Buyers solicitor being difficult

[Mehmeh22]

So we had an offer on our house in September from a FTB. It took them 6 weeks to get a mortgage offer.

In November the buyer was starting to get annoyed at how slow the sale was going and said she needed to move by end of Jan.

There is a chain involved with three other houses. Ive had a lot of bad luck with that, but all being well, we should be completed by end of March at the very latest.

The buyer got annoyed at the delays with the chain and has been putting on a lot of pressure to move sooner. But here's the thing. Her solicitor is from one of those huge companies that employ monkeys for peanuts and who have no knowledge of the system whatsoever. Looking at their reviews, they are known for this. They just don't understand the lease system in the NW

My solicitor has passed on everything he can and he said in normal circumstances, that is enough, but the buyers solicitor refuses to accept it. And is charging my buyer for all sorts of stuff which has so far got to £4k (just for the purchase).

My buyer is now not accepting the indemnity policies for the extension that happened 25 years ago, before my time (and I had been upfront that it did not have building regs), and is demanding 10k off the price or for me to pay for a surveyor to check the extension. Baring in mind, she has been putting on pressure to move asap for about three months.

I can't reduce due to us putting an offer on a house and we are at our limit.

What do we do?? Im so close to telling the buyer to jog on!!!

Pay for the survey surely ? If you loose this buyer it will only come up again with the next one.

You could also pass the reduction up the chain and reduce your offer by a similar percentage. I get why your buyers don't want to accept an indemnity policy. Its worthless really after something has been in place 25 years.

Pull out. If you cave to this demand, expect other demands closer to exchange.

Pull out, there will be other demands and no doubt this will continue on for a good 6 months.

Ive been very honest from the outset about the fact the extension does not have building regs but has an indemnity policy. A survey will just open a can of worms cause the house is 130 years old. I've said they can pay for a survey if they want but I'm not! Why not do this 4 months ago - why bring it up now?

I know the chain will not pay for this issue.

I just feel if I back down to these demands, more demands will be made.

Difficult, if you think a survey will open a can of worms then you only have 2 choices. Reduce by 10k and cross fingers they don't try for anything else or re-market.
Wishing you good luck with it.
You could always try offering to meet them in the middle with a 5k discount I suppose

Don’t pay. Call their bluff and give them a deadline to get things in place. If not back on the market

Indemnity policies are pretty worthless. They only cover the cost of defending any legal
action from the council regarding non compliance with the regulations. They don’t cover the cost of any remediation work that might be required if the extension isn’t built property.

The buyer is bent sensible rather than difficult in not accepting an indemnity policy.

I’d pay to get a survey done as the buyer asks.

Surely your buyer did a survey already ?

It's a long time since I bought a house but don't buyers pay for surveys, not sellers?

Building regs won't be up to date unless the house/extension was built yesterday. If the extension was compliant 25 yrs ago that's all it needs.

This is not correct

It needs to had met the applicable
building regulations at the time it was built. This what the buyer is worried about, as
there seems to have been no sign off at the time.

@Mehmeh22 this doesn't help you but you need to understand that your buyer's solicitor is 'being difficult' (doing their job) on behalf of their other client - the mortgage lender.
If this lender isn't happy with the situation it is likely other lenders won't be either.
Just because something was acceptable when you bought the property doesn't mean it is acceptable now. Lenders change their rules.

It seems odd to me that the buyer didn’t have a full survey done sooner, especially on a house of that age. I don’t blame them for wanting one, but normally the buyer pays for surveys. I don’t know why they think you should. I’d just tell them you can’t afford to reduce the price as you’re already at your limit. But a different buyer woukd be likely to get a survey done and find any problems.

Probably want the buyer wants is retrospective BC sign off rather than a survey. That would be the sellers responsibility to pay, if it wasnt signed off properly in the first place.

Indemnity policies are worthless
Just because you accepted it when you bought doesn’t mean your buyer should

I think buyers solicitor is dealing with multiple, probably too many, low level sales and isn't focused on any of them properly so forgetting what's been requested, received and so on. Your buyer needs to manage their solicitor, it's not for you or yours to do that. I'd do an ultimatum. You have all you need. If you want anything else tell us by x time and with your reasons why. if not exchange x date and complete y date.

I would accept that but I made it clear 5 months ago, so why waste my time?

Because it is more than 10 years old, you cant get retrospective BC sign off. It would probably need work doing on it to meet them now.

Sorry, they are not difficult. Just incompetent. They are insisting on documents that my style of building do not need because they don't understand what a 1000 year lease from the 19th Century mean.

If this had been dealt with by a local solicitor, the house would have been signed off

I would absolutely say no, it’s too late for all of them his. Here is a deadline and if you can’t meet it it’s going back on the market. But you have to be prepared to do that. If someone wants to buy an old house that’s had historic work done then they simply have to accept there is a risk that it’s going to cost them some money (no matter how many surveys they get done!). I say this as someone who bought a 100 year old house which had work done without building control.

I'd tell them either complete by X, at the agreed price, or it's back on the market.

Conceding this point will probably lead to others being raised.

Yes, I tend to agree with this.

If you are unable to facilitate a price reduction i would ask if they are willing to proceed under the current terms or not.
If not ,back on the market.....
i dont really understand why they want you as seller to pay for a survey,thats for them to decide on and pay for.