AIBU to continue running away from this house purchase?

[Quandaries]

Follow-up to www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4041606-AIBU-to-walk-away-from-this-house-purchase

Don’t even know where to start.

I’m a little worried that what I’ve posted so far makes me recognisable but what I’m going to post makes the sellers from hell recognisable so I’m not sure of the best way to go about it.

I doubt very much I would be happy to live in a house whose ex owners caused me so much aggravation, or see them around at the school gates after this. Keep running away and don’t look back, they were prepared to make you pay far more than what you finally offered. You nipped it on the bud.

May you be blessed with plenty of other options at better prices in the future 💐

Agree about the predicted slump. They may have just gifted you the opportunity of a much better house 🙂

Having read both threads: nip this in the bud and pull out now.

It's not worth your mental health and having to see these CF on the regular would probably push you over the edge if this gets any worse.

Just tell EA: after lots of consideration we've decided this is not the house purchase for us. You know full well why so I will leave it there. Good day.

You WILL find another house and it will be without this drama.

OP my ds works for a bank and he’s convinced house prices will fall sharply after Christmas.

@FelicisNox

Having read both threads: nip this in the bud and pull out now.

It's not worth your mental health and having to see these CF on the regular would probably push you over the edge if this gets any worse.

Just tell EA: after lots of consideration we've decided this is not the house purchase for us. You know full well why so I will leave it there. Good day.

You WILL find another house and it will be without this drama.

You quite clearly haven’t read either thread properly. OP pulled out days ago.

Followed your thread from the very start.

Am also surprised, like a pp, that EA expects to get any sort of recompense as the result of input from you. Surely all of that will be tied up in his firm's (National firm at that) contract with the vendor?

Vendors (in the UK) can suddenly decide not to sell for any reason they choose at any time in the selling process, it's really not that unusual. Approx 35% of agreed house sales fall through - not all of those are due to buyers getting cold feet.

In your case the EA seems to want to sue the vendor for using his photos/description/video/drone footage. That's fine. None of it has anything to do with you or how far along you were in the sales process.

I'm a bit late to the party and confess I have read all the OP's posts but not TFT. I would give a statement. The EA needs you to prove his case. It's irrelevant that the EA is part of a big chain, this particular employee will have lost significant personal commission.
There will be a clause in the seller-EA contract that if seller pulls out of a sale for no reason then they are still entitled to their fee. They are absolutely entitled to this from CF sellers who have stolen their photos, drone footage etc and behaved extremely badly in inventing another buyer to artificially beat up the price.
If you give a statement, IF this goes to court then you would be asked to turn up to be cross examined. You can only tell the truth so have nothing to fear from this. It is the right thing to do.
I am a lawyer and it's frustrating to be told that important witnesses don't want to be involved. I was also a victim of DV and it was heartbreaking that whilst most witnesses came forward, a couple said they had every sympathy with me but didn't want to be involved.
Please stand up for what is right.

*pulling out for no reason would not involve a change of mind or circumstances. But it would involve this sort of scenario where the EA has done everything he was contracted to do and found a genuine buyer. He wants to pursue his fee. Your evidence will assist him considerably.
This isn't greed by the EA.
EAs rarely choose to use on these scenarios. But this seller's behaviour is beyond the pale.

Sorry, meant choose to sue (not use)

FelicisNox

Having read both threads: nip this in the bud and pull out now

You have read the thread? Then why say something that has happened days ago ??

Well I’ve read the original post and apart from knowing that it’s a village not in Scotland I’ve absolutely no idea where you are so I’d relax. As for the EA, please remember that he/she works for the seller not you, possibly also on commission so has no qualms with telling you anything to increase a good sale. Point out your positive position and hold firm. It’s a game. If it falls through then it was never meant to be and the perfect house is still out there for you. Don’t make a stressful process even more fraught than it has to be. Good luck and hope it goes your way x

This is turning into a thread where pull out = cancel the cheque.

The EA needs you to prove his case.

Case for what? The best the estate agent can hope for is to get them on breaking an exclusivity period. ‘But I found them a really good buyer!’ is not admissible evidence in a court of law. No one is obliged to sell their property, even if they offer it at a certain price and someone offers that price. They can change their minds at any time prior to final exchange.

If you give a statement, IF this goes to court then you would be asked to turn up to be cross examined.

Good God, she’s not going to be up before Rumpole of the Bailey. The chances of this even making county court are pretty minimal.

There will be a clause in the seller-EA contract that if seller pulls out of a sale for no reason then they are still entitled to their fee.

But there IS a reason - they got a better offer. It doesn’t matter that, according to the OP, the estate agent doesn’t believe it was genuine. What court is going to say ‘Sorry, even though it’s perfectly legal to accept a higher offer before a sale is finalised, we don’t think it’s very nice or fair, so you’ll have to pay the agent’? Don’t forget the estate agent agreed to act on this higher offer - that’s why he went to the OP asking her to counter-offer.

Despite what some on MN think, ‘They weren’t very nice’ or ‘But it’s not fair!’ won’t stand up in court.

But it seems that they didn't get a better offer, which can be shown by
them now putting the house up for sale themselves, at an increased price, but used the EA pictures.

@Peregrina

But it seems that they didn't get a better offer, which can be shown by them now putting the house up for sale themselves, at an increased price, but used the EA pictures.

Precisely. It wouldn’t be back on the market now if the other offer had been genuine.

But it seems that they didn't get a better offer, which can be shown by them now putting the house up for sale themselves, at an increased price, but used the EA pictures.

But it doesn’t show that. The other buyer could have pulled out. The vendor could have decided if they had one better offer, they might try get even more - hence continuing to look for buyers. None of this shows that the other buyer didn’t or doesn’t exist.

As for the pictures - yes, the first agency can claim these are their property/under copyright. So they call the vendor and stay ‘Stop using our pictures’. Unless the vendor repeatedly ignored such a request, it’s not going to become a court matter. It’s also completely unrelated to whether the new buyer was genuine or not.

Precisely. It wouldn’t be back on the market now if the other offer had been genuine.

You might think that; the OP might think that; the agent might think that. If you’re suggesting the agent could use that suspicion to get any recourse, you’re wrong. They’d need to prove it.

@Vynalbob

You might want to read the fucking thread, you get the gist?

Maybe we are splitting hairs, but if this other buyer pulled out then they haven't got a better offer.

The EA won't want to take them to court, the issue is that when they sell, they are still technically in contract with the EA. (I'm sure you probably know this), but anyway I'd just do what you have to do & put it down to experience. You've done nothing wrong so fuck em, move on with head held high. Sounds like it just wasn't meant to be. It's shitty but it be that way x

Again, doesn’t matter. If they had a better offer, they had a reason to pull out - they don’t have to go back to a previous offer.

Case for what? The best the estate agent can hope for is to get them on breaking an exclusivity period. ‘But I found them a really good buyer!’ is not admissible evidence in a court of law. No one is obliged to sell their property, even if they offer it at a certain price and someone offers that price. They can change their minds at any time prior to final exchange.

But it is a standard clause in Estate Agents' contracts that if they find a buyer whose offer has been accepted subject to contract and who is ready, willing and able to proceed to completion. So the vendor isn't obliged to sell the property, but is obliged to honour the terms of the contract with the Estate Agent.

@StillCoughingandLaughing

It was not said or implied that being cross-examined would be a dramatic Rumpole-type event. Cross-examination takes place in small claims as well as larger and more complex claims. I did not suggest it was a big deal if OP were asked to potentially attend court. In fact, my comment was aimed at reassuring her, in response to her posts querying her involvement. I simply said that if she makes a statement then it follows that she may later be asked to attend court. That is her worst case scenario. Attending court is not the awful experience people think- particularly if you are speaking to limited facts and keep to the truth.
Nobody can second guess whether it will go to court or not. The mere fact of attending court is not an event of Rumpolean proportions.

I don't think OP needs to worry about what the EA can/can't or will/won't do. She simply needs to understand that if she makes a statement and if there is later a court claim she may be asked to attend. In between she can forget about it altogether. It may not even get that far. Most cases settle without a final hearing. And if it does go ahead it's really no big deal.
As a matter of principle, I would encourage the OP to make a statement. It doesn't disadvantage her and the only risk is that in several months' time she may be asked to give oral evidence about the contents of the statement.
In making that statement it doesn't matter to OP whether the EA really has a claim or what that claim is.

I would love to see an example of the type of standard clause in an EA contract that MoonJelly is referring to (I think some words are missing from what MoonJelly intended to write but I think I get the gist).

Has anyone got a recent EA contract lying around anywhere they can look at for the thread?

I have worked in the business but not since 2008/9. Any such clause must be a new thing since then.

Otherwise, afaik, anyone in the UK can pull out of a house sale at any time for any reason they choose and there is absolutely nothing the other side or either party's EAs can do about it. Would be interesting to see if this has somehow been formally tightened up.

Otherwise, afaik, anyone in the UK can pull out of a house sale at any time for any reason they choose and there is absolutely nothing the other side or either party's EAs can do about it. Would be interesting to see if this has somehow been formally tightened up

House buying in Scotland is different.