to expect house sellers to have a moral compass? absolutely fuming

[Itsonthestairs]

We sold our house earlier this year and bought another, our buyer are fabulous and we've had great communication with them throughout the process, the house we purchased fell through after spending around £2000 on solicitors fees and a survey, this was because the vendor didn't have the right planning permissions and refused to rectify it, therefore unmortgagable according to our solicitor (this was 3 months down the line). Obviously we were really upset at not getting the house but also the vendors attitude (its gone straight back onto the market and I suspect some other poor person is going to end up in the same position). Anyway onwards and upwards, our buyers are really understanding an said they will wait so we have been scouring the market.
We viewed one this morning - almost perfect, rang up to ask a couple of questions to be told the property has had an offer excepted already! ok why didn't they cancel our viewing then after me a DH arranged the morning off work to view it? their response was 'the vendors accepting viewing until the survey is done next week' this tells me that an offer must have been accepted weeks ago (its around a 3 week wait at the moment locally to get a survey). I'm fuming not only for us but for the person who has actually bought that house and is paying hundreds on a survey. I would never treat people or buyers of our property in such a shitty way. I know the market is hot right now but come on - AIBU expecting vendors to have some morals?

Yes it's soul destroying. You should ask good qualifying questions of the estate agents to work out whether it's worth considering or not from the outset. They won't always offer up the status of the situation.

It is soul destroying but when you make the viewing you ask has it got any offers on it so far?
also you could just make a higher offer

I did ask this and was told there was an offer on the table but its lower than what they wanted so were accepting viewings for the rest of the week before making a decision, turns out that was a lie

I remember when we were trying to buy our first house and we'd had the offer accepted and the survey done and I think enlisted the solicitors to do searches etc before finding out that we were actually in a 'contract race' with another buyer who were a week behind us and neither of us had any idea.

I stormed out of the solicitors down to the estate agents (about 5 doors down) and told them to tell the seller than in no uncertain terms we were pulling out and to shove their house up their arse (not my best moment but still!).

They had led us to believe that we were buying that house. All their communications to that point had been as if it was a sure thing, even to the point that the woman had been chatting with me about the decor and what she had tried in the space that hadn't really worked and given us ideas.

The British system is absolutely shite. We’ve been on the receiving end of it when buyers who haven’t got mortgages or indeed deposits have offers on our home.

Ah I totally feel your pain - we tried to buy a house, having asked all the right questions at viewing about PP etc, to find that the vendors had lied and there were huge errors relating to planning / use which made the property completely misdescribed. The EAs were complicit in this as they were made aware of the issues but re-marketed it without ammending the descriptions. It's shocking what people try to get away with - we also lost money on that attempted purchase.

I hate the way the market is at the moment. I only want to sell if we really can afford something bigger and better so want to find a house I like first, I've seen a few appropriate ones but they dont come up often, but the current market doesn't allow this you have to be sold first. So I end up going stuff it I'll stay where I am as i dont want to play this game

It's business. They may not have thought the offer was solid when you viewed it. There could be many reasons - main one, not putting all your eggs in one basket.

But it shows you that there’s always another property.

It is a jungle out there in the house buying world - I moved last year and the lies and inaccuracies just went on and on from the various buyers who came and went. Luckily the house I was buying was from a local builder who was kindness itself to me - my OH had just died - and he hung on to the house till all the chaos subsided. I suspect that he had know my OH professionally - he was a GP.

Honestly - it is simply nor for the faint-hearted. It is a dreadful stressful system.

You would think this would be the case - but no. Our vendor has lied about vehicle access (now sorted but to his cost albeit minor), lied about leaving certain fixtures, lied about moving his business away from what is now our private residence, lied about being ready to move out on completion (police involved and lock smiths), lied about the condition of the house and then got annoyed when the surveyor pointed out the various substantial failing (No earth for electric supply/ fuse box in shower windows to name a few).
Have been left with a skips worth of rubbish, and a house that I wouldn’t let a dog live in it’s so filthy. Don’t even ask about the state of the cooker. ….
At the original viewing in May 2022, it was clean and tidy🤷‍♀️

The issue with your first house purchase could have been easily resolved unless it didn't fall within the remit of the many and varied indemnity policies that exist. Which is quite rare.
Many solicitors/clients back off at the first sign of such an issue, when, if they had a little more tenacity the transaction might proceed.

Many solicitors/clients back off at the first sign of such an issue, when, if they had a little more tenacity the transaction might proceed.

Better yet, people could just get the right PP when doing work, or at least be upfront about it when asked at viewings. It's not the fault of the solicitor or buyer that the vendor has done something dodgy.

You viewed in may and have moved in already- that is an absolute miracle

I agree but the vendor refused to discuss possible solutions to the issue, it was like it or lump it! the house was in a conservation and area of natural beauty so I wasn't prepared to take the risk

wow that's shocking!
this is our 4th house purchase (3rd sale) and we have never experienced anything like what we are doing now, I can only think we've been really lucky in the past with decent vendors and great buyers

@Caravanheaven22 had the vendor not been such an idiot regarding surveys etc we would have happily completed within 6 weeks.
we have the new! keys (he was refusing to leave after completion) but are not ‘in’ due to needing urgent electrical works done to prevent a fire, and needing to fill a skip with his rubbish.
Did a site visit yesterday, apparently we pushed for a quick completion and shoved home out — I happily pointed out that the completion date was if his own choosing, so wouldn’t have been a surprise to him. Although with hindsight, I do wonder if he thought completion was when contracts were exchanged, and exchange meant exchange of the keys for the money- as he twice refused to sign the sodding contracts and exchange them.
Doesn’t change my thoughts that he was and is, an idiot.

@Caravanheaven22 sorry aorry sorry. Just seen I typed may 2022 - I meant March 2022. Still quick though seeing how long others took.

I’ve bought twice and both times it’s not been great. The first time the sellers used paper and tape to cover a rusted hole in a radiator and didn’t mention it. They told us they’d drained the heating system down for the summer, and luckily I found the hole by chance before we refilled the system.
The second time I think the sellers just stopped cleaning after accepting our offer. The house was filthy, and they were late getting out on moving day, which was horrible. We’d left our old house pristine, and then arrived at the new place to see them still loading the vans, screaming at each other, I was pregnant and tired and it felt like a mistake.

We made an offer on a house and the vendors accepted it before the house went to market. We informed the EA who marketed it anyway, forced the vendors to take viewings knowing full well it had an accepted offer in 'just in case'. It was unfair to all involved. Estate agents are horrendous and some have no moral compass.

@SBAM yep, I am at the ‘what the hell have we done buying this shit hole’. Desperately trying to keep in mind a picture of it looking clean and tidy….
do you love the place now? Does it feel like home?

Indeed. However, it is not always/usually the vendor doing 'something dodgy' it is often mislaid paperwork, timed-out planning issues, or the fact that the property is leasehold. All are easily solvable if the will is there.

We have often bought indemnity policies to get around such issues from sellers. Such is life, if you want the property badly enough(certainly in this market) then another £80 per policy is a price worth paying IMO, even if technically, it is the sellers' issue to resolve.

M

@Alphabet1spaghetti2 yes, it’s been almost 3 years, but it really only took a couple of weeks to feel right. Repainting the bedrooms has really helped. The decor was fine before, not old fashioned or bad, just not our taste but now the colours look better with our furniture and things. And spending time gardening, seeing the things I planted come up and removing the ones I didn’t like makes it more mine too.

@SBAM phew. And thank you. Fingers crossed this will be our final move, just need the electrician to sign off and then I can at least get upstairs decorated and start to move in. Skip filling, I’m sure will help with the ‘out with the old and in with new us’.

@Alphabet1spaghetti2 - snap! Absolute bastard vendor who left a scene of destruction and devastation. Too filthy to move into. Had to stay in a hotel. And there's water coming in through one of the bedroom ceilings.

We are just about over the "what the hell have we done" stage.

Some people are just shits @Itsonthestairs sorry that happened to you. We’re now in a lovely house but we offered on another on previous to this one. However, when we got the survey back there were about 10 pages listing all the faults! They included the fact the extension wasn’t attached properly, faulty wiring, two walls needed replacing, honestly I could go on and on. It’s now been on the market for about two years. We spent about £1k on the survey and searches and the cheeky fucker estate agent asked us for the survey!! We told him to do one unless the seller paid for it.