Almost seven months into a sale - a week after we agreed to exchange - the buyer’s bank have flagged an “issue”

[Suitcasesuitcase]

We accepted this offer almost seven months ago. It has been an endless, tortuous sale with excruciatingly slow back and forth from their solicitor. We have threatened to ditch these buyers twice, but haven’t because of promises that an exchange could happen “next week” if we just hang on (those “next weeks” were months ago).

We finally agreed on a completion date (end of this month). Every day last week we were supposed to exchange.

At 5:30pm on Friday, we discovered exchange won’t happen because the buyer’s solicitor said the lender’s legal department have flagged a problem that the solicitor has answered and now they have to wait for the bank to okay it all. My experience with these buyer’s solicitor says to me that no completion will happen this month.

How is it that the bank - SEVEN MONTHS after we accepted their offer - have JUST flagged an issue?!

And what kind of issue would it be anyway?!

Not completing this month is going to have a bit of a disastrous financial impact for us. I don’t know what on earth to do.

Jesus, this sounds like a nightmare.

Pulling out and finding a short term tenant is a good idea.
I'm in the process of buying a house which has a tenant in it, they have been given a date their contract ends and I was advised of this by the EA. It means I have to wait a few months but it works out well for me as it gives me the time I need to sort things on my end. I'm sure you can do monthly rolling contracts so it you get a tenant in you would just have to give them 4 weeks notice (I might be wrong but I rented on this basis previously, not sure how things have changed).

Air bnb is also a good option, I have a friend who does this and rents her place out a week at a time. It's a bit riskier but it could work.

This whole thread is giving me anxiety with the thought of what could go wrong in the next few months while my purchase is going through 😬

OP many lenders will not lend on a property that has tenants in it, so I would be very wary of renting!

This is such a frustrating situation for you. I really hope you either get a miracle with your buyers and the complete & exchange this week, or you get lovely cash buyers

So frustrating for you OP. You should certainly be requesting your mortgage is paid. I would also ask the EA to value your property again (and have several others in). Tell them you expect to be relisting within the week. Your house will have risen in price over the last seven months that any cost incurred should be covered by the increase. Lose the muppet buyers!!

I’m in the industry and this sounds pretty normal for residential sales right now and the timing is right for a lender to raise queries and timescales for requesting funds. Doesn’t mean it’s good or hasn’t been stressful but is the reality of what the last 2 years has caused for house sales. My instinct is it was slow going for months (most likely due to crushingly high workloads at the mo and covid spikes in Feb/March in offices made that worse), trudging along and has now been pulled together and reported to lender, as is normal when right at point of being ready to exchange.

7 months sounds bad but the circumstances you decided to sell in were really unusual and so many sellers forget that, we are coming out of a pandemic where the housing market has been nuts for 2 years - the industry is at pressure cooker point and you joined the back of a queue on it, it was always a timescale gamble.

The comment that needed to exchange Monday to complete by end of May is to be realistic on fund requests for lenders, many require a clear 5 day gap between exchange and completion.

If it’s a mortgage offer issue then get that confirmed. If it isn’t then likely something that can be sorted and then can all crack on with proceeding etc, not much that can’t be sorted somehow to get passed a lender just takes a bit of to/fro.

Whilst would have been good to happen quicker, there is a good chance you are now close to exchange/completion and about to walk away simply due to lack of clear communication and your solicitor not being clear enough in explaining what is happening and what is usual at this point etc.

Your buyers quite possibly feel same frustration with it as you too

Can you put it back on the market tomorrow whilst buyer is pissing around? Sounds like a nightmare!

This sounds like so many of the issues I had when selling my last property, even down to the buyer being given the money from parents! They wanted a deed of variation as the loft space (maisonette) wasn’t specifically mentioned in the lease even though access was only via our flat internally-I said I wouldn’t do it and in the end I agreed a small reduction on price to reflect that but only because their offer was well over asking price. I wasn’t happy about it TBH but the EA did say to look at the overall price achieved that was still above average for the road I lived on.
in this case I would honestly pull out and either get the EA to chase up the cash buyer or pull out as your buyers have failed to progress the sale. You have to remember the EA at this stage is acting solely for themselves as they have done their bit and don’t want to do it again, but you need to act for you.

worst case, air bnb it don’t get tenants in as you have so many more legal responsibilities then, I’m not sure if it’d be legal to get a lodger in, I know dependant on location (London-big cities) lots of people have a lodger during the week for work reasons.

I hope you put the property back on the market today

Did you get any further ?

Still no further! The EA says the buyer is chatting to their their partner, our solicitor is trying to find out why the lender has flagged an issue. If the bank does require a deed of variation, the sale is also off because I don’t want another six weeks and all that faff.

I have decided I’m not going to put it back on with the current estate agent though. I told them if I don’t get a resolution by 5pm today it’s off the market while I decide what to do next.

I’m going to look for another EA who will be more assertive! And I think next time a cash buyer only.

I’m still pretty devastated, but feeling more at peace with it and starting to work out ways (Airbnb / short term tenant) that I can not lose a fortune on it being empty! Thank you for that advice.

I will report back at 5pm. I hope it’s with some good news! But I suspect there’ll be “no news” which means it’s off the market while I consider which EA to use instead.

As I said up thread you need to find out what the management fee/rent charge clause is on your TP1 form.

if the wording isn’t quite right all lenders will need the DoV. I’ve spoken to over 20 lenders in the last week on this issue for a client. They’re not accepting indemnity insurance for this at the moment as the risk to the lender is too big.

We’re shared freehold but we do pay a management company - would this still apply? I will look at our TP1 form now!

Okay so our EA just called back and after I told him that he needed to tell our buyer to tell their agent to find out exactly what was happening as a matter of urgency - sit on the phone with the bank for as long as it takes.

Apparently there was a miscommunication at Barclays and there’s no issue 🤯 I mean, WTF?!? I wonder if these purchasers like torturing us?!?

The EA rang DH and not me. And he said in that case we sign TODAY, no messing, and if the completion goes into June we need our mortgage paid. The end.

They’re going to call back at 3:45.

I swear I have acquired a chunk of new grey hairs that I didn’t have on my (already greying!) head over these last few months!

Can you even believe it? A miscommunication?!?!

I'd be wary of trusting the estate agent, personally I'd get my solicitor to double check with their solicitor. Really hope you get a good outcome 🤞

Sounds like your buyers solicitor is stalling.

In regards to the DOV and the lease etc, the lender aka Barclays only finds these things out when the solicitor tells them, they do not go digging for information, the solicitor tells them about whatever issues they've found and asks the bank if they're ok with it. If they're not, this is additional paper work is asked for.

Hope you get to exchange today!

Yes totally.

the management company have a right to repossess over non payment of management fee and if this isn’t worded correctly it means the lender doesn’t have the first charge (first in line for repossession on non payment)

Our buyer has got back saying that they are going to make it happen today with completion May 31 - but we now can’t get hold our our solicitor to find out if it is going to! Hopefully because he’s on the phone to theirs….

It’s nerve wracking! It’s 4:35pm! Ahh!

Bloody hell you need shares in L'Oréal or a large

@Suitcasesuitcase good luck op. I hope it all goes through.

OMG. Poor you OP! Agh!! Fingers crossed for you!!

I’m STILL waiting to hear back!!! 🤪 No one is answering the phone!

Wow fingers crossed for you!

Any news?!? Been keeping everything crossed that it is resolved

We’ve EXCHANGED! And completing on May 31!

I honestly don’t think this would have happened if I hadn’t taken your advice and gotten pushier! I know that asking for our mortgage payment / increasing the price if it went into June made them get on with it.

THANK YOU, Mumnset!!

Oh my god that is absolutely AMAZING!!! Many congratulations - time to open the bubbly!!

Congratulations!! Don't forget to update with the housewarming party details!!