duped by the house selling process

[COCO71]

I accepted an offer on my house back in February 2020. I was told the lady buying it had a flat to sell and that they were almost at exchange so it would be a swift sale. I agreed. Covid hit in the March and I hadn’t found anywhere so wasn’t in a mad rush. In the August I decided I didn’t want to lose my buyer so I agreed to move out and into my sister’s house. During this time I had not heard from my buyer at all, there was no pressing me to move out and I questioned this with my agents who say no she is pretty relaxed – she is renting in your road, I thought she must really want my house! Then getting fed up I start to push the sale of my place, telling them I want to move out and when will they get their exchange on her flat done as surely it should have happened by now? It was at that point as I started digging that I found out she was selling her flat to two people on a buy to let mortgage and that there was an issue with this! They tried to get the mortgage residentially at first, that was rejected, then I was told that involved in all of this was her agents (who were absolutely diabolical), the two vendors (who either have no business acumen or are dodgy as), their financial advisor, their solicitor and her solicitor (someone she got off the internet). They eventually set up a PLC to get the BTL mortgage but only applied in one name and not both (who the hell was advising them of the legal implications on this?!!!! or is that more lies?). So then they get their together and apply in both names which is accepted, but now the mortgage offer has run out! I only found all this out as I lost my back in October demanding to know what was going on. So her agents say now that’s all been sorted we should be able to complete end of Oct/beg of November. In the meantime I found my dream house and told the vendor's that I was about to exchange (which is why my offer was accepted). I started selling things, and dismantling stuff to make a head start. I set the completion date at the 27th November with exchange mid Nov. They were still saying that would be fine, and my agents too. Mid November came and went so I chased again and was told oh no the revaluation hasn't been done yet!!!! I was so angry, they hadn’t even booked it in. I said look I am going to pull out if this does not happen imminently. So I was then told it was booked in for the 27th November and we should have it back ready to exchange on the 4th December. I called on the 3rd to chase it and was told everything was in place, they have everything and the mortgage application was put in special post ready to be received by 5pm that day. Friday 4th December came and went, no exchange. I am now being told that the revaluation had been done and sent back to the mortgage company but it was put in the post and had not been received!!!!!! I was beyond fuming and feeling that I am just being lied to constantly.
So I am now at the stage of after a long year of stress and disappointment of thinking of taking my house off the market. I loved the house I found and it wont make one bit of difference to that end of the chain. But I feel so duped and lied to, I have spent money on solicitors and surveyors and yet no one can be held accountable for this!

Wow, what a nightmare!

What I'd personally do is tell everyone involved (estate agent, solicitor, your buyer) that if you haven't exchanged within 48 hours, you're not pulling out immediately, but are putting the house back on the market. And if you still haven't exchanged by the time you've had another acceptable offer, you'll be calling it all off.

Oh my this sounds stressful. Do you trust your estate agent who should be able to give it to you straight. I would tell the EA that you will take it off the market and put it back on with another EA later if it isn't exchanged in 2 weeks. They should be doing all the chasing, not you.

Its beyond stressful, I feel like every time I am spoken to they are just placating me, saying look youve come this far, you dont want to lose your house. I say well who the hell is lying here? Who is lying about why this sale is not happening. I already my agents if I lose the house I will pull mine off the market but by that time we could have completed. I think you're right, tell them im going back on the market within 48 hours if nothing happens.

Yep - if you really are on the brink of exchanging, they can pull their finger out and do it - nobody else wants it to fall through this far along either. And if they can't or won't, that suggests they're lying to you yet again and you're best off cutting your losses.

I was in a similar position when buying (first time buyer). We'd been ready to exchange for months, but the rest of the chain was faffing around endlessly and our sellers weren't prepared to go into rented. We told them we were looking at other properties, and it was now a race between us exchanging or having an offer accepted on a different house. We did pull out in the end and I don't regret it - we ended up with a better house and a simpler chain that all went through in 3 months.

they've realised that they can push you around and you will put up with their nonsense. The stories they tell you are probably not even true.

put it back on the market.

Honestly, OP, I’m sorry it’s been so miserable and stressful, but you did contribute to this, by not keeping on top of the buyer in the spring, and just going along with the ‘everything’s probably fine’ narrative for far too long. Fingers crossed for you on it all working out, but next time you’re selling, don’t drift along with these long, vague timescales.

@PowerslidePanda the problem is that those causing the issues aren't my end of the chain, and they are only affecting my buyer. She needs the money from that to buy mine. If I pull out she will still sell to them which i cannot understand why she is not fuming about all of this unless she doesnt want my house, but she got a big drop in price as there were a few issues with the survey. im so angry.

By the way - the money you've spent on solicitors might not be totally lost... You'd need to check their T&Cs, but ours charged us reduced fees for the second house, and the ones we're using for our current sale/purchase have a "no sale no fee" policy, so I think those things are fairly common.

I'd give her a deadline, if she wants it she can start pushing !

@KleinBlue Agreed, I have never sold a house a before so this is a lesson for me. No excuses but Covid also hit in March which has added to the delays. :(

Ultimately it's her decision -- maybe she struggled to sell and doesn't think she'll get another buyer. But if she's not prepared to apply pressure on behalf of your end of the chain, then yeah - she's at risk of losing you! Might be worth pointing out to her how much house prices have risen since February - i.e. if she lets this all fall apart, will she still be able to afford the kind of house she wants?

If I was you, I'd put your house back on the market immediately, with a different agent.

[quote COCO71]@KleinBlue Agreed, I have never sold a house a before so this is a lesson for me. No excuses but Covid also hit in March which has added to the delays. :([/quote]
Oh, I do feel for you, @COCO71, I really do. But just keep the pressure on another time, and ask a lot of questions about the exact situation. We also bought a house during lockdown, and were very anxious to keep things moving, checking with our solicitor what , if anything, was going to be possible during lockdown -- were we going to be able to exchange? would the seller be able to move out during lockdown? were removal firms working? was it possible we were going to end up paying a mortgage on a house we owned but couldn't move into etc etc.

I would say that you either exchange within a week or it goes back on the market.

Sounds like they've been stringing you along and you have understandably chalked a lot of it up to covid when in reality it looks like they are just messing you around at this point with all those lies I think I would do what Panda suggested in the first reply.