Buying from a separating couple

[sillybut]

Has anyone been in this situation?

We have fallen in love with a house, made an offer and its been accepted by both vendors.

The vendors told us they were moving for more space. It now turns out that they were moving for more space FROM EACH OTHER.... and he's desperate to sale and she's equally desperate not to.

I understand her point of view as the children are hers so she's got to find somewhere to live with them and he'll be going off single with some cash in his pocket. There is some kind of trust deed on the property and I suspect they put differing amounts in and its quite possible put in most so will get most back.

Now they've instructed different solicitors and the estate agent has told us today that she's not told him who her solicitor is (despite him emailing and phoning) so he can't issue a memorandum of sale...

We should run a mile shouldn't we?? But we love the house - it ticks practically every box we thought of and a couple we didn't.

I feel really sorry for her, it must be horrible especially with children.

We are cash buyers, not in a chain and have some flexibility so could for example offer a quick exchange and an extended completion period to give her some extra time to sort things out. What we will not do is buy and rent back as we don't want to be landlords let alone the prospect of an eviction process.

My gut feeling is we are going to have to start looking again and I should stop mentally moving into this house

there seems to be a positive step forward.

The estate agent emailed us this morning to say that she's had an offer accepted on a property with no chain so now got fingers crossed that does not fall apart.

So far a little less complicated than I expected but we shall see. I have been stung in the past so am trying to view it as a commercial transaction rather rather than get emontional about it I really must stop planning where I'm going to put the furniture

Well yesterday their solicitor contacted ours. Female vendor put in an offer on a property but they're for some reason or other they're demanding a very fast completion by her as part of the deal so all of a sudden they want us to exchange on 16th July and complete on the 30th. We've had email from her ex confirming the same and asking if we want to buy the sofa!

Can't believe it, daring to get excited but still have that feeling of unease which I think comes with every property transaction.

Our solicitor seems happy enough about it although there are a few minor technical queries we need to raise.

Luckily sellers'' solicitors seem quite efficient and sent out contract and other paperwork at the end of last week. We've got no mortgage company to deal with which should speed things up. Our surveyor is going in tomorrow so hopefully nothing serious.

Seems quite a thing to be moving from resistance from one of the sellers to being chased to hurry up. As long as no major issues arise from queries and they're really serious I think its all doable.

Still half expecting it to rebound in some way.. .we only put offer in on 4th June, it seems to be moving almost too quickly when I'd resigned myself to a long and miserable wait

I had a similar situation. Offer accepted on a house I loved in early Jan, vendors were divorcing couple.

Wife and adult children were still living there, husband had moved out. I was told they were both in agreement and wife was going into rented to speed up sale. Initially everything seemed ok, although negotiation took ages as EA had to go back to both separately. However, then everything went a bit weird, EA said vendor would not communicate anything through him, everything had to be their solicitor. Then her solicitor stopped answering. After about a month of this they pulled out, 3 months after sale had been agreed and when I thought we were close to exchange.
Apparently the wife had managed to get a mortgage to stay - no idea why she didn't look into that in the first place!
3 months and £1500 pounds in survey and solicitor fees wasted and not even an apology. It could have been a lot more but fortunately I have made the stamp duty holiday on a new property by the skin of my teeth, supposed to be completing Friday.

So my advice is stay well away, I will certainly not buy from someone in this situation again.

I sold a house when divorcing and both me and my ex were keen to sell and move on. Yes it could be tricky if one party is trying to delay the sale but that is definitely not a given.
I'd rather by a house from people divorcing than from someone who has done it up to sell (where everything has been done on the cheap) and at least you know that is the reason for the move, not awful neighbours or similar