Would you pull out of this sale?

[Trainfromredhill]

House ‘sold’ in early June- went to closed bids. 4 offers, lowest and highest chain free. We went for the highest. Was considerably over guide price (3 of the 4 were over guide price). Was assured they wanted a quick purchase- they were in rented. Mortgage and searches all done within 6 weeks. As far as we were concerned we were ready to exchange, and by this time we had moved out. 2 weeks later they announced they were booking their structural survey!!! I’d presumed they weren’t having one as it hadn’t been mentioned before. 10 weeks on from the offer the survey gets done, then they want a full heating and electrics survey. All done, few issues raised, conversation with EA along the lines of ‘you might need to accept a reduced offer’, but nothing official. Multiple emails from us begging for an exchange date……there is no reason to hold up any longer……but then there is. The buyers have equity in another property, they need this money to buy ours. The equity transfer hasn’t been completed. It’s going to be ‘a few weeks’. So they aren’t and never were chain free. The purchasers have also written to our EA telling them not to contact them for the next 10 days as they are ‘very stressed and on a holiday we really need’ and don’t want bothered with the purchase over this time. Im stunned with the breathtaking arrogance. DH thinks they are going to reduce their offer at the 11th hour and wants to pull out of the sale now and restart the process with a different EA. I think we should hang on for a month with the deadline to exchange in 3rd week of sept with completion within a week and inform the EA that if reduction in offer is mentioned we’ll pull out. I think both the EA and purchaser have behaved appallingly but pulling out now is potentially more stress and hassle for us than hanging in there. Thoughts?

They have lied to you by claiming to be chain free when in fact they now reveal they have a property to sell. They delayed requesting survey to gain additional time. They offered over asking price but now seem set on reducing their offer. Now they are going on holiday to play for more additional time. Your DH is right to see through their game playing. I would withdraw property from EA and market it with different EA under strict orders to vet any potential buyers. Or you could go back to one of other offers to see if they are still interested. I could not trust this pair now and would not sell to them in case they pulled out at eleventh hour.

It didn’t read to me that they have a property to sell, but that they own another property that they are in the process of re-financing to get all the funds to to buy OPs house.

Still pretty shitty and doesn’t sound like they were initially upfront about how they were funding the purchase.

Also there’s a limit to what the EA can verify when it comes to proof of funds.

Say the purchase price is £100k, and the buyer can produce a mortgage AIP from Halifax for £70k and a bank statement with £30k in it, all would seem fine.

then when the full mortgage application goes ahead Halifax decide they’re only prepared to lend £50k. The buyer then decides to re-finance another property they own to make up the £20k shortfall.

would the EA be at fault in this situation?

@Mildura i understand that situations can change, but I don’t believe that the EA doesn’t know what’s been going on and has chosen not to tell us. He has claimed to see the money in their bank account. He hasn’t, because it simply isn’t there. it’s tied up in another property that one of the couple co-owns with a relative and the relative is (apparently) buying them out.

Fair enough, that is completely unacceptable.

They sound like they have acted very poorly and it beggars belief why the EA would claim to have seen proof of funds when they actually haven’t.

unbelievable

i hope you manage to get things sorted soon..

The boiler's a red herring, I think. The boiler is one of the things you make a point of asking about and seeing during a viewing - I remember getting annoyed on one EA viewing as the EA hadn't the foggiest how old the boiler was!

If it's over a certain age, then assume it will need replacing sooner rather than later.

But it is in the EA’s interest to actually sell the property and receive his commission! He will also lose out if chain collapses

If I were you - I would get the full low down on the SS.

Because it would seem to me that since that SS - there has been a very real shift in both their interest in the property and also their financials.

if i would hazard a guess it would be that the SS frightened them, and they now need to release other funds in order to make the changes they wish to following the SS.

in your shoes, I’d be asking for sight of the SS

How’s it going ?

@Paranoidandroidmarvin …..well…..it’s all come out in the wash today.
last week we emailed the EA telling them to contact all the previous bidders (who are now all conveniently locked into other purchases) and put the house back on RM. which they did, but only so far as taking off the Sold STC. They didn’t put it on as a ‘new’ property . I know this because I get alerts from RM every 24hrs for all the new or reduced properties and our house didn’t pop up. We also gave them a date next week to have exchanged by. Then we realised we didn’t want the house on with them because then we’d be stuck with selling with them so told them to take it off, reiterated exchange date and said any hint of reducing the offer will be met with a withdrawal from the sale. All emails from the EA have been very ‘yes sir, no sir’. They have totally screwed up and they know it. Today groveling phone to apologise that they knew from the start there was a 3rd party financial transfer of money tied up in another property involved AND they have never seen the funds in the buyers account, only in the account from which the transfer needs to come. They are clearly in huge breech of contract and they know it. Meanwhile we’ve been in touch with other EAs so we can move quickly if they don’t exchange. They buyers know nothing about any of this as no one -the EA or their solicitor has dared to interrupt their ‘much needed holiday’.

I'd be fuming I hope both you and the ditched buyers both report them to the ombudsman 🤬

@RandomMess they aren’t ditched yet. They have until next week. They buyers were totally in on it. The reason the survey was delayed and then they asked for more surveys was a buying time tactic. I have no idea why it’s so complicated- we sorted the finances for our recent purchase within 48 hrs. But yes, we will be reporting them formally.

Bloody hell that's atrocious. I'm glad you finally know though and can take appropriate action regardless of how things turn out. The reality is unfortunately that other than voting with your feet I suspect there's actually very little recourse.

This sounds awful! Although, I'm confused. Are the buyers in on the fact you were told they have no chain or have the estate agents lied to you both?

@CoraContrary Im assuming the buyers where told that as they weren’t ‘selling’ a property, at least in the traditional sense, they could be presented as chain free. But who knows. The web of lies is pretty large.

I would immediately relist the house.

And change estate agents who knew or should have known they were not chain free and hid the fact when they knew all the facts.

I'd want to know exactly where this equity was coming from. It could be a probate sale, for example, and probate is taking ages right now- if it is, and they haven't got probate yet, then they won't have any idea how long it may yet take. I was told only yesterday by a legal expert in probate that some of their cases take the currently oft-quoted 8 weeks, one recently took three, and another one isn't through yet six months down the line.

I know I said this before, but honestly I'd pull out and re-list with a different agent. How on earth can you trust either the agent or the buyer? Both have consciously deceived you. Do you definitely know that they will get the money released within a certain time frame? They've already tried the buying time tactic and that hasn't been enough. If in 3 months time they're still stringing you along then you'll kick yourselves as in that time you could have found other buyers and completed. Your choice but honest to to God I'd be pulling out.

And ditto what BlueMongoose said. My sister works in wills and probate, she's seen it take 3-6 months in some cases to go through (including her own house purchase!) I'd want to know precisely how and when this money is coming to them before I'd even entertain sticking with it.

My DM recently sold her house to someone who was "chain free" and living in rented/with relatives (can't remember which).

DM's onward purchase took bloody ages and we thought it was weird that the buyers weren't pushing. Then their mortgage offer was about to expire and they got really weird and difficult about things.

We had comments like "if you don't exchange tomorrow then the buyers won't be able to exchange until next week because they have young children...." WTF?? That doesn't even make sense! How does having children have any bearing on exchange?? Completion, yes. Exchange???

On the day of completion, their solicitors were giant pricks. Ignored the repeatedly urgent requests from our solicitor. No one knew what was happening or where the money was. Turns out that the money was coming from the sale of another mystery property and that didn't arrive until 3pm in the afternoon. Money didn't hit our solicitors until 4pm, and it was a giant rush to get the money to our vendor in time for it to go through. Mad rush to get the keys at 5.15pm. Very, very nearly didn't make it in time for the bank to process.

Oh, and the buyers then demanded DM paid for a skip the next day because they weren't happy about some stuff my stepdad left behind (he was trying to be helpful - empty garden pots etc because the buyers said they wanted to do the garden and DM/stepdad are downsizing). Buyers hit the roof, I offered to arrange for a collection of anything unwanted in two days time. Not good enough. Buyers demanded collection the same day "because we have CHILDREN". Actually, they have one child who's about 2 years old - I cannot for the life of me see how that's relevant as the garden was left safe and child-friendly.

DM ended up paying £350 for a load of stuff to be removed the same day. Including stuff that belonged in a garden - like ornamental rocks around the base of a tree. There was stuff there that they'd added on, that never came from my DM's house. I think they wanted DM to pay for a skip because they wanted to do some renovation, and thought they could get a skip to use for free. Oh yes, and while all this was going on, my DM had been taken to hospital as she had an accident and then a suspected heart attack but they gave zero fucks. As did the EA who up until this point had been amazing and lovely. He clearly just wanted it sorted - and I suspect he must have known about this mystery property sale but never mentioned it....

So, anyway. They were complete fucking twats about everything and it started with them lying through their arses about where the money was coming from.

I now need to sell my house and I'm dreading it as DM's experience was so bloody awful.

I would pull out and start again OP. Fuck them. If they've lied about this and are being precious now, then judging from my experience with DM's house, there's still a world of pain they could cause you.

My gut feeling is they will negotiate the price down, and there's nothing you can do to stop them from trying. They can legally do this after making an offer. Although of course you can keep saying no to any requests to reduce the price.

I'd start looking for someone more interested in buying your house, whilst also giving the current buyers one last chance within a very specific timeframe.

UPDATE. Exchanged today.....with a completion in mid December!!!

We had appointed 2 other EAs to see the house and offered an ultimatum of Friday, which they couldn't meet. They begged, and as we hadn't managed to get the other EAs to the house we let them continue. BUT we are still very sceptical that this will go through. they have clearly arranged a different mortgage with a lower despot and pushed the completion date back as far as they can. grrr.

I hope it works out for you OP, personally I wouldn't have continued but it's your choice!

That's a very long gap between. Thank goodness the risk sits with them. Are you still complaining to the relevant bodies? Everything crossed it goes to plan.