know that now but the mortgage advisor I went through insisted I would! The house does need work so he told me to hold off until we have the valuation survey from the bank to get all the work negotiated at once. Have now paid out £750 for a full building survey as I am really starting not to trust them.

It's builders, no chain and freehold so I really don't know why they have wasted so much time. You would think they would want to release capital for their next project asap!

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HereIAm20 · 09/06/2016 19:30

Had they already found where they wanted to move to? It may be that they won't instruct anyone fully until they've found where they are moving to?

wowfudge · 09/06/2016 19:47

It isn't 6 weeks though - only when the buyer's have a firm mortgage offer would you start incurring costs with your solicitor.

Allbymyselfagain · 09/06/2016 20:24

here it's a renovation project by a building company, currently sat.empty.

wow my mortgage offer was approved and details sent to solictor on the 11/5

So I phone EA this morning and left a msg, he didn't call me back but the contract pack is back now. So hopefully the searches will start soon.

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wowfudge · 09/06/2016 20:45

So the mortgage offer was confirmed 4 weeks. My point was that it wasn't 6 weeks ago as a pp posted.

AgathaF · 09/06/2016 20:55

Phone their estate agents at least once daily for an update on progress. You have to make yourself a nuisance in these cases so that they in turn get properly on the backs of their clients to get things moving.

MeMySonAndl · 13/06/2016 12:30

How long are mortgage offers valid for? Does this delay means you need to reapply for a mortgage?

Allbymyselfagain · 13/06/2016 19:34

Got my answer, yes the seller is extremely dodgy. The survey came back on Friday, the basement (sold as a usable office space or even third bedroom) is not tanked and will potentially be a swimming pool with a Couple of bad winters. The surveyor advised me to refuse to do anything more until the seller had this work done by an expert in basement conversions.

Called EA Friday with the news and he has done nothing, had to chase him today and he asked for the survey, sent him a copy of that section and the costings and he is more concerned that the surveyor said I need an electric report (£500) than this £15k job!

I got really lucky today went for a drive around and found a lovely little house in a nice area whose buyers have just pulled out due to mortgage issue. Made a cheeky offer and got it so I'm pulling out of this sale.

Just thought everyone who commented would like an update. As everyone else in my chain is at exchange right now what do you think about me completing in 6weeks?

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HereIAm20 · 13/06/2016 20:02

Good luck with the new house. Sometimes things happen for a reason!😀

MeMySonAndl · 13/06/2016 20:16

Great news, and even better to hear you managed to avoid a dodgy seller.

AgathaF · 13/06/2016 20:24

Good luck with the new place. Hopefully you'll be in before the end of summer.

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