Buying a house from divorcing couple...

[lucysnowe2]

Has anyone had any happy outcomes buying a house where the sellers seemingly don't agree on the sale? We've been trying to process a purchase since March and no joy so far. Firstly the couple couldn't agree on the settlement, and now the wife has decided to change solicitors (who haven't even been able to do anything yet) but hasn't, despite the agent chasing her multiple times. I feel sorry for her as its becoming increasing clear that she is putting things off as much as possible. On the other hand we LOVE the house and really haven't found anything that suits us nearly as much.

Fundamentally it feels like we are in a battle to see who folds first! (no chain, thank goodness.) Are we going to succeed if we just stick it out??

Not divorcing but he wanted to sell and she seemed reluctant. Sure enough after spending £££ on fees and survey they pulled out.
Another time also disagreeing couple - we waited six long months for them to find a house, only then would they accept our offer! They did divorce a couple years later - selling the house was the mail in the coffin!

Or nail, even!

Yes the house we are in now was sold by a separating (not married) couple.

She evidently desperately wanted out and he didn't. His mission in life was to make the sale/purchase as difficult as possible for all parties involved. Even the week before exchange he was being an arse about how much money he wanted to walk away with, resulting in him threatening to put the house back on the market.

We got the house in the end for the price we offered, I suspect she caved in, took a financial hit and gave him more than his fair share of the equity from the sale to be rid of him.

It was so bloody stressful. Even the estate agent told us (afterwards) that it had been a nightmare sale for them.

We are currently buying from a divorcing couple, she has already moved out with the kids, he want to move to a different city, so is keen to go to, thankfully they agreed to use the same solicitor, but it’s slow, my solicitor has sent the sellers info back twice as it’s not signed by both and they are very disinterested in the house so not very forthcoming with paperwork etc.
We are waiting for a report on the gas/electricity and may look to slightly renegotiate on price due to survey and lack of building control etc, but I think it might cause too many problems as he’s already unhappy about the agreed sale price, but we hope it will all go through ok, if he won’t budge on price we’d still buy it.

I tried to previously and would never do it again. Lesson well and truly learned.

We did. It was so bad I came out in spots. I don't quite understand what happened but I think she had to threaten court action in the end. Took a while.

That was in the days before I got old & jaded & know there's always another house.

Not a situation I'd rush to repeat.

Not buying from no, but our previous buyer was divorcing and downsizing. It took a while to establish exactly how long the chain was behind her, and it made me nervous of how long the chain could potentially end up. Was slightly relieved when she pulled out and we ended up with FTB.

I've wondered how chains work when you involve separating couples. If they are both buying new properties then does the chain branch off into a fork? Could be a nightmare.

I also think there is also always another house.

I have been involved (in a professional capacity) with parties where one had either a financial'/ emotional/; spiteful interest in dragging it out. Court action against the recalcitrant party is fairly par for course but takes ages.

Yes. Happy outcome.
But did take about 4 months longer than expected. In the case I am talking about, it was the woman who was being difficult. She did eventually realise and come to terms with the fact that she was going to have to move out.

Thanks everyone for your replies :) hmm it doesn't look too good does it? I am just wondering if there's anything we can do - feel so helpless! Would it be a good idea to contact the husband directly to discuss? I don't want to be underhand tho and for all we know he could be the bad guy in this situation. I'd rather contact her to tell her how much we love the house, how we'll look after it etc but that would probably be a bit stalkery:(

Yes, we were backwards & forwards with offer/counter offer and the couple couldn’t agree because they needed to finance 2 new homes. We were about to go on holiday and it all got a bit much so we said forget it.
2 weeks later I picked up an email while in Yosemite national park to say they had accepted our offer!
It was plain sailing from then on.