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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To pull out of house purchase as I don't like the vendor?

129 replies

BeepBoopBop · 23/09/2021 13:08

Way down the line with this, but sick of vendors miserable attitude & stroppy Whatsapps. I've moved heaven & earth to get this done in 3 weeks, my solicitor is charging a fortune to prioritise and it's one thing after another. Other houses have come onto the market since and this house was a knee-jerk reaction following a break up. I love it, but she is making everything so miserable.

OP posts:

SingingInTheShithouse · 23/09/2021 15:56

I'm a cash buyer, so no valuation or survey is needed. I'm not concerned at all about the condition - all work has been done properly by professionals. She had a queue of purchasers, but if I pull out, she's back to square one.

😱 are you mad

FTR the house I speak of above looked beautifully done on the surface. In fact, it needed a whole new roof & rafters, was riddled with asbestos & had a well hidden damp problem that was a huge job to rectify & that's just the big stuff.

Honestly, do not do it without a survey. You will regret it

KateTheEighth · 23/09/2021 15:57

I'm sorry OP but you are mad to buy without a survery, cash buyer or not!

Share the link to the house and we can play Spot the Problems...

Bluesheep8 · 23/09/2021 16:02

A seasoned house buyer would surely want to look around? And why no survey! Unless your best mate is a structural engineer how can you rely on anything?! This is all so odd.

A seasoned house buyer would also know at what point removals should be booked. Agreed, all very odd.

Original poster

BeepBoopBop · 23/09/2021 16:16

@AgathaX

It sounds like you're close to completion now. If you still want the house then I think you should just grit your teeth and see it through to get what you want.

If you don't still want the house and can afford to pull out, well then do it.

Don't be influenced by a vendor you're going to have nothing more to do with in a few days/weeks though.

I know. I should just put her rudeness down to a 'communications issue'.

To answer other questions, I have been buying & selling houses for 40 years - period properties, I would take a builder to check out anything untoward. This is mid-seventies and very well built on a good small estate. The vendor has spent about £60k in the last couple of years and I have no worries on the structure. In France, no one bothers with a survey - it's abnormal to have one and a waste of money.
Single lady owner, no bodged DIY, it is very nice & perfect for me.
My friend knows the house as I've said and she told me about the original buyer. The vendor has found her perfect house, she's moving areas and doesn't want to lose it. She just wants to book her removal people, but has an unfortunate manner. However, it's getting me down. I would be thrilled to have a buyer like me.

I've owned many, many houses and when I used to bother having surveys, there were so many caveats & get out clauses and get in other 'experts' they were a total waste of time and money. I trust my own judgement as to the build quality and have no issues on that score.

OP posts:

TheNoodlesIncident · 23/09/2021 16:19

@Bluesheep8

Why are people swapping contact details with eachother? That's what estate agents and solicitors are for.

I don't get that either. We only ever communicated with our vendors and buyers through our solicitors (unless we were face to face, like "Can I just have a quick look in the loft too?").

Why would you be directly contactable by someone who could be irrational or even aggressive? Losing a massive advantage, that.

I remember a bloke on Homes Under The Hammer bought an auction property he hadn't viewed. Martin Roberts was

Original poster

BeepBoopBop · 23/09/2021 16:25

All the searches were done immediately, no issues with land, no radon, no clay, building regs all signed off.

All this nonsense about 'it takes 3 months' a shit hot conveyancing partner would do it in a week. When I previously bought a property that I wanted and had to nail down the vendor and exchange quickly, I did the searches myself to save time. No building regs to check as it hadn't been altered, it was grade II listed and I took a builder to check the property over.
House buyers report was mentioned previously- that just tells you the house is worth enough for the bank to lend on. It's not a full structural survey. So pointless.

OP posts:

Original poster

BeepBoopBop · 23/09/2021 16:29

I know at what point removals should be booked. It's not my problem she's going to wait till exchange. I would do it now if I was her - completion is set for 7th.
I would exchange & complete the same day, but she wants me to exchange today so she can book her removals.

OP posts:

Ericaequites · 23/09/2021 16:37

You haven’t even been inside or smelled the house? I wouldn’t buy unless I had done both. I looked at a beautiful center hall Colonial with a suspiciously low price. It turned out a widower and his dog had lived there, with both of them peeing in corners. Fresh carpeting was laid over the damp subfloor, but the smell lingered. The only way to banish the smell would involve all new flooring after stripping to the joists. Not looking in the house is a huge mistake. You don’t want to buy a house with expensive problems. As Dad of Equites put it, “Construction always takes longer and costs more than initially planned.”

Plantstrees · 23/09/2021 16:38

I agree with OP that surveys are a waste of time and money as there are so many caveats. A friend of mine had his roof collapse due to a weak supporting wall and the surveyors were not liable at all despite missing the signs that would have been obvious to a builder. My current house has bulging brick work, picked up by a builder but nothing on the survey.

I also question the point of searches. If I know the area well then I probably have more information available than that which is shown on a search. My searches said there was no mains water to the last house I bought - obviously wrong as the previous owner showed me where the water meter was and I now get regular bills for my water!

Conveyancing can easily be done in a few days. Searches (particularly in covid times) and hopeless solicitors are the main causes of delays when there is no mortgage. As a professional we often exchanged within days of agreeing a price.

KerningBurnHole · 23/09/2021 16:59

I agree with about surveyors. Filled with so many caveats and disclaimers your best off using your own judgement and getting the relevant profession to have a look if you have specific queries.

I can understand the vendor wanting a gap between exchange and completion. Who wants to pack up a whole house and pay for removals without the guarantee that that the sale will go ahead?

Bluesheep8 · 23/09/2021 17:05

but she won't confirm her removals van until we exchange

She's quite right not to

Merryoldgoat · 23/09/2021 17:11

@BeepBoopBop

I know at what point removals should be booked. It's not my problem she's going to wait till exchange. I would do it now if I was her - completion is set for 7th. I would exchange & complete the same day, but she wants me to exchange today so she can book her removals.

This is unreasonable.

She wants time and is perfectly within her rights.

I had a shitty vendor pull out on the day of exchange many years ago. If I’d booked removals I’d have been in a right old nonsense.

It’s standard not to book until exchange.

ChargingBuck · 23/09/2021 18:08

I would exchange & complete the same day, but she wants me to exchange today so she can book her removals

ha ha ha ha no she doesn't.

She wants you to exchange today so that it's too late to back out without vast financial repercussions, when you finally view it with your expert builder in tow.

It's got naff-all to do with booking removals.

QueenBee52 · 23/09/2021 18:15

@ChargingBuck

I would exchange & complete the same day, but she wants me to exchange today so she can book her removals

ha ha ha ha no she doesn't.

She wants you to exchange today so that it's too late to back out without vast financial repercussions, when you finally view it with your expert builder in tow.

It's got naff-all to do with booking removals.

Ooh I agree 🤣

KateTheEighth · 23/09/2021 18:41

@BeepBoopBop

All the searches were done immediately, no issues with land, no radon, no clay, building regs all signed off. All this nonsense about 'it takes 3 months' a shit hot conveyancing partner would do it in a week. When I previously bought a property that I wanted and had to nail down the vendor and exchange quickly, I did the searches myself to save time. No building regs to check as it hadn't been altered, it was grade II listed and I took a builder to check the property over. House buyers report was mentioned previously- that just tells you the house is worth enough for the bank to lend on. It's not a full structural survey. So pointless.

Searches in my county are taking 40 days; searches in the neighbouring county (4 miles away) are taking 62

I'm very impressed that your searches were so quick

And lol at shit hot conveyancer

meadowbleu · 24/09/2021 15:09

I'm a seasoned property buyer

As others have said, experienced and hard nosed buyers don't let a stroppy attitude or a reasonable refusal to book removals without committment, affect them.

I'm not really sure what you want from this thread OP.

speakout · 24/09/2021 15:39

Can someone explain what a "seasoned buyer" is please?

I imagine someone who is buying several properties a year to flip?

I have bought 6 or 7 properties in my life, in no way consider myself a "seasoned buyer".

Tinpotspectator · 24/09/2021 15:55

I agree about the survey. We didn't get one on this house, because when we have had them on several previous homes, I have also found they say little of use, and are full of caveats and risk averse suggestions to get x y and z reports. Also they say things like "couldn't check x or y as carpet/furniture/whatever else was in the way" . These days I'd go with a builder, then get electricity and gas reports, or a structural engineer if I thought it warranted one. However, I'd never not see it in person.

Feelslikealot · 24/09/2021 15:58

I had a rude, nasty vendor similar to yours, we busted a gut to get the sale done bee they were threatening to pull out of we didn't. My hair was falling out from stress. I got the last laugh when he turned up at my house and wandered down the garden uninvited the day after exchange to find us ripping everything out of the house and putting it in a skip. He was very upset according to one of our neighbours . Maybe he shouldn't have been such a dick then.

Bluesheep8 · 24/09/2021 15:58

Can someone explain what a "seasoned buyer" is please?

Plenty of salt and pepper? 🤣

2bazookas · 24/09/2021 16:29

I have been buying & selling houses for 40 years

Then you know the score. so why ask the question ?

QueenBee52 · 24/09/2021 22:46

@Bluesheep8

Can someone explain what a "seasoned buyer" is please?

Plenty of salt and pepper? 🤣

Boom Boom 🤣😂

willrufford · 24/09/2021 23:16

If you have all the experience and skills you cite, why are you asking random (mainly amateurs) on MN for an opinion?

willrufford · 24/09/2021 23:18

Sorry @2bazookas didn't see yours.

Grilledaubergines · 24/09/2021 23:36

Did you have searches done OP?

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