Revenge ideas?

[frustrateddad1985]

So long story…wife and I sold our house last May (2021) and moved to Yorkshire to a rented house whilst we found somewhere to buy. We found a nice place and put in a generous offer on it (which was accepted) in October 2021. We asked at the time “as a condition of accepting the offer, cannot be taken off the market, with no more viewings?” The vendors said they wanted to be fair to everyone, so let the viewings that had already been arranged take place, but no more. Flashforward to February 2022, and absolutely no movement at all. The vendors haven’t found anywhere to live, and we’re getting increasingly frustrated as our mortgage is going to expire. We called the estate agent in our February holidays (we’re both teachers), and we’re told that the vendors, who we’ve been nagging on and off for the last 4 months, have gone away skiing for two weeks. We had enough, so we pulled out. Ok and behold, three days later the house is back on the market for £45,000 more than our offer. Absolutely raging, not least because by this point we’ve spent over £1,000 on solicitors fees, time, searches, surveys, etc, when they clearly had absolutely no intention of selling to us and we’re just stringing us along.

In late February, being more desperate, we made an offer on a different house - not what we wanted, smaller, but then again mortgage prices had gone up by then, so we had to compromise. Flash forward to now (June 2022), and we’re not a step closer to completing. Know why? Some grown up kids are selling it on behalf of their parents, who are both in homes with dementia. The kids don’t have power of attorney, nobody knows where the deeds are, the owners solicitors went out of business in 1997, so they can’t be traced for a copy…all the while the estate agents are stringing along (“of they’re ob it, don’t worry!”, “we understand your frustration…!”) and we’re still without a home, and a extra £1,600 in solicitors fees AGAIN down the pan (approaching £3,000, all told). Add to this that we’ve lost a year of our life. Also, the first mortgage we got on the first property was £930 pcm, on a £385,000 house. The second mortgage was up to £1,100pcm on a £375,000 house (!), and now, having just made ANOTHER offer on a different house, it’s up to £1,270 on a £345,000 house. So these two *ts have literally cost us months of our lives, and tens of thousands of pounds.

Is there ANYTHING we can do to recoup our money, or even just make ourselves feel better? It’s seriously depressed both of us, to the point where we just don’t want to take any positive steps because we feel that it’ll all just crash down around us. Help!

Honestly you should never have pulled out of the first one. Both houses i have bought have taken absolutely ages to progress then all of a sudden it moves very quickly. 4 months may seem ages but its not unheard-of in normal times never mind with people being off with covid etc

Not much you can do now.

We spent alot on solicitors for twice failed sales and purchases too(above £1m value properties) and bought our current home using simply conveyancing property, its no sale no fee service. Honesty, just keep faith! Good luck!

the system is shit

I agree with pp.
Even Pre Covid, when our seller was moving into rented and no onward chain & our buyers were in rented so were chain free, it took over 3 months for anything to really happen and that was all very straightforward. You had Christmas & New year in that period, so a couple of weeks where people were off, and Covid going on.

A reputable estate agent would ask to see the P oA/proof that vendor was the executor for a probate sale so I think you would have a clain against the EA in the second scenario.

In other cases you just have to accept that under English law there is no contract until exchange. Both parties are free to pull out with no penalties.

Unfortunately OP offering on a house in October knowing that the vendors needed to find an onward purchase, was always going to be a waiting game. There’s no new stock that comes on from October till, say, March? When the daffs come out? And you can hardly blame them for putting the house on for more money once you’ve pulled out, as prices have continued to rise over that period. If there aren’t houses to look at, what difference does it make them going away for a fortnight? I hate to say it but I think you shot yourselves in the foot there by pulling out. If you’d have stuck with it a few more weeks they’d have probably found something.

I thought the OP pulled because the mortgage expired & it was no longer affordable?

Hatchyu I don’t know if that was directed at me but in the OP they say:

We called the estate agent in our February holidays (we’re both teachers), and we’re told that the vendors, who we’ve been nagging on and off for the last 4 months, have gone away skiing for two weeks. We had enough, so we pulled out

it sounds as if they pulled out because they were fed up with waiting, and not specifically because of their mortgage offer. The problem is in January there is bigger all on the market except the same old rubbish that has been hanging around for months. So I am not sure what good nagging the vendors would do.

The vendors haven’t found anywhere to live, and we’re getting increasingly frustrated as our mortgage is going to expire.

In late February, being more desperate, we made an offer on a different house - not what we wanted, smaller, but then again mortgage prices had gone up by then, so we had to compromise.

The OP also says the above though. I read this has the OP had to get a new mortgage which was more expensive.

Frustrating yes
But you pulled out

And no one died.
You didnt "lose" a year tho you did lose money , so yes annoying

Buy a new build?

The owners of property 1 didn’t do anything wrong in putting the price up by 45k.
If house prices have risen in your area it was a logical thing to do after you (not them) pulled out of the sale.

But if you read the original post, they hadn’t even started looking?? Also, delisting the house three days later for £45,000 more is a bit of a obvious sign they just wanted more money and we’re waiting for us to drop out.

Well considering we’re both approaching our late thirties and want another child, but not until we’re settled in a house of our own, we very definitely did lose a year, the way we see it! A situation which could have been simple and straightforward was manipulated and twisted against us. Honestly, I’m regretting posting this at all - it’s no wonder, with the state of some of these comments, that “the system is shit” (about the only sympathetic comment there is!). If everyone is just out to trample on everyone else, what good is ever going to come of it? Honestly it makes me despair.

I agree that it doesn’t sound like the owners of house 1 have done anything wrong. Yes they might have been stringing you along, but it’s far more likely that they just couldn’t find their onward purchase (you can see from other threads here that lots have had the same issue). The holiday could have been booked a year ago. And once you have pulled out of course they’re going to relist and prices have risen so not unreasonable to ask for a higher price.

House 2 is different and I agree that you’re not unreasonable to be annoyed with them!

Just read your update - you didn’t say in your OP that they hadn’t started looking, you said they hadn’t found anywhere which isn’t the same thing! If they really hadn’t looked at all then yes that’s annoying.

How do you know they hadn’t even started looking? Just because they hadn’t found anywhere does not mean they weren’t looking. There has been a well documented lack of good properties available over the last year or so.
It would make no sense for them to secure a buyer just to string them along. They have put their house back on the market immediately which shows they do still intend to move when they find the right property

The first vendors did you a big favour by taking the house off the market once you had made an offer. That was not in their best interests as an offer is not a sale - and many offers do not translate into sales.

The list price is irrelevant in many ways. If you have a desirable property, many people will offer over the asking price, especially in current circumstances. Homes in my area have been going for up to 15% over asking price after bidding wars.

Consider this - you’ve put your house on the market. It’s October. You get a generous offer, and you’re free to go house shopping. You don’t make a move at all on any of the houses you see between October and February. Admittedly there Christmas and Nee Year in there, but that still leaves 14-15 weeks to have a good look round. But it’s ok, because in February you’ve got two weeks holiday booked - ideal, that’s two solid weeks you can go looking at houses and try to find something you really love. What do you do? You go skiing instead. It’s screamingly obvious that they never had any intention at all of selling their house to us. We thought at the time “what would we have done in that holiday?”, and the answer is, we would’ve used that two weeks to try and find somewhere to live; maybe that’s because we’re nice, honest people. If we’d changed our minds about selling, we would’ve told the buyers, not just strung them along so that we had an offer in the bag just in case nothing better turned up. The fact that quite a few people here can’t see that is really, really worrying.

The offer we made them was very generous and there was plenty on the market in the price bracket that would’ve put them. Despite everyone’s assumptions, it was a very busy and fast moving market indeed.

You can't force people to make an offer on a house they don't want just because you want to move.

And after the last two years, damn right I'd be going on a nice holiday.

I also think you were too hasty in pulling out if I'm honest.

The holiday could have been booked a long time ago or very needed as a stress reliever. Also just because you are abroad you can still search Rightmove daily and book in viewings for your return. They are probably very jaded with the whole process too as have had the pressure of trying and failing to find a suitable property for several months now. Some people are fussier than others but that doesn’t mean they were manipulating you or anything like that. You’ve just been unlucky.

Or alternatively

You’ve put your house on the market. It’s October. You get a generous offer, and you’re free to go house shopping. You're obsessively checking rightmove and in touch with all the local estate agents but there's nothing suitable coming onto the market. Admittedly there's Christmas and New Year in there, so that could be the reason there's not much coming on the market.

But it’s ok, because everyone tells you it picks up in the spring. In February you’ve got a two week holiday booked - It's not ideal as you're going on a prebooked skiing holiday, and unfortunately that’s two solid weeks you can't go looking at houses. Then all of a sudden your buyers pull out. Arghhh nightmare. You understand they've been waiting a while, but you really want to sell. So you get in touch with the eatate agent about relisting. The EA has good news, in the few months since you sold property prices have risen so you put it back on the market for more money.

Then several months after your buyer pulled out they post a shitty thread asking about how to take revenge. Because it’s screamingly obvious that they regret pulling out of the sale.

There's 2 sides to every story...

My overall impression is that you are taking everything far too personally and making assumptions based on no concrete evidence.

The first sellers were advised by the EA they could market at a higher price after you pulled out. If they just wanted more money for their house they'd have pulled out themselves and just done it. They chose not to put their lives on hold and went on holiday. Doesn't mean they weren't checking Rightmove whilst they were away! You have no idea what they viewed.

You have chosen to not try for another baby whilst you're renting. That's your choice, no one else's fault. You haven't lost a year of your lives, that's over-dramatic nonsense. You've made a choice.

Mortgage interest rates have increased - very frustrating and more costly for you, but there's not a lot you can do unless you can up your deposit, extend the term or do something else. Are you using a broker or just looking yourselves? I don't think anyone could have predicted the turn of events this year on the back of Brexit and a pandemic.

Maybe now is the time for a review of your own strategy and to shake things up yourselves?

Oh and seeking revenge is ridiculous. You know the best revenge is to live well?

We had a holiday booked and typically out house sold the day before we went. It was fine - we trawled Rightmove etc in the evenings and booked viewings for when we got back. But we were lucky to find a place we love and since we did there has been nothing else here within our price range. I’m sympathetic but so many sellers now won’t even let you view until you have sold then you can’t always find what you want. But they should make sellers have a survey and everything up front and then the buyer can reimburse at exchange or something.