Pushy vendors advice

[becci28]

Hi,

Bit of rant (sorry) but also after advice on how to handle the situation.

Long story short -we offered on a property beginning of May 2022. We are in a small chain, our buyers are 1st time buyers and the house were buying is vacant. We’ve had some delays due to down valuing of the property but have all agreed a completion date of 22nd August.

Suddenly the vendors are messaging me daily on whatsapp and saying I’ve purposely delayed exchanging, not responding quick enough, lied to them about timescales and telling us how/when to chase our solicitors.

They threatened to pull out if we didn’t exchange Friday and then again on Monday (despite them only confirming the completion date with their solicitors friday)! We are only waiting for confirmation of release of funds from the bank prior to exchanging and our solicitors are confident monday is still reasonable to complete.

Today we’re had a message saying they now want to move a friend into the property for several weeks and therefore delaying completion if we don’t exchange today.
We both begin new jobs in 2 weeks in the new city so face a 3 hour commute 😔 They are making an already stressful process a misery.

Any advice on how I can handle them?

You can only emphasise that the exchange will go ahead ASAP with a completion date of 22nd, OP - tbh once exchange has happened it's a bit of a relief because you know it's all going through, so I expect the vendors are worried that you are going to pull out or perhaps request a drop in price (especially if you've already done this over the valuation). Hopefully it will all go through very soon.

Actions speak louder than words. Tell your solicitor to communicate with theirs about exchanging on Friday. Best not to liaise direct as it will muddy the situation.

Why are you communicating directly with the vendor?
Insist all communication is through solicitors or EA, it is what you are paying them for and will (hopefully) stop their silly threats.

Just let them know you’re committed to exchanging asap when your lender gives confirmation of release of funds. Pretty standard practice.

And this is why you should never deal directly with buyers or vendors. I'd send a last, polite message saying you've been advised that all future communication should be via solicitors for clarity and everyone's protection so won't be using WhatsApp to communicate further. It doesn't need to be arsey (however cross you're feeling!), just polite and neutral. Remember this is a business translation and don't allow them to browbeat you further.

The appropriate response is our solicitor has our instructions to exchange ASAP. Everytime they contact you, our solicitor has our instructions to exchange ASAP etc.

Why do they have your number??

Thanks all for the quick responses and reassurance.

I know I made a mistake and won’t be doing this again. They have my number as they wanted to send me pictures of some items they wanted to leave and emailing them across wasn’t working so they asked to WhatsApp them.

Won’t moving a friend in for several weeks cause an issue as you were buying a vacant house? What if the friend refuses to move on completion?