Estate agent blunder!

[Laura447]

Hi all, I wondered if anyone had any input on this or any experience themselves. We are in the process of buying a new house and selling our current house. The estate agents originally told us the people buying ours were first time buyers. It even says so on the memorandum of sale I have a copy of. We made an offer on a house we love and had it accepted. It was only then (after the sale of our house the previous week) that we were told they actually aren't first time buyers after all. I asked how this mistake happened but they weren't able to tell me since the estate agent in charge of our house sale has now left the company. Other than making me look a complete idiot to the estate agent we are buying a house from, this is also problematic for a number of reasons :

1. We sold our house at 10 grand below the valuation price because we thought we were selling to first time buyers and our sale would therefore be less complicated
2. We have had an offer accepted on our dream house but they are moving abroad and don't want to complete until 30th September.
3. The buyers of our house are having their home bought by a cash investor therefore they will not wait. We have been told they will drop out of the sale if we say we won't complete until the end of September as they don't want to lose their buyers
4. We will lose the house we want to buy if we lose our buyers so we can't just cancel the sale and find a first time buyer
5. We will have to put a lot of our stuff into storage and are lucky enough to be able to stay with my parents in the time in between our sale and purchase. It will be difficult with a 7 month old, (poor thing won't know if she's coming or going!) But it will save us having to pay for rented accommodation. We will pay them keep but not as much as rent would be
6. We also won't save money on paying the mortgage since we are porting our current mortgage to the new house so would still be paying the monthly mortgage as normal

My question is do we have a case to withhold some of the money owed to the estate agents to cover the money we have lost /charges incurred? If they were first time buyers like we were told we wouldn't be paying for storage and would've held out for a higher offer!
Thanks in advance for any advice x

Did the buyers lie to the estate agent?

Even if they were ftb, I doubt they'd want to wait until the end of September to complete. Did you tell them about this when they made the offer?

Your problems centre around you delaying the completion. It's not realistic to expect others to compensate you for your choice.

Did the EA know that they weren't FTB?

Did you make it clear when you accepted the offer that you wouldn't complete until September? I'd have thought that'd be even more unlikely with FTB... they tend to be keen to get in!

Hi both thanks for your responses.
We made it very clear to the estate agents that we wanted buyers who were in no rush to move (because we hadn't found a house yet and didn't want to rush to find something - but luckily we found our perfect house very quickly). We wanted first time buyers so they were able to just give a month's notice in rented accommodation so they were able to be flexible with the house purchase. I told the estate agent it could be a good few months before we find something suitable so they should have made the buyers aware of that but they obviously haven't.

We had similar with my Grandmother's estate after she passed away. The people who bought her house were allegedly cash buyers. They weren't at all - issues with their mortgage meant we went over the 6 months you get free of council tax when the owner dies, so we ended up paying months worth of council tax.

The attitude was pretty much tough shit.

You're joking! So annoying we have lost loads of money because of this! Sorry to hear about your situation x

www.gov.uk/buy-sell-your-home/estate-agents

Complain about an estate agent
You must complain to the estate agent first and give them a fair chance to sort out your complaint. If they do not, you can complain to one of the following schemes:

The Property Ombudsman
Property Redress Scheme
Ask the estate agent which scheme they belong to.

How much interest did you have in your property? Could you drop your buyers if they won’t wait and relist?

Thank you all, I will definitely take it up with them and see what they say. We are also a member of 'which' legal and will be asking advice. I will update once we get an outcome!

If an agent tells us about "cash buyers", we assume they're really not as more than once, a mortgage application delay has magically appeared.

Likewise, heard many stories of people underselling to nice people who aren't investing, only to find its rented out soon after completion.

It seems a bit backwards that you say you wanted first time buyers so they'd move more slowly. The issue seems to me that the buyers won't work to your timescale but I'm not sure you can argue that it's because they're not FTB like you were told. I think it's equally likely that FTB wouldn't be willing to wait until September either - how long ago did you accept the offer?

I wouldn't say it's backwards. They have no chain if they are first time buyers. Besides the reason we wanted a FTB wasn't so they would more slowly, it's so that it would be a smoother transaction. The estate agent told us they were able to wait regardless of if they are FTBs anyway

It's very annoying but I don't think there is anything you can do. The whole English house buying system is a nightmare.

The buyers could have portrayed themselves as 'nothing to sell' when they made their offer but You can ask your estate agents what checks were made at the time of offer: they should have asked to see the agreement in principle, or proof of funds.

There could have been hiccups even with FTB.

True thank you I will ask them! You're probably right though not much of a case probably!

Not the point. Regardless of pur reasons we were told they were first time buyers. The process is vastly different if you are selling in a chain compared to first time buyers!

I think expecting a first time buyer to wait until Sep is unrealistic, first time buyers are much more likely to want to move really quickly.

You’re the ones with the drawn out time scales regardless of what position your buyers are in, and first time buyers doesn’t guarantee a smooth transaction.

If you want £10k more for your property pull out and put it back on the market but you’ll still have your Sep date as an issue.

Guys why the hostility in this post?! I'm sorry if you don't think we should have wanted first time buyers or if you think we are being unreasonable to want to wait til the end of September (even though we made it clear to the estate agents that we weren't in a hurry and we needed our buyers to be flexible). The fact of the matter is we were told they were first time buyers and that they were very flexible which is why we accepted the offer they put in. If you don't think we have a case then OK thank you for your input but seriously, we are at no fault here! We have been misinformed which has lead us to a right mess!

@Laura447

Not the point. Regardless of pur reasons we were told they were first time buyers. The process is vastly different if you are selling in a chain compared to first time buyers!

Should be, but not always- last time we moved our buyer was a first time buyer and the people we were buying from were moving in with their daughter so barely a chain and it all still took months for various boring solicitors reasons.

The issue is people lie to agents alot. People say they're in no chain when suddley they decide the will add their property to the chain. That they are cash buyers to then change their mind and go down the mortgage route, or that they are cash buyers but its cash from a sale they've neglected to mention. If they proved their deposit and AIP the agent won't know that they were selling.

At what point did you tell them you’re not prepared to move until Sep? I think that’s more of an issue than whether or not they’re first time buyers.

If they knew this up front why are they now wanting to move quicker?

Not to mention that the sale isn't a done deal until exchange so you could have incurred these costs at any time. They could pull out for any reason that has nothing to do with the current property.

So sorry for the negativity in the responses.
I don't think you've been unreasonable at all in what you've asked for or accepted.
Just to consider: how long are searches taking? Round here it's 4 months. I wouldn't take too much slack - they've had it 10k off. If it sold quickly once it will do again and you might get that 10k back.

It's not a blunder, the agents lied. I've seen this before - FTBs who aren't, 'chain free' buyers who, once you're a bit down the line turn out to be selling a property, 'cash buyers' who turn out to be applying for a mortgage. Agents will say anything to get a sale moving.

How far on are the surveys/ searches etc? If your buyers haven't started them yet, then end of September is probably about right for completion.
I know it's possible to complete in 6 weeks but that's a rarity, most house sales are at least 4 months from start to end.

I don't think you'll get far but you could ask them to compensate you.

Personally if you really want a FTB I'd put it back on the market.