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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

CF buyer

36 replies

DelAmitrip · 04/11/2019 14:40

Our house (we are selling) has been sale agreed since June. The sale has been held up multiple times by the vendor’s solicitor.

We agreed a closing date and the buyer put a lot of pressure us via estate agent and solicitor to close early. So we moved out a week early to a rental. The closing date came and went a fortnight ago and still no funds. Now we are paying both mortgage and rent. Buyer’s solicitor keeps sending empty promises. I popped into the house to check for mail and three parcels are sitting inside for the buyer.

AIBU to think pay for your bloody house before getting your Christmas presents sent here? Feel like returning them with “not at this address” but not that petty. (Only just though).

OP posts:
Original poster
DelAmitrip · 04/11/2019 15:00

Bumping after spectacular name-change-and-general-life failure.

OP posts:
Ponoka7 · 04/11/2019 15:01

It sounds as though the buyer is getting messed around by their Solicitor.

Can you not contact them directly?

HappyHammy · 04/11/2019 15:03

Who put the parcels inside? If funds havent gone through then it's still your house surely. What action is your solicitor taking.

Frankola · 04/11/2019 15:10

Tell your solicitor to tell them that unless this is sorted immediately you will cancel the sale and they can do one.

I'd also be telling the solicitor you want recompense for having to rent due to them not fulfilling their promise on deadline

Whiskers14 · 04/11/2019 15:14

As annoying and as costly as the delays are for you, I would take the parcels as a positive sign - it shows the buyer has every intention to complete if they're already having their mail delivered. If they were about to walk away, they wouldn't bother. But you should definitely tell your solicitor to tell theirs that they're being CF and you're going to send the parcels back.

Noooodles · 04/11/2019 15:25

I’d return the parcels without a doubt. And get an agreement in place for some restitution for the fact that the deadline has been and gone and it’s not your faulty you’re paying rent and mortgage. My experience with this sort of thing is that you have to be extremely hard faced and firm or people will be dicks.

The buyers of my grandmothers house messed about and messed about, delay after delay. In the end we told them a deadline for exchange after which we would put the house back on the market. It came and went and the house went back on the market. They went ballistic but exchanged and completed within 3 weeks after that.

TheReluctantCountess · 04/11/2019 15:35

Return the parcels - there is still a chance the sale will fall through!

ShirleyPhallus · 04/11/2019 15:38

When you say “sale agreed” have you actually exchanged?

SellmeyourMLMcrap · 04/11/2019 15:39

Have you exchanged contracts? If so then I'm surprised the money isn't available.

Tell your solicitor to tell them that unless this is sorted immediately you will cancel the sale and they can do one.

Great idea, drop out of a sale that's been agreed for 5 months, no doubt 6-7 months in the making because of a slow solicitor. That's like cutting your head off to spite your nose.

GrandmaSharksDentures · 04/11/2019 15:41

Who put the parcels inside?

Nomorechickens · 04/11/2019 15:42

What is your solicitor doing about it? Are you on to the phone to them 5 times a day about it?

RightYesButNo · 04/11/2019 15:45

Wait, do you mean you’ve actually exchanged but they haven’t paid for the house? You can’t possibly mean that. You mean the exchange still hasn’t completed, I’d guess? It does sound stressful and complete shite. Sorry, OP.

Herland · 04/11/2019 15:49

This would stress me out so much. What if they don't have the funds? What if they pull out of the sale? What is your solicitor doing?

Aridane · 04/11/2019 15:54

As other posters have said, have you exchanged?

DGRossetti · 04/11/2019 16:03

Is this in the UK ?

HeartZone · 04/11/2019 16:03

Wow, badly advised to move out before this was completed.

HollowTalk · 04/11/2019 16:05

Hang on, how did the parcels get into the house?

ThatMuppetShow · 04/11/2019 16:05

The closing date came and went a fortnight ago and still no funds.

So the delay is from the mortgage company? Or anyone waiting on paperwork? What does your solicitor say?

Of course anyone can pull out until exchange, in England, that's how ridiculous our system is, but the buyer might be even more anxious than you.

I would also take the parcels as a good sign!

Travis1 · 04/11/2019 16:06

How did the parcels get inside? Have you exchanged?

NoraThePessimist · 04/11/2019 16:06

Return the parcels; they don't live there and any issues with damaged or missing items will be on your head. This is a legal transaction, you're not house sitting for granny. They're taking the piss.

This post is a bit close to home; last time we sold, the buyers put us under immense, unrealistic pressure (as in: here's query X at 10am, if we as sellers don't respond with answers by close of business 5pm then we're pulling out... These were emails and voicemails that I'd normally check a couple of times while at work myself during office hours!).

They pissed around for about 3 months after everything was sorted, asking the Same queries and their solicitor not doing paperwork accurately etc...

Finally in the end I issued my own Very blunt, very short ultimatumm on a Monday morning that if the exchange didn't happen by 5pm Friday then it was going back on the market due to their incompetent, unprofessional, unreasonable way of managing the sale. I also mentioned I would make it my personal hobby to review, trust pilot etc the buyer solicitor, as well as look into the Law Society complaint process. I.e. unleash he'll any way I could.

Suddenly after weeks of faffing it was sorted within a couple of days Hmm

ThatMuppetShow · 04/11/2019 16:07

Wow, badly advised to move out before this was completed.

not really, if you go to rental, you have to gamble and either move too early or find yourself homeless if no rental is available when you are!

You do need to understand what the actual held up is, and no one but your solicitor can tell you. Is your buyer in a chain?

HugoSpritz · 04/11/2019 16:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ProfessorSlocombe · 04/11/2019 16:12

This story doesn't stack up.

Something somewhere has been missed out - nothing is impossible, but it's certainly highly unlikely that this state of affairs could have arisen had the OP gone through the accepted process to sell their house. If nothing else, then neither mortgage company (assuming there was a mortgage on it and the purchasers have a mortgage too) wouldn't have allowed it.

If the OP owns the property outright, and the prospective purchaser claimed to be a cash buyer, then it's possible some some shortcuts have been taken in the process to save a few quid ?

All assuming it's in England & Wales ....

BrendasUmbrella · 04/11/2019 16:13

They have a key to your house but they don't own it yet?!

JonSlow · 04/11/2019 16:16

Or the parcels are amazon dvds or similar, which fit through post box!