Home purchase

[Ladykitten]

I need an advice. Me and my husband are in the process of buying our first property. We put an offer in and the offer has been accepted.
the seller has since put the sale on hold for 4 weeks due to mental health struggles (according to the estate agent).
EA is saying they are trying to reach out to the seller but the seller is not picking up the phone/answering emails but they are being very shady, like they keep on contracting themselves. I threatened to pull out of the sale and that was when the EA seemed a bit more responsive only to say that they have more properties I can go look at with them.
to me, it feels that since they have more viewings for me they have given up on the potential sale of the previous property which is the one I really want.

my question is: is it considered unethical/harassment if I try to reach out to the seller myself via Royal Mail or knock on their door to understand where I stand? This is causing me and my husband a lot of distress and anxiety as we have to move out in a couple of months as our tenancy is coming to an end.

It’s not what you want to hear but it’s time to pull out of the sale now. It doesn’t sound like the vendor is progressing the sale, and reaching out to them in any way other than via the estate agent will probably have the opposite result you’re hoping for. 8 weeks is a very very short time to completion, so unless you’re quite far through the process (enquiries and searches started/completed, survey complete) I would focus on your options re your current tenancy

Agree with @KingMungBean, if even the estate agent thinks taking you to see other properties is a better idea than trying to pursue this one, I think you are better getting out sooner rather than later.

Unfortunately, I agree with the others. I think you will need to pull out if even the agent has come to this conclusion. Is there any way you can extend your tenancy? If you have been given notice, you do not need to move out immediately and can explain this to your landlord. There seems no chance that you will complete on a purchase within 2 months.

Mortgage is approved and ready to go, all we need are the searches and the conveyancing work to be completed. I know a friend just sold a property in London in 4 weeks (am I being too optimistic?). I just don’t think I have much choice, I will look at other properties and can extend our tenancy if need be but I more so want to know if reaching out to the seller via Royal Mail would be illegal.

It's not illegal but a complete waste of your time and energy. Go and look at other properties.

Completely agree with LetThereBeLove. Focus on extending your tenancy and viewing other properties. You can transfer the mortgage application to another address. Four weeks is very unusual to the point of being almost unheard of, you haven’t even started searches and survey yet and even if the purchase was going well (which it’s not) those might throw up more issues.

I think you need to leave this person alone and start viewing other properties.

All you need is the surveys and conveyancing? That’s the majority of the work. The mortgage is normally the easy bit.

House purchases fall through for various reasons. You should put your efforts into finding another house before you spend any more money. This one isn’t happening.

Just to add, quick sales require the buyers AND vendor to be motivated to get them through. It is clear your vendor is not. It’s time to move on. Average time from memorandum of sale to completion at the moment is 12 to 16 weeks but can be longer, it is rarely shorter.

It’s not illegal, but it’s unethical to contact them directly. If it was due to cancer instead of mental health, would you then contact them? By contacting them, I think there’s an assumption that they’re either not telling the truth or can “push through it”. It’s kind of harassment. They’ve been honest with you and said there will be a delay as they’re not well. It’s not ideal but if its honest then what can they do? The balls in your court as to whether you want to wait or not.

Most house purchases take longer than 8 weeks, let alone 4. The problem is, it’s not within your control. The searches take as long as they take and each house will have its own conveyancing issues or not and you won’t know until you face it.

Unfortunately, I think you need to get back out there and see what happens.

If the vendor is already suffering with their mental health, it would probably only get worse as the process continues. Selling / buying property is one of the most stressful things you can do. Even if your mental health is tip top going into it, it'll no doubt take a dent by the time you come out the other side. You've barely started the process from what you say, so actually I think the vendor is being very wise to put their sale on hold right now. At least they've been honest with you rather than stringing you along. Imagine if they had a complete breakdown right before you exchange, by which time you've paid a fortune in fees and have nowhere to stay lined up. I would not be pushing this one and I would not dream of making direct contact. You don't know what their situation is.

Not sure if you are buying a leasehold flat, but a mortgage broker friend of ours said that these are taking up to 9 months to go through in some cases as there is much more due diligence for solicitors to work through. Even a 'good' chain might take 4-5 months at present.

I would secure a rental for the immediate future and then go again.