Is our buyer too slow?

[Sc8880]

We accepted an offer on our house on 10 January, and had an offer accepted on 11 January. Since then, we got our solicitor, have had a survey done, instructed the local searches, completed all forms to date, received our mortgage offer and raised a few enquiries from our seller's property info form. The house we've offered on is vacant and ready. Our solicitor sent our forms to their solicitor a few weeks ago.

Our buyer, a cash buyer with nothing to sell, hasnt dont anything yet. The EA confirmed they definitely want a survey, and no idea if they're doing searches. EA said a couple of weeks ago the buyer is getting quotes for survey, last week they changed their tune and said their solicitor has sent them a few surveyors to choose from, no mention of quotes. The EA is now also saying they're trying to get funds in one place and it may take a few weeks.

EA said buyer is committed which I think they are as they travelled for miles for a second viewing and stayed for 45 minutes apparently. English isn't their first language, they're moving alone and are probably over 60 which all contributes towards the pace. Her son lives around the corner from us and she's moving to be near him. He is dealing with the EA but can only do so much living so far away, but we don't understand why he's not booking a survey for her to get it chalked off.

What we don't want is for them to do a survey really late on, ask for money off that we can't afford to give, and we lose the house we want.

Are we being unreasonable in asking them to book a survey in this month (5-7 weeks from accepted offer)? They were the first person to view our house, and they happened to make an offer 1% below asking that we accepted.

We really want to exchange towards the end of March and complete in April.

Your buyer appears to have done very little in over a month. They haven’t organised a survey or got their funds in order. I would be thinking about putting the property back on the market personally, unless they can reassure you that they have booked a survey & don’t have funding issues.

Id be pushing the EA for action or you'll think about going back on the market.

Wow. We are a cash buyer - I will be wanting it all done and dusted with keys in my hand by weeks six, week eight at the latest. Put it back on the market sounds like doubts about the move are creeping in and you could be left high and dry.

My DD offered very late November had the mortgage agreed and survey results when she arrived with us for Christmas. Circa 3 weeks.

They didn't "rush" as such but were pacey in arranging things and making payment etc. Your buyer does need to get some skin in the game

This would do my head in. Our buyer was useless. She nearly caused the whole chain to collapse. She kept going on holiday and being uncontactable. Then she had the cheek to ask if she could have all my pax wardrobes! Some people just don’t have a clue about the shit they cause!

"Getting funds in one place" sounds suspect to me, I would have a serious chat with the EA and issue an ultimatum. I assume the EA has seen proof of funds? Is it all liquid?

Thank you everyone. We have now emailed our EA and asked if they saw proof of funds at the start. Something doesn't feel right. We've said we want the survey to be booked in ASAP and definitely this month. If not, we'll put it back on the market at the start of March.

I agree something doesn't sound quite right if they have to get their funds in one place? We previously almost sold to a cash buyer (who pulled out last minute before exchange 🥴) and our EA confirmed they saw proof of funds before they even entertained the offer. Would be odd if they didn't check this before it got this far along!? Agree with PPs about talking to your EA about putting it back on the market if buyer doesn't get a move on...

This is really really bad. Even if they are just slow, they could cause the whole chain to collapse just because people won’t wait for them/you.
I would not give them this month.
I would say the survey has to be booked in by Midday Friday or you’ll be going back on the market.
It takes 5mins to pick up the phone and book a survey FFS. Call their bluff.

I’d get your solicitor to go back to them with a deadline for action or else you will put the property back on the market.

I don't think trying to push a cash buyer into doing the survey is necessarily the best course of action at this point. What I would do is focus on what proofs were supplied to the agent - obviously moving large amounts of cash, from abroad for example, can be complex and money laundering checks more extensive. It could just be that. Obviously the agent can't tell you the exact details but you need to know how they established and validated the cash offer.
It's important to remember that a cash buyer doesn't need a survey at all anyway. It's surprising how many don't bother

The funds in one place could ring alarmbells - if that means the funds are in a different country.

BUT, if the house is over 85k, it is likely that the funds are in several accounts - certainly we sent around half a dozen bank statements to show we had enough funds - because the money was in that number of accounts. That said, we sent over the statements the evening the offer was accepted, and the survey was booked that week too.

I would be pushing for proof of commitment to the sale - and be putting the house back up before mrch if nothing is forthcoming.

Definitely put timescales in place, end of month for survey & funds in place or put your house back on the market, and don’t waiver on that deadline, they’ve had long enough to do at least something!

Thanks for this. The EA has confirmed the buyer definitely wants to do a survey, and our whole thing is we want it done soon and not at the very end. The survey feels like a big milestone in terms of avoiding lowering offers, which we can't afford to do, so we want to get there soon in case we need to go back to the market. We have now asked for the survey to be done this month. We've also asked our EA what proof of funds they saw.

OK I don't think you can do much more than that really for now.
I would though make sure you give the agent the heads up that when they do book the survey the agent MUST ask what type of survey is being done. Most importantly does it include a valuation or is it just structural? The booking surveyor will give this info if it's asked for.
A savy cash buyer will also include a valuation appraisal to the same methodology as is used by lending banks. This gives them the reassurance that they are not paying over market value - or the tool to renegotiate if they are overpaying. By knowing the type of survey in advance you can be better prepared for potential outcomes.

I often purchase with cash and it can take unaccountably months - but I always have solicitors in place, get a survey done ASAP, get the searches commissioned. Usually the good up is in getting the management pack if a flat, but that's not the issue here.
Your solicitor should also be in communication with their solicitor pointing out there is a chain and things need to happen in a timely manner, suggesting possible exchange and completion dates. A lot of the speed is down to the solicitor, but they can't act without instruction from their client!

Had a similar experience selling a family property (with a similar sob story from the buyer - cash buyer/relative etc). Late surveys, additional surveys, extra viewings, slow solicitor/changed solicitor and then dragging out asking anything and everything to try and batter the price down. The other family member involved was really soft with the buyer which drove me mad.

At the 9 month point the buyer came back and suddenly asked for another £15k off the previously agreed price. I won’t tell you what I said before giving them until COB to sign or it was going back up. They signed.
Some time later the property is sat empty - buyer, we subsequently found out from the neighbour, was actually a landlord and leveraging their other properties to buy it. Seemingly hasn't got the readies to finish renovating this one. Zero sympathy apart from for the neighbours.

TLDR - if you’re 6 weeks on and they haven’t booked a survey, they’re messing around. Give them a time frame then put it back up.

I would be wary of putting too much pressure on the buyer. You're obviously super keen on the property you're buying, but it was your choice to invest so much in searches and surveys so quickly!

If you want to complete in April and this buyer pulls out, then I think your April time scale would be really unlikely.

I would be querying proof of funds, because obviously if the funds don't exist then nothing can go ahead.

I do agree it's reasonable to set a timescale for the survey, but I do think that you also have to be honest with yourselves that if this buyer ends up pulling out, you're unlikely to complete on the house you want in April. Are the sellers of the house you want putting pressure on you?

Thank you everyone!

Update from EA is that the buyer's son was confused and thought their solicitor was going to book the survey based on their recommendations (!?). They want to do a Level 3 survey so it'll all take a bit longer. They said they expect it will be done by the end of this month, so presumably our EA will get in touch with us very soon to confirm a date.

Funds are being drawn from a pension, according to EA!

Well it’s good that you raised the issue of the survey @Sc8880 so that one can now be booked asap.

My DDs level 3 was reported on within a week of the visit so hopefully not too long once it goes ahead.

They had 4 "level 3 red flags" come up on theirs. One was specific to their property and three were, allegedly, always 3s due to lack of testing by the surveyor - gas, electric and water (I think) so watch out for those.

Also her Level 3 didn't offer her any valuation automatically - that came at additional cost. They didn't bother with a valuation for two reasons personal to them.

Good luck...hope its done soon.

'Funds are being drawn from a pension' still sounds too vague.

Either the EA has confirmed proof of funds or the buyer should not have been considered proceedable. Its pretty easy to get a pension fund statement (including cash-in value if applicable) within a few minutes with most providers.

Plus the 'confusion' about the solicitor getting involved in the survey (why would they?) and the survey will now 'take longer' are both not good signs.

Personally I would pause my own solicitor in respect of the onward sale to limit any further lost costs if it does not proceed, and demand the EA undertakes proper confirmation of funds within a pretty short deadline.

Unfortunately we've been too quick and a bit naive, and are now very close to being ready to exchange. Our solicitor has sent a few enquiries to our seller, but otherwise we're virtually there now. If it does fall apart, we'll be the losers if our seller isn't prepared to wait.

Our solicitor has said we give them until Wednesday to do something, and if not, we'll need to speak to the EA and escalate things with deadlines etc.

Your EA should have never let you take it off the market without the buyer showing them proof of funds within 24 hours of you accepting the offer.

I'd ask them to send you a copy of whatever they have showing the proof of funds (with any private info then redacted).

Yeah we feel really stupid for not checking that with them. We'll ask them to send it...although they'll probably give us another vague, non-answer and divert to saying how committed the buyer is...despite them showing no commitment whatsoever!