Very pushy vendor!

[islandtime]

We are part of a short chain and our offer was accepted around four weeks ago. The vendors solicitor has already caused two short delays, once by not preparing any sales documentation for the first week and secondly for sending the incorrect freehold information and then not responding to a follow up email from our solicitors. Despite this and despite having only revived the correct title information on Monday this week and the completed property information yesterday I have had two calls this week from the vendor asking why we are not ready to exchange?!

Has anyone else experienced this?? I had to explain on the phone that our solicitors would need to check the information in the forms and do the searches etc, you know, the actual legal stuff, before we could exchange. It is a private sale so we are not going through an agent but he claims to be an experienced property developer.

Does he not have a solicitor? I would just refer everything back to your solicitors, and tell him to get his solicitor to contact yours. He shouldn't be pestering you direct.

I’d just tell them to keep their solicitor is check as they’re slowing things down.

We are in a similar situation, only now we're at about 10 weeks. Our solicitor has a number of outstanding queries which he claims to have received very vague answers to. The vendor's solicitor (seems quite pompous) is claiming that we're delaying and the vendor is now questioning our commitment. The problem is poor communication between the two parties. I would point your vendor to the gov web site, which sites the average turn around for house sales as around 12 weeks.

How did the vendor get hold of your phone number????

Communication for house sales goes through solicitor.

Don’t be bullied by the vendor. In a nice way just say you are a serious buyer and this is a big financial commitment you are taking on and therefore would appreciate your solicitor given the time to do his job properly.

Just tell them to direct their energies at their solicitor.

If they persist, call the Estate Agent and tell them their client needs to back off.

Thank you all for your comments. To answer the question about the phone number he has it because it is a private sale and we were introduced via a friend so we were in contact to arrange the viewings etc. I do think we need to stop that now and we should only communicate via the solicitor.

Our solicitor is aware of the situation as they have also approached her via their solicitor to push for exchange. I have no idea why their own solicitor seems to be encouraging this!

@mountains76 that is a good idea, I might do that next time he claims to be surprised about how “long” it is taking. I thought everyone knew that buying and selling houses is rarely quick and straightforward!

we were cash buyers buying an empty house so no chain and it still took 12 weeks for enquiries surveys etc and the legal bits

[quote islandtime]@mountains76 that is a good idea, I might do that next time he claims to be surprised about how “long” it is taking. I thought everyone knew that buying and selling houses is rarely quick and straightforward![/quote]
np. here you go: www.gov.uk/buy-sell-your-home

BTW, do you sense any reason for his apparent desperation to get this sale over the line? I think you are right to proceed with caution and let your solicitor do his or her stuff

I think it is simply because he brought it as an investment a couple of years ago and every month since the work has been completed it is costing him money. However I agree it does seem a bit desperate would be sensible to proceed with caution and not get rushed into anything.