AIBU to message my deceitful buyers directly?

[beanbag19]

Someone please talk me down from contacting my buyers directly to tell them what I think of them!

We agreed a sale in June. At the time we knew we wanted a new build but there were none of the one we wanted available so we planned to move in with parents. Our buyers said their buyer wanted to complete by 20 August so we agreed that date. They then came back and asked for 10 August due to a holiday. I said no as we needed more time to sort things out.

From the second the offer was accepted she chased and chased. I did everything on my side as quickly as possible. When I came to booking removals, I had to book in advance as we need storage too. Before I booked I asked the EA to confirm that we were still working towards 20 August, our buyer said yes. After me chasing again on 9 August, their solicitor advised that their buyer was awaiting a revised mortgage offer and some docs from the LA. They also advised that 20 August was not possible as our buyers were actually on holiday then, despite the fact that the buyers themselves had previously requested and confirmed this date. They agreed 31 August instead.

They went on holiday on 13 August and I/my solicitor have been chasing theirs for an update. Finally they confirmed today that their sale had fallen through. Their solicitor said that they weren't even sure if our buyer knew as they had advised that they would be uncontactable on holiday and weren't back until 25 August. I told my EA who then had a call from the buyer directly to confirm the situation, apparently they got back last night, so another lie. I then searched for their house on rightmove to see that they had advertised on open house to take place on 11 August, which was two days after they agreed to 31 August completion, so they presumably knew at that time that 31 August was impossible.

In the meantime, we have moved out (because we didn't want to lose the £90 deposit we paid to the removals for the sake of two weeks) and reserved a new build that we have to exchange on in 28 days or lose. Obviously we're not going to be able to exchange.

I am livid. I need our buyers to know what absolute arseholes they are. Apparently they still want our house, which would explain why they lied about everything. But how can you do that to to people? We're losing money as we should have been saving money at my parents but instead we're paying a mortgage for a house we don't live in. We're probably going to lose the house we've been waiting 9 months for. Who is so selfish and dishonest that they would treat people like that?

Obviously I won't message them, but I needed to get that off my chest so thanks if you got to the end!

The procession is actually a process. Bloody spellcheck!

for a £90 removal deposit, you jumped the gun. Nothing is binding until you have exchanged. Your buyers may have messed you around but It is the how the UK housing market works; ethical or not.

Tbf when we were buying, it was our solicitor who wasn’t as forth coming with information as she should have been. Why, I have no idea.

Exchange/completion kept getting pushed back, or there was ‘no response from the buyer’. I didn’t have the sellers contact info, so arranged a 2nd viewing (through the EA eho was also chasing us iirc) to speak to them about any issues.

Turned out they’d just been patiently waiting for us, their solicitor hadn’t heard anything from ours except that we were making a fuss over some less than important paperwork or something or other (which had been sorted weeks before that)

All of a sudden our solicitor said all they were waiting on now was our deposit and we could exchang. I transferred and she delayed by a couple of days AGAIN. I sent several emails asking why and why she had me pay fees with the expectation of it being sorted by X date and I never got an answer.

I think she must have just been so behind on the paperwork or something and decided to blame the sellers instead.

I appreciate it’s not the same situation as you know their sale has fallen through, but I just wanted to offer an alternative POV that they may have been on the ball when communicating with solicitors but the solicitors may have been shit!

Hope it all works out anyway.

2nd paragraph should read ‘there was no response from the seller - we were the buyers!

Have you moved as part of a chain before? Unfortunately this kind of nonsense is just the way it goes sometimes. Yes your buyers have been stupid to not keep you in the loop but presumably the thought they could fix it before you found out. In our chain we had trouble in the other direction and our sellers didn’t vacate the property for months after we’d agreed because their new build wasn’t built yet. We ended up sleeping on my mums front room floor for months. It sucks but you won’t necessarily move any faster if you switch buyers now.

@POPholditdown they have blatantly lied to the estate agent when chased, unless the estate agent is lying, of course. Their solicitor has also been economical with the truth, to say the least.

@gamerwidow no, not as part of a chain. I realised that this was a possibility but I trusted them and acted in good faith because I didn't want to be the one to break the chain. I didn't ever imagine that they would lie to us like they have. Naive, I know.

The thing is you don’t know who is driving this. They are most probably just following the advice of their estate agent rather than acting maliciously on their own.

I think you should be directing your anger at the EA and/or you have been poorly informed by your solicitor... sorry your are going through this but please, in future, don't assume anything until exchange has happened...

the procession the UK is very different to the US. You don’t write a contract straight away. First, you look, then you put an offer, there is a little negotiation and if the offer is accepted, you exchange contracts. Surveys are frequently carried out prior to exchange. When you exchange contracts, you decide the completion date.

It can take far too long to get to exchanging contracts which is the point at which you are mostly (not completely) safe.

In England, not the whole of the UK! In Scotland you put an offer in, once it is accepted legal contracts are exchanged asap. If you pull out you can be liable for costs. Someone I know pulled out of a house sale and was landed with a very hefty bill. The contract specifies a move in date and that is the day you are legally entitled to receive entry and your house keys Scotland does not have leasehold either thankfully. You own the land as well as the house.

Never ever commit to anything prior to exchange. I have always said completion to be three weeks after exchange.

It also pays to appoint a good solicitor. There is a notion that conveyancing should be done for £500, it's hard to get a oroper job for that.

Finally, remember that you own yoyr hoyse and you decide who to sell it to. A politely worded enail to your EA is all that is needed. Please remarket our oroperty from x date and inform the previous prospective purchasers it is back on the market. Then get your best pieces if furniture back in there to present it well.

You are where you are and the best thing you can do is make the best of it and mive on.

If you find out your EA was lying then you could seek redress via the Property Ombudsman who take a dim view of such things and are trying hard to clean up the industry.

Get your house back on the market pronto and when you get a buyer tell your agent you will accept their offer if they use your original buyer’s solicitor as they should already have the searches etc which will chop 3ish weeks out of the process.

Why would my EA lie? I'm not saying she hasn't, just wondering why?

We have a totally different system in Scotland. You would be liable for costs if you pulled out of a sale at the last minute.

It's not that simple. And no one concludes missives until late on these days either.

OP I am so very sorry this has happened to you. Slightly different but last year we moved with the sellers from hell. It was hideous and I wouldn't wish the stress on anyone. They were awful people, they were landlords and lied about absolutely everything including having given correct notice to the tenants who were actually living in the house.

I would tell them they can still buy it for an extra 5k on top for being morons. Call it their stupidity fee.

It's not that simple. And no one concludes missives until late on these days either.

It's a lot simpler than the English system and you are better protected.

They are unreasonable, but you've made some terrible choices, moving out before completion over £90, agreeing to buy a house you can't actually afford without living at your parents' for a few months, surely if you'd cancelled the move you will have lost £90 (or maybe not our movers just rearranged for us) but you would've saved at least two weeks in storage fees, it doesn't make sense...

It's a lot simpler than the English system and you are better protected.

It is a lot simpler than the English system. But it has changed over the years. My friends were shafted by their buyer after the missives and they really couldn't do much other than wait a year then take her to court.

But the dates thing means we pretty much always move when we say we will. It's a mindset thing as well as a legal one.

for a £90 removal deposit, you jumped the gun. Nothing is binding until you have exchanged. Your buyers may have messed you around but It is the how the UK housing market works; ethical or not.

I agree with this

@Sulflower - yes, you are right, sorry. I lived in various places in the UK but sadly not Scotland. Now that I live in another country, I have fallen into the habit of lumping everything in together as the UK.

OP, again what did your builder say when you told them what has happened?

I have been where you are, OP, and very much feel your pain. Sellers were boasting in the pub that they'd changed their mind, at the same time as showing our kids round their house at a post sale measuring viewing.i could actually have slapped them (and I'm not ever violent).

@LuluJakey1 Wed 22-Aug-18 23:06:16
I thought you had to be a First Time Buyer to qualify for Help To Buy. I am sure you have to sign a declaration stating that. You definitely had to last year.

I thought so too, but its not:

The first part of Help to Buy mortgage, launched on April 1, 2013 and available until 2020, is an Equity Loan scheme. It is open to both first-timer buyers and homemovers – but is restricted to new-build homes. Under this part of the scheme, the buyer is only required to raise 5% of the property value as a deposit. Nov 16, 2017

Help to Buy Scheme Explained - MoneySuperMarket
www.moneysupermarket.com/mortgages/first-time-buyers/help-to-buy-scheme/

Uncreative, sounds exactly like our process!