Buyer’s solicitor being a nightmare

[Mog0224]

Am I being unreasonable here?
We sold our house 7 months ago. Things have been slow going but we are nearing the end with a long chain.
Our buyers had a survey done 6 weeks ago. The surveyor mentioned one problem to us but said that otherwise the house was in excellent condition for its age (over 120 years old)
We heard nothing for 3 weeks and assumed they must be happy with the survey. Then we got an e mail saying they weren’t happy with the issue mentioned by the surveyor (same one he said to us) and they wanted a structural engineer to come look and would we pay. We said yes we would do that. Waited 10 days for agreement and got a snarky comment saying essentially “why haven’t you already done this? Why aren’t you taking it seriously?” When we were waiting for their solicitor to confirm.
So we booked the structural engineer.
The day before the structural engineer was due we got an e mail with a whole load more demands, put as statements, not questions. To summarise they said that we, the seller would

1. Pay for the works quoted on top of the structural engineer, but he had to work on behalf of our buyers, not us.
2. Some vague thing about home insurance which had no real direction
3. Get our neighbours to sign a legally binding document to say they would pay for half the works for something unrelated that we had never previously discussed
4. We would agree to a reduction in price based upon other works as our buyer would only pay a maximum of £3,000. We would essentially pay anything over that (with no quotes and no actual list of what works they count in that)

My honest reaction is to tell them to do one. We should be ready to exchange and they have left this to the eleventh hour and keep changing the goal posts and demanding (very rudely) more from us. We sold at reasonable market value, not above or below, but now it’s below as prices have increased.
We were going to offer to pay them the estimate that our structural engineer gives us for the one big job the surveyor mentioned, but nothing more. Essentially we are going to pay for that, on the understanding that we are then ready to exchange and will not entertain any more negotiating or demands from them. If they don’t like it we will be pulling out because their solicitor has caused us no end of stress. At one point our solicitor refused to speak to him as he was being so rude and making ridiculous demands.
I should also mention that the “big job” is still only about £2,000 in total to fix, including permissions and structural engineer. About 0.7% of the house cost.
Any advice?

You accepted an offer 7 months ago, and they only got a survey done 6 weeks ago?

I would tell them to do one. 7 months. Crazy!

Honestly, robust message back telling them that they have wasted over half a year of your time, in which prices have risen.

tell them to exchange by the end of the month or you’ll put it back on the market

no other engagement

Absolutely put it back on the market - they’ll mess you around and then try to drop the price at exchange. If they want a new home they can buy one; it’s unbelievable that they’d engage your neighbours into agreeing to work when it’s not their home!

Honestly I would be tempted to pull out. The cost of the surveyor/work is likely the same as the cost of remarketing/re-solicitor/re-mortgage costs and even better if the market has increased. Daft people.

I agree with everyone else. Put it back on the market.

The things they are quibbling over aren’t even expensive things. The house is in great shape. But for us it is the uncertainty, the worry of what they will demand next. Every e mail was something new and I pointed that out to them. We should be exchanging in a few days, but instead the whole thing could collapse over 1-2k and them being rude.

Tell them they have till mid November to exchange (or a total of 30 days) before the chain collapses or you will pull out and to stop messing you about.

Also what an earth about the neighbours? Why are they expected to pay?

Continue with the structural engineer and depending on that report either fix the problem for the next buyer or at least have a quote for fixing.

Then put the house back on the market. They've overstepped with their demand involving your neighbours imo.

I can’t comment too much on this as all they have done is sent me a page from the survey which mentioned many things to do with the roof, some of which are only level 2 severity (needs repairing in 5-10 years) and they haven’t said what exactly they are referring to. It is a terrace and some of the stuff mentioned is to do with joint walls, but they are so vague and just keep mentioned “works”
no way am I going to ask my lovely neighbours to sign something like that with no clear and concise boundaries, plus it isn’t our job to negotiate with them over something we won’t even be here to do.

We should be exchanging in a few days

Get your solicitor to email them first thing tomorrow morning, tell them you’re not agreeing to anything more, and if they don’t exchange by 5pm Wednesday the house is going back on the market.

Serioulsly, can’t believe you’ve all allowed them to drag this out for 7 months. Your solicitor is at fault here too.

You are being far too accommodating. Draw an immediate boundary line, say 14 days, if they fail to exchange back on the market it goes. Personally I would have pulled it months ago, but experience teaches you that. What advice has your conveyancer given you?

Some people here have mentioned giving a deadline for exchange, but that is tough as it is a long chain (7 parties long) and not all are ready to exchange. We can say “be ready to exchange” but actually exchanging is reliant on others.

it sounds like they are trying to find an excuse to pull out and not take responsibility. Echo what others have said, email a short polite bullet point email stating that you will put the house back on the market.

Side point, but why did they take so long to organise a survey? In my experience if a survey isn't organised within 3 weeks ish the sellers agent advises putting house back on market.

Side point, but why did they take so long to organise a survey? In my experience if a survey isn't organised within 3 weeks ish the sellers agent advises putting house back on market.

This is what I can’t get my head around. If you’re going to do a survey (and almost everyone would do on a 120 year old house) who waits till 6 months down the line after making an offer?!?

Bizarre.

May not be possible for you but perhaps you could get a bridging loan and buy the new place without having sold the old (I know that can be very risky) or one of my children kept their first flat, bought the 2nd with a remortgage and mortgage on first and let out the first to break a chain and just have one house or flat in a chain etc.

If yours sells would you be willing to go into rented?

I wonder if you could look at exchanging with a long completion date and start pressurising the rest of the chain.

I would go back and give a final offer of what you will do and won’t do, and make it clear there won’t be any further negotiation. Give them until Tuesday 17:00 to agree or else you will re-advertise.

Yes agreed. Straight back on the market

So that's a huge drip feed. You don't have a problem because you can't exchange until ALL in the chain are ready . . . 🙄

If they wanted a structural engineer to come after THEIR survey then I would have been telling them to pay for it, not covering the cost for them. You've created the impression of being a pushover OP and because they're CFs they're now testing how far they can push the boundary, which is seems is pretty far because I'd have told them where to go a long time ago.

@Mog0224 Fully understand the long chain and I am normally one to find a solution for the issues to enable everyone to remain in the chain but in this one I think your buyers are going to continue being a problem.

If you wish to give more details of the actual issues then people may be able to give you advice towards your reponses to each one. It may be possible to appease your buyers with one of the issues but tell them no to the others, but it is difficult without knowing what is actually wrong in their opinion.

Are they emailing or contacting you directly or are these requests coming from their solicitor via yours?

We are hoping to just offer to pay to fix the one big thing, which isn’t even expensive or difficult. If we had have been aware of it we would have fixed it ourselves anyway, so we aren’t giving anything in reality. The other stuff they have been so vague on, we got some pages from their survey, but it mentions so many things, some absolutely tiny and some that they “recommend” but aren’t necessary. They have not specified which hits they are referring to and just said that they are only willing to spend £3,000 and anything above that they want us to pay. That is an absolutely ridiculous thing to demand.
we are fully prepared to pull out if they push any more because they are more trouble than they are worth!
it is all coming through solicitors and has been going on for 3 weeks. One time it took their solicitor 10 days to respond.

@Mog0224 Thank you for the update. I would ask your solicitor to write a strong, clear but nice letter saying exactly what you have said, you will correct the XX issue and then proceed to exchange, you will not entertain any of their other requirements. If me I would then ask the solicitor to ask the question "please ask if they wish to proceed with the sale" You may not want to do that though if you do not wish them to pull out possibly!

Wow. Entitled buyers. You have been too patient, given an inch and they've taken miles. Back in the market unless they are ready to exchange and complete within weeks. No exceptions. They'll be wanting their rent and solicitors paid next