What happens when you accept the sellers threats?

[Tupster]

My "dream house" purchase has been steadily turning into a nightmare. The vendors are awful and I don't trust them at all. They want my money, but they don't want me to get a say on anything during the process. There's really crucial things that they literally won't give me answers to and we've reached a point where they have threatened to put the house back on the market rather than give me answers. I've been steadily reaching the end of my tether with them, and while I really, really want the house, the more they lie to me, the more I am expecting some major double-crossing to be planned for later down the line and even before their threat I was weighing up whether I should drop out of the whole thing. I'm sure they think they are just throwing their weight around and think I'll cave under an ultimatum, but actually when I saw the threat I just started looking for another property.

What is one actually supposed to do in these circumstances? Do I have to tell them "I'll take option B - you remarket the property" or do I just not do what they want and they have to follow through on their threat? I assume that they have to deal with the agent and not me. I'm not technically the one dropping out, so do I wait for their solicitor to contact us to say they've pulled out? I've already told my solicitor to do nothing more on the purchase until these issues were resolved, which clearly they won't be now, so she's not busy spending any more of my money at this stage.

You will still owe the solicitor for work already completed however

When we bought, the seller was after more money for the property.
Just before completion, the agent rang and said someone else had requested and been granted a viewing of the property. I flippantly said, tell them to crack on and good luck to them.
That seemed to bring the vendor back to where she should have been and we had very little foolishness after that.

Call their bluff!

It depends where you are in terms of consequences. In England, either side can pull out of a sale at any point before completion. You won't get back your money on solicitor's fees or surveys etc but you don't have to pay the vendors compensation as long as you haven't exchanged. Rules are different in Scotland and other places.

You seem to be treating this as some psychological drama…it’s just a business transaction. Do you want to buy at the price they are willing to sell and with the info they are willing to provide. If not, walk away, there will be another house that’s perfect soon. If what they want and what you want don’t match, just walk away:

That's not a fundamental question. Your solicitor will establish title, it's part of what you're paying them for.
You do sound a bit of a nightmare, I'm afraid. You haven't a clue about the purchasing process.

If they don't answer something that's important to you then you pull out.

We sadly had to do this. It was what we thought was our dream house. Vendors a nightmare from the beginning. Eventually we had to pull out as something major wasn't legal and it wasn't worth the gamble for us. We emailed the estate agent and withdrew our offer, then let our solicitors know. They charged us nothing.

I have a strong suspicion they are planning something like this, which is a big part of why I think they are throwing threats around, and why I think I'd be better getting out sooner rather than later.

Even though most posters have said you are the one who sounds difficult and they are probably going to be happy to be rid of you so they can go back to market?

Your posts aren’t making any sense. Why do you think they aren’t in a legal position to sell the house?

It's up to you how to handle it.

You can inform the estate agents and your solicitor that you are withdrawing.
Or you can give your own ultimatum that you are unwilling to proceed without the requested information. You could add a deadline. Then if they choose to refuse or withdraw and remarket you have your answer. They might concede and provide the requested info but it sounds like they are being intentionally obstructive, so probably not.

Your post is hard to understand

Who is asking the vendor questions?

The answer is that nothing happens of note. You walk away, they remarket. So what? Not sure why you think this is a problem.

Assuming you’re in England then you pay for the work your solicitor has already done and go on your merry way. The estate agent may make the other vendors of houses you’re wishing to buy through them aware of what you’ve done in the past.

I'm a bit confused by what you mean "what happens...?". Perhaps your questions to them haven't been clear either?

Nothing happens.
They say they will relist it, you say ok and walk away, they relist, you look elsewhere

As long as you are prepared to and can afford to walk away, tell them 'the market's getting worse for sellers and you will have a lot more competition in Spring, but I wish you the best of luck in any event.'

Are you a first time buyer?

We're a pain in the arse asking a bunch of stuff we don't understand and sellers generally have a low tolerance threshold of us (we find it hard to overlook things that frighten us but don't frighten experienced homeowners), but they do also seem to think they can walk all over us as well.

We had sellers say 'no' to absolutely everything; then we found out they were intended to unscrew a fancy thermostat and take it with them, when we were giving them hundreds of thousands of pounds. Could have easily afforded to just replace it, but that was the straw that broke the camel's back - I just withdrew, because I didn't like the house enough to care if we really actually bought it or not anyway. I just needed affordable shelter. Turned out there were Fensa certs missing left right and centre, no HETAS for the stove, patio without some regulation relating to draining of some sort or another, no boiler servicing or receipt for boiler, a moved wall without permission, and a bunch of other irritating stuff that would make it trickier than 'easy' to sell on.

Worse than that, I point blank refused to give them a reason after them being nothing but utter, utter d*cks throughout the entire process.

Perhaps I'm the devil incarnate or perhaps they got their just deserts for their behaviour.

This isn't enquiry-type questions - it's fundamental "what arrangements have you made to ensure you are in a legal position to be able sell this house?" type of questions.

Eh, your solicitor routinely checks their names are on the title deeds? Or that probate has been granted and they are the named beneficiaries? It's nothing to get in a flap about. Your solicitor won't hand over your money without ensuring they have the right to sell it. It sounds like you need to let the professional do their job.

Unless you have proof this would happen, do not try and second guess what will happen and worry about something you have no control over.

If you wish to withdraw from the sale then do it and do it quickly, so both you and the vendors can move on, however you need to ask yourself the question, how much is this the home for you? If you are not that bothered then you may be best going elsewhere, but if you really want this property to be your home then persevere through the issues. You are buying a house, you do not have to be friends with the vendors, it is purely business but you must remember, they are selling their home, this may be difficult for them too. A stressed vendor and a stressed buyer will nearly always lead to friction.

As others have said, it is difficult to give exact advice without the specific issue but if the situation is the legal then that is what you pay your solicitor for, they will not let you buy a property unless it is legally able to be sold.

The solicitor should have provided you with the title documents and associated information, what is on there which is causing you to doubt the vendors do not have the legal right to sell it?

A lot of the stuff you mention here is absolutely silly FTB stuff, yes. Nobody is going to have trouble selling a house without a receipt for the boiler!

Oh, I completely agree - NOW. It's only after spending a year on this Board that I know how silly it all was, and how normal this stuff is.

But here's the thing.

1. I only wanted to live in it for 2 years and not a moment more; we hated the area, we just needed a house; in my mind, I didn't want a re-sale liability and
2. NOBODY TELLS YOU THIS IS NORMAL. We weren't in close contact with anyone who had bought a house and the conveyencer just kept giving us a massive list of things that were wrong with it, and recommending that we don't accept indemnity insurance for anything because it's not worth the paper it is written on. It was only when I picked up the phone to him after instructing him to pull out that I said 'is this sort of thing normal? Am I going to come across this with most houses that we try to buy' that he actually said 'yes, most experienced buyers will turn a blind eye to a lot of those things.'

Err, dude. Timing.

Tbh it's all probably for the best, but there isn't a school of How to Buy A House out there, and we learned the hard way.

I just added up a possible 27k worth of stuff that might need doing, and along with their terrible behaviour, said 'nope.'

But you are right. It is silly FTB stuff. But less silly when you consider we only had a couple of K in the bank other than the deposit and only wanted it for two years.

Happened to me. Different reason, but the seller threatened to pull out because they were unhappy with how long part of the process was taking. It wasn't something I had control over, so I told the estate agent I didn't mind if they pulled out and I'd rent for a while instead. Within hours the estate agent was back in contact to say that the vendor had changed their mind and wanted the sale to go ahead after all. I strongly suspect they'd thought I'd offer more money to avoid losing the house since they'd pulled that stunt once already over some kitchen fittings and I'd rolled over.

A buyer I was selling to threatened the EA that they were going to pull out as the process was taking so long. Okay, except everything was ready on our side, the property was empty and the delay was that their solicitor hadn't completed their paperwork or returned any phone calls for six weeks. Never got an apology from them either.

I had tricky sellers for one property I bought but the house was worth it so I carried through the conveyancing.

It really is impossible to comment on your situation because it could be that you're asking unreasonable questions, expecting too much, or have unrealistic expectations.

Or, you might be being messed about and if they're threatening to re-list then let them crack on and keep house hunting.

Just speak to the Estate Agent and tell them the situation. They will then speak to the vendor and advise them to either re list or stick with your offer and answer your questions. If the questions are things that need answering regardless of the buyer then they'll usually push them to stick and sort it out.
We had that for one property where there were some discrepancies in the lease when the vendor had extended the lease they hadn't had some clause changed which needed uodating. Our solicitor pointed out that any buyer would need this so they just needed to sort it out. We were happy to wait.

Well, you just instruct you solicitor not to proceed further with the purchase. Ask them to put a HOLD on any further processing whilst you reconsider the purchase. Do it in writing and then restart your search for a property that may suit you better. Copy in the sellers agent.