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

In answer to your questions about withholding money from agents for the 'mistake"... nope. No way. Everything in the conveyancing process costs and you can't withhold payment or get any compensation for anything that costs or inconveniences you in the process.

We had FTB buy a house we were selling. They still wanted to move in before we could move into the next house. We had a 3 year old and 10 month old at the time. We just put everything into storage for 6 weeks and stayed with relatives. Two lots of removal costs of course. I think this is fairly normal though, especially if it's you putting the delay in, by choosing a house that isn't available for a few months. FTB's have their own reasons for wanting to move by a certain date as well....don't want to keep paying rent...differing notice periods...to start a new job etc, etc. So even if you had the fabled FTB, there's no guarantee this wouldn't have happened anyway. Just part of house-buying.

I’ve had a “cash buyer” that then decided to get a mortgage instead of using that cash.
I don’t know if the EA actually saw the cash (bank statement) but even if they did, there’s nothing to stop the genuine cash buyer changing their mind about method of purchase.

I can’t see that you’d have any claim against the EA - I doubt they signed an agreement to check the FTB status rather than accepting their word. Also, house buying has SO many potential reasons for delay that I would be surprised if any authority was prepared to say you WOULD have completed.

My completion on that property was delayed when the night before, my outside meter box was stolen!! And my buyer wouldn’t proceed until I’d found a plumber 3 days before Xmas 🙈 Didn’t see that coming!

It does sound rather as if you asked for “flexibility and no rush” rather than 30th September specifically. That’s pretty woolly.

It really is shit, and it’s not your fault that the house buying process is so awful!

Get back on the market. 30th September is still just 3 months away.

And my tip: don’t accept £10K under asking for anything, because nothing is guaranteed.
Only accept £10K under, is you are £10K over priced!

End of September is reasonable. I bought a house this day last year. Chain free we completed 20th sept. Honestly you are asking for a week or two extra. They are silly to pull out for that

I bought a house this day last year. Chain free we completed 20th sept. Honestly you are asking for a week or two extra. They are silly to pull out for that

We don't know when the sale was agreed, it could have already been a month ago or more

@AquaticLicence

I bought a house this day last year. Chain free we completed 20th sept. Honestly you are asking for a week or two extra. They are silly to pull out for that

We don't know when the sale was agreed, it could have already been a month ago or more

Oh I agree. But if they had to start the whole process again now then 30 sept would be optimistic at best

House buying can be complicated, I don't think you'll get any redress from the EA.

When we bought this house we were supposedly buying from people who were moving in with family, suddenly found we were in a chain though rather than buying they were looking to rent and it delayed us by 3 months (we were cash buyers). The vendors were the ones lying, they lied to the agent and to us. Only came out when trying to agree dates for completion. You don't know that the agent lied it could be the buyers.

I think you mean "chain free".

I can understand why you are annoyed as buyer who are chain free are given a premium which allows them to negotiate a better deal, which they did and under false pretences.

Perhap they had told the estate agent they were not selling, or maybe that the purchase of your house was not conditional on the sale of theirs.

\But I do think you are mistaken to believe that someone who is chain free can hang on longer, they may need to move to an area for work or school (many people move over the summer holidays to start a t new school in sept) or that a rental is no longer available to them and they have to move.

So either you go into rented in the middle or they do. If you do then you could renegotiate to cover some of your costs.

Or you put the house back on the market to find a buyer who can fit into your timeframe.

I'd be annoyed in your position OP - certainly complain to the EA but I doubt much will come of it unfortunately.

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

Interesting - we are going through a house sale/purchase at the moment and our EA has always been firmly of the the opinion that FTBs at the bottom of a chain do not get to dictate the speed of the transaction!

I'd ditch them OP and remarked. With things the way they are I am sure you still sell again quickly. Sales can only go as fast as solicitors and searches etc etc go so a set date with a chain would always have been out of anyone's hands- like upthread our buyer ordered searches 7 weeks ago and still heard nothing back. It took 3 weeks for a surveyor appointment from their asking- luckily no one is in any hurry!

I would tell your liars buyers they need tosuck it up and go into rented for a month you cpuld under asking on the basis tjey had flex as ftb. it's not your problem they lied.

Realistically we are end of June - even if the pull out they are not going to complete before end of August earliest on anything else... so a week or two earlier. And that assumes they find and agree a purchase this weekend.

Oh the typos!! 😖 sorry but you get the gist.

Op, you can complain but unlikely to get any money off as your contract will be for introducing a proceedable buyer which is what they have achieved.

If the 10k makes you feel the property is under valued then revise your price or pull out. When you accepted the price you needed to ensure the buyers would wait, if you didn't at that point they are also in a position to say No or pull out

FTBs are not always flexible...you made a big assumption they would be prepared to rent for another month. This is why people are reacting as you made assumptions. A chain is very likely to take longer so keep your fingers crossed that it take you closer to the 30th Sept. Your baby won't have a clue about the move so don't let that stress you

There are 2 issues here……trying to get compensation and then a oidu g this happening again.

I dont think you will get any compensation. The fact the memo of sale states they are first time buyers, suggests the EA did believe this and I would query what evidence they ask for in order to state this in a Memo of Sale. The reality is, that buyers’ positions can change…sometimes for example a cash buyer does decide to get a mortgage, even though hrey could buy with cash. It is especially annoying if you accepted a lower price on the basis of their buying position, but I think one thing is clear, that nothing can be fully guaranteed until exchange. Lots of things appear one way and later emerge to be different….the amount of deposit someone has, if they have a mortgage offer, if the mortgage actually shifts form in principle to an offer of loan for the specific property, length of chain etc etc. You cannot get financial cover for the consequences of these things. It is unfortunate and possibly wrong, but it’s how the market works.

Avoiding this in future, ask any EA you will use in advance, of what documentation they ask to see from buyers before drawing up Memo of Sale….do they ask to see the mortgage offer in principle, evidence of deposit funds, evidence of current address and ownership/rental status? Do they ask for written confirmation that buyers are first time buyers with nothing to sell, or chain free or cash buyers etc? Some EAs are more diligent than others.

And beware that when you accept a lower offer because the buyers seem to be in a strong position, that things can quickly change….but your accepted offer will remain. You can’t now ask for more money because they will need an extra 3 months to complete etc.

Agree that if the price is no longer right, you’d an pull out if you want to. However, compensation isn’t going to happen.

One of the things with housebuying is there are all kinds of twists and turns and you can’t mitigate fully against many of them. Doing due diligence and demanding your EA does specific things to gather the fullest info about buyers is all you can do, but even then lots of things can change….and you just have to accept it.

I completely share your frustration. In my experience EA’s habitually lie; it’s like they can’t help themselves. They even lie about the things they don’t need to lie about. On principle, I never trust a word they say, verify everything I possibly can direct with the source and ask for it to be put in writing, and cut the EAs out of the conversation as much as i can. They are a necessary evil.

I doubt there is much you can do other than complain and post bad reviews of them online, but it won’t get you anywhere. If you feel like it, do withhold part of their fees, and make them chase you for it. Argue your case several times and make them get angry with you. Then sigh a lot and Promise to pay, then just don’t pay. Let it go to a legal letter before you pay up. At least that would give you some satisfaction that you’ve given them a proper ball ache.

If you can be bothered.

Otherwise, just move on. Drop out of your purchase. Dream houses are often not as perfect as you think. Something else will come along. And next time, don’t be naive enough to believe a word the EA tells you.