To be concerned about this house purchase?

[t3rr3gl35]

DH and I have put in an offer on a new house and this was reluctantly, it seems, accepted by the vendor. To put into context, it isn't a conventional property, needs some upgrading and has been on the market for almost 2 years but it will suit us very well.

We offered 98% of the asking price and this was rejected as the vendor wanted an earlier closing date. We walked away at this point.

A few days later, the solicitor acting for the vendor approached us to say that the vendor had agreed to the terms of the offer so we made a formal offer last week. Since then, I have received unsolicited e-mails from the vendor's solicitor inviting us to use a firm that they know, another telling us our solicitor isn't moving fast enough, and another to say that we aren't moving quickly enough on a survey.

Our solicitor mentioned in passing that he had been told by the other side that we had misrepresented our funding arrangements at the outset (not true). We are now being pressured by them to complete the purchase before Christmas and I'm finding it all very stressful. We don't want to lose the house but I'm worried that there is some sort of issue with the property that the other side is trying to rush past us, maybe something that wouldn't necessarily be revealed in standard searches but would come to light in the near future. AIBU to be suspicious and feel like pulling out at this stage?

I had something a tiny bit similar, bought a house from a woman who was very trying, house head been on the market for ages, later we realised due to her being a crazy witch highly strung person several sales had fallen through. We persevered and were very glad we did. DP wanted to walk away at several stages but I didn't give up, but can really see how other people had.

She contacted us directly asking for a cash deposit as a sign of our intent to buy, pushed for ridiculous deadlines, refused to accept our survey as a friend had done it for me (who is a chartered surveyor), the day before exchange she put the house back on the market... the list went on.

If it's your dream house I'd stick with it, but pay for a full survey!

If it's a listed property or something like that. Worry.

We very nearly went for one. We couldn't proceed at that point of various reasons. It's been on the market for over 2 years. The last buyer had a survey done. We asked for details when the estate agent/owner approached up again. Nothing was forcoming.

I highly suspect there's a big issue. And I'm not paying ££££ to find out.

We bought a flat last year, the sellers had extended the lease but the paperwork had not come through. We kept getting calls from them asking us to hurry up our solicitor, their solicitor was telling them that there was no problem. Our solicitor advised us not to go ahead until the extended lease could be registered with the Land Registry which could take 3 months. The sellers were very annoyed, however we found a compromise in that we retained some of the money until the registration had taken place. I was really glad that our solicitor had been so thorough and made it very clear to us what the risks would be if we ignored her advice. Buying a property is huge stressful, and you are paying a solicitor a lot of money to give you advice and ensure a successful sale. I would spell out the issues with your solicitor and explain your concerns, and get a full survey. Make sure you keep all your correspondence and paperwork, ask for emails to confirm ant phone calls. Cover yourself at all times and do not be rushed.

Some people are just a bit bonkers. Don't be rushed and use your own solicitors and surveyors.

We sold our house to someone completely bonkers. We had filled in all the paperwork, she had had the survey done, we were all set to go then she sent us 53 additional questions many of which had already been covered previously. I filled them in while trying to breastfeed my 7 day old first born, I was not impressed! We were ready to exchange again and this time she demanded an independent survey of how the views of the house would be affected by some proposed changes in electricity pilons 3 miles away. It took a while to explain that there would be nothing to see so the survey would just show the current views of fields and sky. She was hard work but bought the house eventually!

There's no imminent announcement of a 1000 house building or road re-design on your doorstep that you don't know about or something is there?

Buying and selling does drive people crazy.

Firstly they get hung up on arguing over the asking price.
Then they get hung up on arguing about fixtures and fittings. What’s been left what’s to be paid for.
Then they get hung up on how long it will take and if there is a reason it’s to be quick or it’s tsking too long.
Then they get hung up in panicking they is something wrong.
Then they get a survey done and get hung up on arguing about getting small things fixed and forget to look at the bigger picture.
Then they get hung up on visiting again and should I let them why won’t they let me
Then they get panicky about either side pulling out because fundamentally they’ve all been shite to one another, with each side trying to “win”.

I’m not talking big stuff, but people tend to lose their heads over the small shit. Look at the responses on here. No inkling anything is wrong and people are screaming “pull out”.

If people just worked together better, try to understand the realities of time and tried to make it a win win situation, house buying would be a lot lesss stressful. Instead threads like this show why it’s so stressful and why so many house sales go horribly wrong.

Gosh - i didn't expect such a response. We met with our solicitor today and are hopeful that the purchase will now proceed smoothly, but if any further unsolicited contact occurs we will lodge a complaint with the Law Society and withdraw from the purchase. It's very interesting to read that so many of you have had similar issues, as I have never encountered anything like this before.