Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

Vendor threatening to pull out after 6 weeks

82 replies

AnxietyForever · 30/07/2021 12:04

So we've only just had our mortgage application approved on Tuesday, survey yet to be booked.
Payment for searches on Tuesday to solicitor (waiting for mortgage acceptance)

Vendor apparently really concerned it's taken 6 weeks to get to this point.

Given us 1 week for the survey to be booked via the bank or is pulling out.

We're FTB so this is all new to us, is the estate agent having us on or is this how is goes?

OP posts:

ShortBacknSides · 30/07/2021 13:41

So we've only just had our mortgage application approved on Tuesday

This was your error - why didn't you have an 'in principle' mortgage approval ready before you started looking/making an offer on a property?

NelleBee · 30/07/2021 13:53

Mortgage agreement ‘in principle’ is not worth the paper it’s written on. You still need to apply in full once you’ve had an offer accepted and that takes time.

NiceTwin · 30/07/2021 13:58

Blimey, some people get to move in within 6 weeks, granted not many but it isn't impossible.
I'd be twitchy if I was the vendor and probably opening it up to viewings again if that has been stopped.

You need to have some urgency about you!!

TakeYourFinalPosition · 30/07/2021 14:00

@NelleBee I agree that an MIP is essentially useless, but our complete offer took three days last week. We had to have the longest phone call ever to answer all the questions again, and the underwriters confirmed two days later, physical letter received by us and solicitors the next day.

And we didn’t ask for it to be sped up - I’d have chased if it had taken a really long time; but they’d said up to a week, which seemed fine.

Azilliondegrees · 30/07/2021 14:01

We ordered our survey before we did anything else - wanted to know if the house was a dud or not before I invested any more time/money

Nightmanagerfan · 30/07/2021 14:05

You’ve been very slow, I don’t blame the vendor for getting cross. You could have booked private homebuyers survey and started searches straight away.

NelleBee · 30/07/2021 14:07

@TakeYourFinalPosition That’s very fast - did they just do a desktop valuation? We had to wait quite a few weeks but most of the waiting was waiting for the survey/valuation, we got the offer about 3 days after that.

Lazypuppy · 30/07/2021 14:08

Yeah thats really slow! 6 weeks to even get the searches paid for?! Why are you working so slowly? Get the seqrches in and done asap surely, mortgage gets done as quickly as you can.

We went from offer accepted to moving in 10 weeks

userchange902 · 30/07/2021 14:12

So this happened to us as the vendors, we were extremely frustrated because we weren't told solicitors we're big being actioned until the mortgage offer was through, we accepted a lower offer on the basis we got moving quickly but they didn't action solicitors (and thus searches) until week 7, I was furious as they'd made it sound like conveyancing had begun.

Just to give you the other side, whilst it can make sense to wait until mortgage offer you don't have to wait, 6 weeks with no conveyancing is very slow.

Comefromaway · 30/07/2021 14:13

Are you getting confused between searches and survey.

The searches go via your solicitor. They take ages and should be booked by your solicitor as soon as you put your offer in along with a homebuyers survey of the house if you want one. Not booking them for 6 weeks is really not acceptable.

Then your bank/building society will organise their own valuation survey. This could involve a visit, a drive by or a desktop valuation. It's just them making sure that the house is actually worth what you are asking to borrow.

DappledThings · 30/07/2021 14:40

The building society we have go our mortgage with only books once mortgage has been approved. They've had updates every week

You need to book your own survey. Unless you aren't having a proper one and only going with the valuation survey which is never a good idea.

You need to let your vendor know you have either decided to not get a survey and will just be waiting for the mortgage lender's valuation one or get on with booking your own. It isn't your lender or solicitor's role to do so and you didn't need to wait till now to crack on with it. I'd be twitching too if you were my buyer

2bazookas · 30/07/2021 14:43

If I was the seller I wouldn't have waited that long.

Buyers needing a mortgage, should have organised the mortgage in principle before they make an offer.

www.bankrate.com/uk/mortgages/mortgage-agreement-in-principle/

2bazookas · 30/07/2021 14:47

@Azilliondegrees

We ordered our survey before we did anything else - wanted to know if the house was a dud or not before I invested any more time/money

Competent buyers would instruct their solicitor to make an offer subject to satisfactory survey.

TedMullins · 30/07/2021 14:57

Well I’m going to go against the grain here and side with you OP. I’ve just bought a flat - my fourth attempt. Two previous ones fell through because of Japanese knotweed which only got picked up on the mortgage valuation, and a third fell through because there was an issue with the other shared freeholders in the building. The reasons they fell through were totally beyond my control and in the first two instances I lost money on searches and a survey. By the third and fourth, I explained my situation and flat-out refused to pay for searches and a survey until the mortgage had been approved and offered. If the vendor hadn’t have liked those terms they could’ve walked away, but they stuck with me and now I own the flat. I couldn’t afford to lose any more money and personally I wouldn’t risk paying for non-refundable services until I knew the mortgage was in place with a firm offer. When I come to sell my flat I’ll make the same allowances for the buyer. I appreciate knotweed is a specific issue (and seems endemic in this area) but most people can’t afford to keep paying for searches and surveys if they have properties fall through for reasons entirely beyond their control.

readytosell · 30/07/2021 15:06

I went for a survey through my mortgage company and they booked it at the full application, not full approval stage.

It was a fair bit cheaper that way, but if they hadn't booked it until full approval I would probably have got an independent one given how long approvals can take at the moment.

userchange902 · 30/07/2021 15:07

@TedMullins the key as always is to be open and honest with expectations set at the start. If you are going to delay conveyancing until after the mortgage offer then it's important the vendor knows, not everyone has the luxury to take a step by step process like that, some have reasons to need a quicker approach, so give the vendor/buyer a chance to agree (works both ways of course). The issue in my case was I had clearly stated I was on a deadline and needed a quick process, they agreed and then didn't tell me until week 7 they hadn't even instructed a solicitor, not acceptable.

BlueSurfer · 30/07/2021 15:09

What searches and work has your solicitor been doing in this time, as I’d be going back to the EA with that to show you are serious.

Yes, I would also be looking to pull out and sell to someone else. Even though they usually seem to think they are a great prospect, the truth is many people are put off my FTB.

TedMullins · 30/07/2021 15:09

[quote userchange902]@TedMullins the key as always is to be open and honest with expectations set at the start. If you are going to delay conveyancing until after the mortgage offer then it's important the vendor knows, not everyone has the luxury to take a step by step process like that, some have reasons to need a quicker approach, so give the vendor/buyer a chance to agree (works both ways of course). The issue in my case was I had clearly stated I was on a deadline and needed a quick process, they agreed and then didn't tell me until week 7 they hadn't even instructed a solicitor, not acceptable.[/quote]
Yes I agree with this. I explained the knotweed situation at the very start and made everyone aware. If a vendor had said they only wanted someone who’d pay for everything immediately I wouldn’t have proceeded as it was a risk I was unwilling to take. But OP says she has been communicating every week, so they do seem to be aware of what’s going on?

userchange902 · 30/07/2021 15:19

@TedMullins I'm not sure if it's been clarified the vendor knew the OP was not starting conveyancing until offer, thus them being concerned to be 6 weeks down the line with solicitors only now being instructed. It feels like (though I could be wrong) OP has assumed it is ok not to have done, and the vendor has assumed it had been done by now. Rather then explicitly setting out expectations to one another.

2bazookas · 30/07/2021 15:22

@NelleBee

Mortgage agreement ‘in principle’ is not worth the paper it’s written on. You still need to apply in full once you’ve had an offer accepted and that takes time.

You mistake the point of a MIP. It's not a mortgage offer; its an informed realistic indication by the intended lender, what maximum mortgage they will offer that borrower, based on the borrowers finances. .From the MIP, the mortgage applicant knows what house price range is realistically within his reach.

ISaidDontLickTheBin · 30/07/2021 15:27

You need to book your own survey. Unless you aren't having a proper one and only going with the valuation survey which is never a good idea

Not quite true - you can book and pay for a 'proper' survey ie homebuyer report or full structural as part of the mortgage application with many big lenders. It can be cheaper than many independents but you can't choose the surveyor. Not great if the lender doesn't action the booking until after issuing the mortgage offer though!

pigeonhole · 30/07/2021 15:28

It's slow but this year has been strange , I was ages getting the survey on the house I'm buying because the surveyor was booked solid until the 30th June then had a 2 week holiday , it's been manic for many until the end of June and that's caused a few delays , I think the key is to communicate, tell the ea that you are really keen and the survey is booked , explain why the delay if there is a reason and ask the ea to pass this message on to reassure the vendor that you are pushing to move forwards as much as you can

Agadorsparticus · 30/07/2021 16:06

I'm surprised your solicitor hasn't asked for payment of searches upon initial instruction? The searches are the one thing that are holding things up at the moment so to wait 6 weeks before doing that was a big error. The mortgage application can be done alongside the conveyancing.

Thisisanartattack · 30/07/2021 16:24

Not all searches take weeks, where are you OP? Mine were back within 5 days.

Original poster

AnxietyForever · 30/07/2021 16:34

Ok just to clear up some points

Our broker said we don't need our own survey because the mortgage company will do one?

Broker also said not to pay for solicitor to do searches until mortgage was approved

Apparently mortgage has been approved subject to valuation which is what we're waiting on now?

Mortgage broker said we didn't need our own survey because the mortgage company will book their own (which we pay for)

Mortgage offer took a while because I was on maternity leave (back now) and needed a few follow up documents which took some time to be verified

Have I been given bad advice from broker?

OP posts:

Flip

1 2 3 4