love the house, hate the estate agents #2

[drxerox]

So, further to my previous thread, we have received the sellers letter, which is good! The hassle now is that the vendors will deal with us only via the EAs, which is fair enough I suppose, but we have a few fairly simple questions, such as - there is a locked narrow passage running along the side of this house, and round the back. Who does it belong to? The EAs don't know, and won't ask the vendors, referring us to our solicitors. Is it normal to be so awkward? The emails that we get from the EAs are unhelpful, to the point of being rude, apart from one of the partners, who friendly, but not helpful.

In all of our previous house buys, we have met the vendors, which makes things so much more easy. Have we just been lucky, or is this situation as unusual as I think.

We've just moved and had a similar experience. Never met the vendors, so all the questions and negotiations took ages through solicitors and estate agents. I think your question about the passage is best handled through a solicitor though - you won't really know the answer until you see the documents from the Land Registry.

It sounds like your EA is being particularly difficult, but if i were you irrespective of what they tell you the situation is with the passage way; i would want a lawyer to check out ownership and also if anyone has rights to use if!?

To be fair to the agency, after an offer is accepted it is usual for all questions to be filtered between the two lawyers. Rarely do a seller and buyer communicate directly (and the relationship often turns sour if they do, so the agent will discourage it) and the agent won't want to give you any information during your conveyance case they make a mistake and get sued. Just send all the questions through your lawyer - that's what they're paid for.

yes i'm afraid our lawyers talked. not the ea. they didn't get involved much after the offer was accepted. they're really like a dating agency - introductions, and then leave you to get down to business.

It's best to get anything in writing, even if it seems trivial, so go through your solicitor. They will ask standard questions, but I'm sure would be happy to put a number of other questions forward (we have a couple ourselves we want to know on our purchase).

as this question needs to be answered correctly (in fact most do) it needs to go via the solicitors. Your solicitor should get the questions out in writing within a couple of days, and the vendor's solicitors should respond equally quickly once the vendors have answered.

any service slower than that, complain like hell.

A lot of Vendors will only talk to their purchasers through the Estate Agent. Primarily because they are paying them a lot of money for the service, but also to distance themselves from their buyers in case it becomes personal.

If I were you, I would go though your solicitor now. The Estate Agent is not working for you, therefore are unreliable as far as you are concerned (most agents are helpful, but if you get one that isn't there isn't a lot you can do about it).

Also with something specific, such as which property a passageway belongs to, it is better to get legal verification via the solicitor anyway. With the agent, it will just be heresay-just what the vendor has verbally told them. You need it legally verified.

Thank you all so much for your responses, they've been so helpful and given me some perspective on it all. We've always discussed the house we've been buying with our vendors, and it's never been a problem, but obviously we've been lucky.