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.

OP, because of how shitty the English (slightly better in Scotland, don't know about Wales and NI) house buying process is. A lot of trust is required between vendor and seller although it's a 'business' transaction.

Unless it's a real bargain, or truly a 'dream' house I'd let this one go. The vendors don't sound very co-operative who knows what else they could pull?

"what arrangements have you made to ensure you are in a legal position to be able sell this house?"

Its not your job to establish this!!- its the job of the Estate Agents and Solicitors, why are you getting involved in the legal work?

You sound like a PITA

Say if they go back on the market your offer drops by £20k (or whatever is a suitable drop relative to price of house and local market)

I don't think OP has asked this question word for word.

I took it that she's summing up the context of the question - it could be any number of things, for example if the house currently has tenants she could be asking if they've served tge tenants notice yet, or if there's a charge on the property she could be asking of they've taken steps for it to be removed, or it could be an inherited property and she's asking if probate has been applied for.

I'm assuming it's a question along those lines, OP? In which case they should easily answer.

@PeachCastle OP states clearly that she is going through her solicitors with these questions. Don't be so rude!

Sounds very stressful OP. What have the EA said about the sale, I would assume they would not have taken the instruction without seller a & b signing the contract?

We had a difficult purchase 20years ago, couple in the chain were divorcing and the husband refused to exchange etc, all got very stressy, eventually he did and the sale completed. Our last purchase was probate sale, thankfully the family had applied for probate before putting the property on the market, and obviously no exchange can happen before probate is granted.

Is the property currently tenanted? Is that a concern that it won’t be sold with vacant possession? What has the vendors put on the form to their solicitors?

we have bought and sold many times over the years, advice I would give is not to communicate with the vendors directly, buyers always seem to want to do this but it often leads to conflict, better to leave it to the solicitors, but keep in regular contact with your solicitor.

sounds to me that the vendors, know you want the house so they are using pulling out in the hope you don’t want to lose the property etc. should you decide to pull out you will lose solicitors costs so far, and survey etc.

Every time we have moved it’s been stressful, so I can empathise OP. Good luck with whatever you decide to do, but if you really want the house, you need to take the emotion out of the situation, calm things down.

Once you are in the property you will never have to see or deal with them again. It’s purely transactional.

Yep, you're bang on @PigeonEgg

All of which are for the Estate Agent/Solicitors to deal with.

Only if you're completely naive.

EAs don't care about you wasting money, they're happy for a sale to limp along, and they'll spin you any old shit.

And why would you waste money on surveys and searches before making sure the vendors are actually in a position to sell?

Buyers should take more interest in the conveyancing process and asking the right questions early on can save months of stress and potentially thousands of pounds.

They are still questions for the solicitor to ask. If a buyer asked me directly, which is the only way they’re going to save money, I’d refer them to my solicitor.

It’s really hard to understand what your solicitor thinks about their failure to answer, which is what I think many of the answers you’ve got stems from. Is your solicitor also fed up with them?

At what point has anyone said there is direct communication with the vendor? Of course these are questions that are being asked through solicitor and estate agent!

This part of your opening post "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. " You twice say they won't give "me" answers. Not "my solicitor" or "my estate agent", but "me". This is why people are asking.

I don't think you understand the conveyancing process.

You can ask your solicitor to forward a relevant general enquiry prior to instructing them to go ahead with searches and further enquiries.

That's how you save money, stress and hassle because if the vendors aren't even giving the reassurance/evidence that they're in a position to sell, you can't continue.

I was primarily responding to the posters assertion that buyer should take a more active role in the conveyancing process.

The buyer should be as informed and assertive as possible in the process and not just think 'oh the solicitor will sort that'.

The solicitor is acting for the buyer - they are not a seperate autonomous entity. They rely on you to do due diligence too; for example you'll be asked to check the property plot relates correctly to the title plan.

They'll see to the nuts and bolts of searches, TA6, TA10 forms, contracts and general enquiries etc but you must forward any specific concerns, ideally before you've invested a great deal more time/money.

Do you think ‘is the seller able to sell?’ is a specific concern?

Seems pretty universal to me.

One would hope the OP’s solicitor had that on their list to check.

I also disagree with the concept of EA's letting things limp on. Good EA will be on top of things like this to prevent any delays. They want their commission ASAP after all.

We've had a similar nightmare the last couple of weeks. Desperate to find a home and start a family, we found a perfect house, 5 bedrooms, loads of space for kids down the line in a lovely coastal town...

We went Sale Agreed in February, we signed contracts in March, and just last week the sellers decided to pull out of the sale with no warning or indication of any kind.

Our solicitor suggested that, if they finally sign contracts, the house will be ours and we can rent it to them while they find another property. However, the property they want doesn't exist! They have all these ridiculous requirements, and want to find somewhere in the same teeny tiny town!

We got fed up with them, dangling our dream in front of us, a couple in their 60s knocking around a 5 bedroom house that they themselves say they can't manage anymore. Still, weeks go by and they won't sign, made everything difficult throughout, even when it came to viewings and survey we bent over backwards to accommodate their schedule (retired couple in their 60s versus us with full time jobs and no car, travelling 2 hours away for viewings). It was stressful enough, so we told the solicitor to politely tell them to eff off and void our contracts. They've just strung us along all this time with no intention to sell.

If the trust is gone, its gone. Move on and hopefully you'll find someone serious down the line.

If @PigeonEgg is bang on these questions are very relevant.

Do you understand that I pay a solicitor to act FOR me? I am the one who pays the money, agrees to the terms and signs the contract.

Personally; I'd pull out, to expect you to pay out for surveys etc then potentially find out it can't go ahead is ludicrous.
Walk away.

Thanks @GR8GAL - parts of yours sound so very familiar. Lots of me needing to be flexible and adaptable around their issues. The final threat itself was in an email from their solicitor that also said "Obviously" they expect exchange and completion dates to be arranged to suit the vendors so there's no reason to have any discussion on that matter. It would be bad enough that they were just doing this to me, but there's a whole chain that they expect to hop to their tune.

In terms of "what happens" which was you original question, the answer is ...nothing. You all move on with your lives, paying any relevant bills.
If I was you, I would contact the EA and tell them that you are still keen to buy but due to the position of the vendors, you have instructed your solicitor to do no further work on the purchase until your questions are answered and intend to view other properties. If the vendors which to respond positively to your queries then you are happy to proceed, otherwise, you will assume the vendors have withdrawn from the sale as they threatened to do.
Make sure the EA understands the nature of the queries and how fundamental these are - you're not just being awkward. Put the ball back in the vendor's court.
And yes, once the trust is gone, it might be better just to move on. Only you can decide how much you want this particular property.

I'd call their bluff in a roundabout way. Instead of pulling out yourself, ask the vendor's estate agent if they've got any similar properties on their books that you can view. Say that as it appears the vendors are re-marketing, you need to look at other options asap. It's basically staking out your intention to walk away without resorting to threats yourself.