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Original poster

Have had offer accepted but vendor wants to keep on market - advice pleeese

54 replies

dustythedolphin · 02/09/2010 20:52

Our house is sale agreed and we have just offered on another house.

After a bit of negotiation we have had our, fairly decent (about 3% under asking price), offer accepted.

But the agent has told us that the vendor wants to keep the house on the market until exchange of contracts on the one we are selling

Has this happened to anyone else?

I have told them that its either sale agreed or not sale agreed. They cannot accept our offer and keep it on the market, so they need to decide. If they don't take it off the market prontio, then I am withdrawing our offer...

Advice pleese - can anyone advise as to tactics, as we don't want to lose the purchas?

I am not willing to play silly games...

OP posts:
Original poster
dustythedolphin · 03/09/2010 23:25

Chequered I followed your advice today and they have agreed to take it off the market - I will keep a close eye though (and may get friends to make some phantom enquiries) as I don't trust them...

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pluperfect · 04/09/2010 02:16

Well done. Do get it in writing and do check on them. Then you can name and shame the estate agents, who are the ones who would have to collude in the continued marketing (and who are the only ones you have any leverage over, unless you plan to drop the house to punish the sellers - because that's what could be at stake).

Original poster
dustythedolphin · 04/09/2010 10:25

Pluperfect - good idea I will e-mail them again and ask them to e-mail back confirmation

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PlumBumMum · 04/09/2010 15:27

Dusty you have the benefit of having a whole range of accents on mn, If they don't take it off the market we could all ring up and make phantom appts and waste a pile of the vendors time, he'll be begging you to take itGrin

Original poster
dustythedolphin · 05/09/2010 00:08

lol brilliant idea!!! Grin Wink

I have just lined up one of the neighbours to make a phantom prospective buyer call in two weeks Wink

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prettywhiteguitar · 05/09/2010 15:32

well I asked my estate agents not to put the sale sign up on our flat as we had had a sale fall through a couple of months ago, a week before we were due to move, after being off the market for 4 months I felt really annoyed at the amount of time it took the buyer to pull out.

Low and behold this one fell through when the first time buyer found out that she'd have to give up her job to complete her masters... so sale fell through AGAIN, this was after a survey had been done so I thought we were all go

Luckily had not wasted putting a sale sign up

I am going to be very cynical at the end of all this

pluperfect · 05/09/2010 22:12

Estate agents have still not taken their sign down at our old house, despite sale's having fallen through over a month ago. Whenever I pass it, I smirk at their dishonesty (we have moved on).

edam · 05/09/2010 22:19

Estate agents are cheeky fuckers. We had a firm stick a sign up on the wall of our old flat - even though we had no intention of selling and had not instructed them, they just sent some man round to knock nails in our wall without our permission (or the freeholder's)!

pluperfect · 05/09/2010 23:05

Shock at edam.

Did you wrench it off and stick it up the firm's arse?

edam · 05/09/2010 23:13

Tempting but it was a first floor flat so it would have been a bit dangerous!

Phoned them up and ranted at them to come and take it away. They didn't fill the ruddy holes they had left, though. (Couldn't be bothered to chase them on that front, had had enough of it and tbh the holes were the freeholders' problem, not ours.)

Original poster
dustythedolphin · 06/09/2010 19:40

Shock Edam!!!

I had heard about that kind of thing but didn't know it really happened!

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Original poster
dustythedolphin · 06/09/2010 19:41

Shock Edam!!!

I had heard about that kind of thing but didn't know it really happened!

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edam · 06/09/2010 22:57

Oh yes. The holes were still there when we actually sold the flat a couple of years later.

Original poster
dustythedolphin · 07/09/2010 15:40
Grin
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pluperfect · 08/09/2010 10:51

So, have you had your mystery shoppers call up and make enquiries?

Original poster
dustythedolphin · 09/09/2010 23:53

OOh not yet Plu, we have to make a 15,000 deposit (Irish law) first = was 28k but we negotiated down and so we can't relax until it is secured with the deposit. Once the deposit has been paid (next week) we will ask for a wriiten undetaking that it is off the market (see below Wink)

In a bit of a "waiting for the funds to be transferred across the seas" limbo ATM :(

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pluperfect · 11/09/2010 17:34

Oh, dear. Well, at least it is the weekend now, and your date of security is coming closer. However, do you know what happens if you pull out after the deposit is paid? For example, if they are still pissing about and refusing not to market the house, would you lose the deposit if you pull out to punish them pursue a better deal with a more sensible vendor/EA?

Original poster
dustythedolphin · 11/09/2010 21:44

Hopefully funds are being transferred on Monday Hmm

We insisted on written clarification that the deposit is refundable should the purchase not proceed for any reason. I think the deposit is just to show that the buyer is serious and not a time waster

Our tenants in the Uk have just given 2 months notice, so we are hoping that the sale of our house will speed along now, othewise we will have a mortgaged house with no rental income to cover the costs Shock

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Original poster
dustythedolphin · 11/09/2010 21:45

ps I had forgotten how stressful the whole thing is!!

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pluperfect · 12/09/2010 14:07

"We insisted on written clarification that the deposit is refundable should the purchase not proceed for any reason. "

Well done. You sound a sensible person, and the vendors ought to be pleased to be selling to someone so businesslike, rather than messing around like this. As far as I understand, the Irish market had been wildly over-inflated, and sales have collapsed, so I would not have thought anyone would be idiot enough to antagonise a buyer once they found one.

pluperfect · 12/09/2010 14:11

Sorry, that should read "rather than messing around like them ."

Original poster
dustythedolphin · 12/09/2010 18:19

TBH I think the estate agents are more anxious than the vendors, as there is so little movement on the Irish housing market, they must be desperate for some commission!!

Thanks for all your support BTW. After several house sales/purchases in the UK I now have to learn about the Irish system to ensure we don't trip up.

Also I am a wee bit worried that some local agents just don't like selling to "foreigners". I have an Irish passport, but they don't know that..

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pluperfect · 12/09/2010 21:43

Why don't you send the passport number with your next documents, "as an ID measure", to soften them up?

Good luck for tomorrow!

Original poster
dustythedolphin · 12/09/2010 23:20
Grin

Thanks :)

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Peppermint43 · 17/07/2014 16:08

Yes. This works both way. We took our house off the market for seven months and then the buyers withdrew. We have lost survey money and the house we are moving to.