Anyone property /legal people about please ? I am at the end of my tether

[zenasfuck]

I'll try and keep this short
We accepted an offer on a house we were selling, house had tenants in

We accepted an offer of 20k under asking price due to buyer being chain free, cash buyer

Buyer planned on keeping tenants in, great !
One week before Xmas buyer tells us he needs to move in himself and the tenants need to go, we give tenants appropriate notice, due to run out 19th this month

Buyer has been gassing our tenants , turning up at property telling them they need to leave

Tenants have moved out early, buyer advised of this and he asks can he come in and decorate - we say no not until sale is final/exchange

Our solicitor says exchange can go ahead Wednesday /Thursday this week

Except it turns out the buyer hasn't sold his property yet so can't complete

Now we have an empty property for which we have to pay a mortgage on and council tax for god knows how long

Is there anything I can do about this ? Do I have a legal claim to take any action ?

“Buyer has been gassing our tenants , turning up at property telling them they need to leave” !!!

WTAF! Did you know he was doing this?

No, it really doesn't mean that eurochick it means you don't have to borrow money or sell anything to raise the money be able to proceed with a purchase ie you have the funds available at the time of making the offer.

Cash buyer just means no mortgage, not that they don't have to sell a place to finance the purchase

@eurochick yes it means no mortgage but more recently also includes that they don’t need to sell to release funds either and that funds are available and they are ready to proceed, hence sometimes at a lower price.

Surely a cash buyer is someone who has, say 250k (or whatever the purchase amount needed) sitting ready and waiting in his/her bank account for the outright purchase of the property. If you say you are a cash buyer you have to prove it, by showing bank statements or whatever...but obviously not in your case op.

Put it back on the market!!! I wouldn't trust him to complete any time soon.

Someone ready to proceed may turn up.

As others said put it back on the market. The guy has done you a favour. Stage it so it looks its best.

Despite what PPs have said, there is no way your solicitor would have any way of checking whether your buyer has the cash available to proceed. All they can do is ask the buyer's solicitor what the position is. If the buyer's solicitor doesn't answer the question, there's very little your solicitor can do. The estate agents should have obtained proof of funds / ability to proceed from the buyer. Why did you give the tenants notice before you had exchanged contracts? Surely not on the advice of your solicitor?

I think you (and most of the replies on here) misunderstand the conveyancing process. It's not down to your solicitor to check the buyers finances. The buyer was probably advised (correctly) not to exchange unless the property was empty. It's frustrating that hes changed the position now and he should not have interfered with the tenant but the process is at fault here.

Has he exchanged op.? You keep mentioning both together, but they are very different, has he exchanged?

namechanged it is common and not a problem to sell a property with the tenants remaining in the property. The new ll takes on the tenants and nothing changes for the tenant contractually except they have a new ll.

Sorry struggling to address all questions

He told us that he was a cash buyer, that his property was sold already and he had the cash available to buy outright - we assumed that this would have been verified by agent ?

We gave tenants notice as our solicitor told us he was ready and waiting on us but couldn't proceed with tenants in place

We did not know that he had approached our tenants to tell them to hurry up

He has lied and from what I can see, no one has checked his viability as a cash , chain free buyer

@Jon65 Yes but it is clear from the outset where the property will be sold subject to the tenancy and the OP has known since before Christmas that it wasn't proceeding on that basis.

In those circumstances, the buyer would have been advised to await confirmation that the property was empty before exchange.

our solicitor told us he was ready and waiting

If you have that in writing then you may be able to complain to the solicitor as it clearly isn’t true.

Don’t ever let anyone in to your property to do anything between exchange and completion!

If you’re really nice and able to supervise then you could let them in to measure up.

But if anything went wrong, you would be the one left with a house that had a hole in the wall or missing kitchen cupboards or whatever - it’s not worth the risk.

If they want to get into it earlier they need to pay for it earlier.

They should have insurance on it from exchange date - but beyond that don’t let them do anything to the property until they own it.

Also worth trying to get penalties and deposits put in - so if they get a £20k reduction for being a cash buyer and completing by xx date then if that doesn’t happen price goes back up again.

If they want tenants out early then they agree to pay rent if they cause sale not to go through by that date.

And so on, as appropriate.

Genuine buyers won’t have a problem. If they are worried about a genuine problem (eg one of them gets admitted to hospital) you can work around it.

If they are CF who bend the definition of cash buyers like these people then they will either walk away or say no, which will raise red flags so you know it could be risky and you can proceed on that basis.

To clarify - buyer was told that he won't be permitted entry to the property before he legally owns it

@namechangedtoday15 I am a lawyer, so I do understand the conveyancing process.. I would never advise a client to give notice to their tenants before exchange had taken place for exactly this reason.. the OP is now facing a big loss.

The finance is a separate issue not related to the lawyer.

FFS a cash buyer means YOU HAVE THE CASH. Not once you sell your house, or if you get a loan. We were cash buyers (inheritance). We had to provide bank statements, quite rightly, to the estate agents showing we had 250k sitting liquid in our current account to transfer the next day if necessary. Your agent should have checked.

Brie I think you'll find that a lot of people on here are lawyers.

single I'm sure they are.. what's your point? I was only disagreeing with namechanged.

When we were selling we had same issue with buyer. Cash buyer. Proof of funds. Many months later when we had messed around they announce they want to sell another property. Would still be “cash buyers”.

I’d put house on market. Tell buyer to F off. Vacant properties often sell quicker as you appeal to landlords and also people who want to live there.

They had messed around - not us

Put it back on the market ASAP. He is messing you about and I guarantee he will ask for a reduction just before exchange.

Cash buyer means you will not be having a mortgage, not that you have the full asking price sat in your bank account.

@MyKingdom So am I - the advice obviously depends on whether you're acting for a buyer or a seller. I dont disagree with you, but from a buyers perspective, you would advise them not to exchange until the property is empty. It's down to bargaining power and negotiation at the end of the day.

@namechangedtoday15 but in this situation OP had already given a substantial discount and I think has been very badly advised by her lawyer. Buyers lawyer would advise them to do what is in their interest of course but in my experience you'd exchange on the condition of notice being given, the OP's lawyer should have seen that with the discount given there was no need for further incentivisation especially to such an extent.