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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to pull out of this house purchase

38 replies

hillfort · 22/09/2013 13:09

We had an offer accepted on a property in late April. We are beginning to think the vendor is not serious about selling, and/or doesn't want to leave. We have sold our flat and have to be out in a few weeks, with our 2 year old.

The place we are trying to buy has a 61 year lease and the EA said the vendor would renew it at her own expense. She needs cash from the house sale to fund the lease renewal.

She had offered £35k to the freeholder, but the vendor wanted £50k. This went on for a while then she issued a Section 42 notice. In an effort to speed things up we offered an extra £10k to help her pay the premium. We were told we'd have to wait until the freeholders gave an answer, and they had up to 2 months. So she never gave a reply to our offer of an extra £10k.

The vendors waited until the end of their statutory 2 month period, and last week we found out that the freeholders have increased their demand to £66k, almost double what the vendor wants to pay.

Our vendor has not given us any reaction, almost a week on. Not even an email to say she's considering her options. She hasn't replied to calls from the estate agent, and her solicitor is not replying to our solicitor.

We never managed to secure a second viewing. We tried twice, and she cancelled both times, at short notice. We noticed her surname has changed now, and we are beginning to think it might be a forced sale due to divorce or something, and she has no intention of leaving.

What can we do? We are getting desperate.

OP posts:
peppersquint · 22/09/2013 13:10

I'd walk away - whatever happens now it has been soured - unless it is the house you MUST have

Justforlaughs · 22/09/2013 13:11

Tbh, I think you need to do some very rapid house hunting. Forget this property and really get moving. You need somewhere now! Good luck

whois · 22/09/2013 13:12

Get the EA to step up their game, warn them you're thinking of pulling out. The EA will only get paid if the sale goes thru so it's in their interests to get the vendor moving along.

whois · 22/09/2013 13:13

But sounds like the free holder is a dick - so that would put me off.

issey6cats · 22/09/2013 13:13

cut your losses and find somewhere else i would see if you can afford a smaller but freehold house in your budget as leasehold is a minefield

PrincessFlirtyPants · 22/09/2013 13:14

No, YANBU. Walk away. I was involved in a similar situation weeks and months dragged on, I had wasted time and money.

Start looking at other properties, quickly.

toomuchicecream · 22/09/2013 13:15

If the message gets back that you've found something else and are pulling out, you will be surprised how quickly the agent starts to return calls!! If they get a sniff that they're going to lose their commission...

ivykaty44 · 22/09/2013 13:16

cut your losses

Original poster
hillfort · 22/09/2013 13:18

Loads of replies already and everyone is telling us to move on...
The thing is it's close to great schools and is a huge flat, great value for the money. But I suppose the reason it's affordable is because of the lease problem. We haven't found anything that even comes close to it as a property.

We are just puzzled that the vendor can't even be bothered to respond to us.

OP posts:
whois · 22/09/2013 13:19

Don't talk to the vendor - talk to the EA!

Original poster
hillfort · 22/09/2013 13:20

The other thing is that it has a porter, which we would like because we both travel a lot, and it's so much more reassuring to know that we don;t need to worry about security while we're away. But there aren't a huge number of portered flats in the right area for schools within our budget, so that's why we haven't walked away.

OP posts:
specialsubject · 22/09/2013 13:20

the reason it is affordable is that a) there is a big problem with the lease and b) the woman is an idiot and doesn't want to sell it.

move on. You can always get rentals at short notice so you won't be homeless, and that turns you into no-chain buyers who are a better bet.

Justforlaughs · 22/09/2013 13:25

Well, you've come up with your own reasons for not walking away despite everyone telling you otherwise, so it seems like you've made up your mind. If so, suck it up, sorry. I don't see what your options are really, you have to be out in 2 weeks and the vendor that you want to buy from isn't interested. You can move on or end up homeless, that's the reality of it, from what you've said.

Original poster
hillfort · 22/09/2013 13:26

But my husband is getting into a state about paying for a rental. He wants us to live with his mum in the interim, which is not a good idea. It's kind of her to offer and she means well, but she's a bit of a bully and hyper-critical. It also means that my commuting bills would be £150 per week instead of a mere £12, and we would need to book a live-in nanny as MIL is too old for a boisterous toddler. So it would end up being almost as expensive as renting.

OP posts:
Viviennemary · 22/09/2013 13:27

It sounds as if the vendor just doesn't want to sell. So she is stalling and hoping you will go away. If she won't sell there isn't a lot you can do except complain to the Estate Agent and ask is this house on the market or not.

jojane · 22/09/2013 13:33

If you moved into this house now you would have to pay for childcare for your toddler so surely whether you rent/buy/ move in with mil you will still be paying childcare costs so don't see what bearing that has on your decision?

Original poster
hillfort · 22/09/2013 13:36

The childcare would cost a lot because I would be out of the house from 6.30 am until 10 pm instead of 9 am until 7.30 pm. We couldn't ask a babysitter to be with us at such anti-social hours so would have to have a live-in nanny.

OP posts:
adishbestservedcold · 22/09/2013 13:42

You could get an au pair - much cheaper.

This sale isn't going to happen though and you have to let go. Lots of people behave like shit in property transactions, it's almost expected unfortunately. So when I saw the thread title I though well yeah YA probably BU (because I think promises should be kept) but you are not in these circumstances. Move on.

Original poster
hillfort · 22/09/2013 13:49

aarrghh - unanimous advice to move on.
I don't understand why the woman put her house on the market in the first place. Why put a family through such difficulty and expense? We paid for survey, searches etc. not to mention missing other good properties - and now there's a property boom, so our money won't go as far as it would have.

If we went to MIL, we would have a 120 mile round trip commute. DH is quite set on it as a way of avoiding paying for renting, but our quality of life would suffer, due to the distance. We'd hardly see our little girl, and I would be on edge all the time as a visitor in MIL's house.

OP posts:
LIZS · 22/09/2013 13:53

Walk away. A lease this messy isn't going to be resolved easily and the price will go up the more desperate the freeholder realises the other party is.

Original poster
hillfort · 22/09/2013 14:03

LIZS yes, that's a point. The freeholder whacked up the premium by £16 in the space of 2 months. We couldn't believe it Confused
If the freeholder is such a heartless git, we could find the service charges could be unreasonable.

OP posts:
Righton48 · 22/09/2013 14:13

I think walking away is your best bet unfortunately.it sound as if your vendor has been very badly advised. Selling a flat with a short lease is a airily common problem, people are often under te impression that their lease starts when they buy the property. Once a lease is shorter than 80 years it becomes expensive o renew it. What normally happens is the vendor starts he process of renewing the lease (which includes paying for two surveyors, one for the vendor, one for the freeholder and instructing the surveyor to sart negotiations). The surveyor will have a good idea what the cost will be and the vendor should then knock this amount plus a slight overestimate of legal fees off the asking price. If this happens it doesn't matter so much if the freeholder stalls because two months after the section 42 has been issued it will go to court the leaseholders will end up paying a reasonable amount (not an over inflated amount picked out of the air by a freeholder who knows the leaseholder is desperate to move) and in addition gets 99 years added to the length of the lease and pays peppercorn ground rent (in real terms nothing). Sorry for the ramble.

Righton48 · 22/09/2013 14:18

Oh dear my spelling isn't that bad honestly! Damn ipad. LIZS is right, although you would end up with no ground rent to pay you could end up with a huge service charge from a pissed off freeholder. The process of lease renewal can take a long time as well (up to a year if the fh plays dirty). Walk away!

Original poster
hillfort · 22/09/2013 14:30

We had an informal hint from the freeholder that if the vendor keeps negotiating, they expect things to carry on until the end of 2014!
Of course if she agrees to the £66k, we could be in the flat in about 6 weeks.

OP posts:
Righton48 · 22/09/2013 14:34

Without wishing to add to your worries is te vendor dealing with te freeholder herself? Has she put anything legal in place?

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