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Unreasonable delays by house buyers. What can we do?

10 replies

elvislives · 05/07/2010 19:34

We accepted an offer on our house mid April. The EA told us the people had sold their house and were renting, so were keen to move quickly. We have relocated and are also renting so they sounded ideal.

12 weeks later we still haven't exchanged. Their solicitor seems to have been dragging things out, and on Friday we found out why. Rang EA to find out what's going on, to be told that the buyers are a new couple. Each of them still has a mortgage with a previous partner that they need to get out of. It is some sort of legal thing that the EA says takes 14 days to do He assures us that he has seen the legal paperwork and both the previous partners have no objection to the release..

I am furious. We accepted their (lower than we wanted) offer because they were in a position to move quickly. We are paying rent, and mortgage. Our sons were "renting" the house, but 3 weeks ago our solicitor said we were ready to complete so we moved them out, and of course that means their "rent" has stopped. Now the council is demanding we pay the council tax there, as well as here (2 different councils).

DH says there is nothing we can do, and I'm sure he's right. But if they've lied about this, what else have they lied about? How long do we give them? We really don't want to cut off our nose to spite our face and chance putting it back on the market, but who is to say that they won't drag this out for another 2 weeks, and another 2 weeks, and another 2 weeks?

The EA told us he would contact them today but, surprise surprise he couldn't get hold of them.

We didn't find a house we wanted to buy for 6 wks after we accepted their offer but that one is now almost ready to exchange but no sale to do it.

Our rental runs from 15th to 14th so after next week we are into yet another month's rent (we have to give a month's notice so that means paying for August as well). Another 2 months rent and I'm worried we won't actually have enough money to move at all.

What can we do? Do we have any redress against the EA? The buyers? Nobody has actually been forthcoming and told us what is happening- it was only us chasing that we've found out this.

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scurryfunge · 05/07/2010 19:40

Deduct what you think is fair from the estate agents fees.

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piscesmoon · 05/07/2010 19:56

The whole thing is a nightmare! We had buyers drop out at the bottom of the chain and no one told us until they got new ones in place. We only sold to our buyers because it was supposed to be quick-still going 14 weeks later. Nothing useful to add, I'm afraid, but I expect there is nothing you can do.

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CarGirl · 05/07/2010 19:59

I would tell them you are putting it back on the market and you will only wait for exchange for a further x weeks.

Around here the prices have been creeping back up?

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annh · 05/07/2010 20:08

Tell the EA to start marketing the property actively again and that their fee is in jeopardy. Tell the buyers that they have had ample time to sort out their mortgage arrangements (they should not only be starting the 14 day period now) so you are therefore giving them 7 working days to exchange and if you get a better offer in the meantime you will be going with that. After 7 days, all bets are off and you are back on the market!

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yomellamoHelly · 05/07/2010 20:28

You've got my sympathy. We're stuck waiting to exchange too. Chain been in place since start of Feb. All waiting for house we're buying to become vacant (was tenanted). Still mucking about. House empty.
This is why you shouldn't invest any emotion in it. Can't bear thought of starting again though.

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moomaa · 05/07/2010 20:31

I'm not sure that you'd get away with not paying the estate agent as others have suggested. If you don't complete they won't get their fee anyway.

I would actively market the property again using annh's advice.

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TheNextMrsDepp · 05/07/2010 20:39

annh is right - time to play hardball. But don't forget, the next buyer you line up might also have their own set of issues, and you're starting again from day 1, so think very hard before you dump the current buyers, particularly as they have no chain below them. But a little threat might get them moving.

Unfortunately, it is a fact of life with chains. We were actually guilty of stringing ours out a little, as we wanted to avoid paying a mortgage redemption fee. But just as we were finally ready to exchange we found out about a previously-unknown tenant in the house two above us in the chain, so we had to wait a further three weeks for them to move out!

Good luck anyway, hope it all resolves.

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fridayschild · 06/07/2010 13:23

And if your EA does not market very enthusiastically, I would appoint another one on joint agency. I know the commission is higher but I think better that than no sale, from what you're saying.

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elvislives · 06/07/2010 19:09

Thank you for all your replies. We've been back on to the solicitor and the EA today and have told them we aren't prepared to put up with this any longer. EA was meeting with the other solicitor today to find out what is going on (think he can see his commission going )

DH was doing the softly softly thing but at last has realised that they could actually keep up this "another 2 weeks" thing indefinitely, and we've decided that we want an answer one way or the other by Friday.

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Ragwort · 06/07/2010 19:13

Check with the council whether you actually have to pay council tax - we were in a similar position but as we had emptied our house of furniture we did not have to pay the council tax for the final six weeks - obviously don't know if you have moved your stuff out now but its worth checking, I had assumed we were responsible until we completed the sale but not so.

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