Advice please: cost caused by seller's delay

[moniack]

Hi, I'm a first time buyer in London. BF and I had our offer accepted on a house at the beginning of Dec 2015. We were told there was no chain but the seller was very, very slow with providing legal documents (only got them by the end of Feb and still some outstanding questions). It turned out that there is not only a chain, but a very complicated one with selling two to buy one, family inheritance issues blablabla... The seller said twice that they were going to exchange but then later cancelled because their seller couldn't exchange with them that day. From what the agent told us, they missed the April 1st stamp duty deadline because of their seller's fault. They had to re-negotiate and their seller agreed to compensate for that. It seems that if we pull out now, it's going to leave them over a shit creek without a paddle. But both BF and I are really pissed off, they just assume that we are desperate and never going to change our mind so they would only exchange when it's completely safe for them, not to mention lying to us from the very beginning. We are now thinking of asking for a reduction, not a greedy one, just to cover the last two months rent, something 3k, less than 1% of the house price.

People who have sold houses before, could you be so kind to advise if it's a reasonable thing to do. We can afford to lose the house as we actually budged higher than this current house and the stamp duty thing may cool down the market a little bit now. But I don't want to create bitterness and worried they might accept and then do some damage to the house before they leave. (they seem to be quite selfish people judged from their behaviour).

Thanks again.

OP my post above was really to try to make the point that you don't know what issues you may cause, so I was challenging you being dismissive about multiple offers causing problems. Absolutely, your previous sellers could have caused you the same issues (they didn't as it happens) but you're right that's not the point.

You're also right that everyone should act properly and absolutely, sellers should act with integrity too. My point again was that just because you've been messed about, and the system is pretty rubbish, you shouldn't mess other people about - and you have done, knowingly (which is exactly that you were complaining about, irrespective of the timescales involved).

namechange, I really appreciate that what I did was not good form. But I think the current expectation is quite unfair to buyers, that sellers can put buyers "out of the market" for a couple of days then decline the bid, while buyers can't. Just as buyers don't just assume their offer will get accepted and start arranging things, sellers should't assume buyers would just go with their house without any second thought. Ironically, just because sellers assume that (and who can blame them if it's just the norm?), all the issues you mentioned emerge if the buyer pulls out.

There really, really should be a rule about how long after the offer is accepted it becomes legal binding. But if such rule doesn't exist I could only do what my conscience allows me, which is a couple of days, the time it normally takes sellers to consider the offer.

To conclude, what I did was probably against an unwritten rule, but that rule is unfair to buyers, and extremely so in a seller's market. However in our case, we don't feel that guilty as we told them about the situation, they accepted the risk, and we made our decision quickly.

Also, interestingly, this afternoon I had a discussion with one of my colleagues, who happens to be selling her house right at the moment. I told her about the situation and she said you really can't avoid it in London and what matters is the number of days for you to make your decision. And she thinks our time frame is totally fine. So it's really a matter of different opinion here I guess.

We'll just have to agree to differ OP . But for what its worth, I lived in London for a long time and I don't think location makes any difference to how you should proceed in the process as a buyer or as a seller.

I am SO angry.

We put in a offer on a 'no chain' house 2 months ago, agreeing for a quick, hassle-free completion. 2 months later, we now learn that the seller wants to start a chain, can't get a mortgage or transfer his mortgage without incurring £7.5k..and he now wants US to pay this penalty charge for him to get of out his existing mortgage!!!

We have incurred over £2.5k charges; mortgage arrangement, mortgage valuation, structural survey and solicitors fees..which we are going to recover through small claims courts against 'Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (CPRs) 2008' and 'Business Protection from Misleading Regulations (BPRs) 2008' - can anyone please advise?

I wish I could name/shame him, but I really don't think he feels any shame...asking us to pay his mortgage redemption fees!

Sorry to hear this OP but may I suggest starting your own thread as this is a Zombie....

Not op, oops Azura!

Sorry. Didn't realise it was a private / closed thread...posted here as related to the same subject and thought someone may be able to offer advise... obviously not!

Mn has some fairly daft setups and doesn't lock old threads. Understandable.

Have to say you are on to a loser though. Just say no and walk away. Sorry, but that's the system. No contract until exchange.

Hi there Azura,
There's no such thing, really, on MN as a private thread so we're not sure why you experienced such an extreme reaction there, sorry about that! However, as some of our lovely posters have mentioned you might have a better time of it if you start your own new post and ask for support there, just because it takes such a long time to get to your post. Really sorry to hear about your seller troubles.

This is a very old thread but Azura, I'm assuming you do have a solicitor working for you in this purchase? Tell him you do not agree to paying the vendor's early redemption fees and he will relay that to the vendor's solicitor. Seems a very odd request to make anyway, absolutely no obligation on your part to pay this. Vendor's choice whether he sells now or when the early redemption fee is no longer applicable but not something you should have to worry about.

Unfortunately, until you have exchanged there is no obligation on your part or the vendors to go through with the transaction. Plenty of people have lost vast amounts of money on transactions that didn't complete. There is a certain amount of trust involved in moving home, mainly that the sellers want to sell and the buyers want to buy and are committed. If you have ditherers and doubters there is always a possibility of someone changing their mind. Then there are people who fully intend to go through with the transaction but lose their jobs along the way and decide to stay put. Unless you have exchanged I am not sure how you will be able to claim back your expenses.