Advice Please, Vendors from Hell (well nearly!!)

purplebuzz · 8 September 2009 at 10:30AM

So the situation so far, is we are selling our house to a FTB and buyer a house which we thought had no onward chain. The vendors of the house we are buying have been a complete nightmare from start to finish and my OH and I am getting really fed up them, so would like some advice as to how to play things from here.

Basically, stuff that they have done so far includes:-

Deciding last on in the process that they wanted to buy on straight away, hence extend the chain and delaying stuff due to having to apply for a mortgage.
Not supplying the correct information / lack of information to their solicitor so that they could response to my solicitors enquires. (It turns out that they had the required information all along and were either unwilling or too lazy to return it) - It took 3 requests for some paperwork
Ringing me up directly (I made the mistake of giving them my phone number in the hope that it make the process run more smoothly) and shouting at me down the phone becuase they could not understand why my solicitor was asking them such silly questions. (They weren't silly btw she was just doing her job, and a good one at that)
Deliberately booking a holiday around the week that was the proposed completion date and then moaning at us for being slow with the process.
Complaining at me when they were informed that things MAY be slightly delayed, due to my buyers solicitor dragging their heels a bit - something which I have absolutely no control over.

Anyway, we are now nearly ready to exchange and our solicitor advised us to have one final look over the property before exchange to check that the vendors has completed bits and pieces of work that he had confirmed he would. This has been arranged for this evening, but not after yet another lot of verbal abuse from Mrs Vendor about all the silly hoops that we are apparently making her jump through.

So I am not looking forward to the visit tonight and I am worried how they will be with us, and what they may potentally do to the property before we complete. Therefore, can anyone advise please on how we should play things from here, because you really would have thought that they need to be nice to us as we are buying their house after all!!!

Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading.

poppysarah · 8 September 2009 at 11:39AM

Welcome to buying a house. Sounds like you got some stressed people there.

Running_Horse · 8 September 2009 at 1:24PM

You sound like me. I was in the middle of a very short chain and was trying to please people at both ends while our vendors fannied around for months (our buyers were great). You have to decide how much you want this house. In the end, a well timed moderate letter to all parties managed to unstick all problems in one day. Just don't threaten anything (eg pulling out) unless you are willing to back it up. Next time I will take a step back and let the professionals do the job they are well paid for.

purplebuzz · 8 September 2009 at 1:39PM

Running_Horse wrote: »

You sound like me. I was in the middle of a very short chain and was trying to please people at both ends while our vendors fannied around for months (our buyers were great). You have to decide how much you want this house. In the end, a well timed moderate letter to all parties managed to unstick all problems in one day. Just don't threaten anything (eg pulling out) unless you are willing to back it up. Next time I will take a step back and let the professionals do the job they are well paid for.

Yeah this sounds exactly like our current situaion. Our buyer is also great!! Why can't all parties be like that. I have said to my OH that I think we just go there tonight and do what we need to do, keep our mouths shut and suggest they refer any questions they still have via their solicitor / estate agent.

He however (OH) thinks that we should threaten to pull out just like they have threatened to be away at exchange and completion, just to delay things, but I would then be worried they would say ok then, pull out!!

We both like the house so don't want this to happen, just want things sorted.

Bufger · 8 September 2009 at 1:44PM

Go there and do your check and have as little to do with them as possible. As soon as this stage is over you're nearly home and dry so just look for that light at the end! you dont want to make this worse than it is and threatening to pull out and not following through will make you look silly. if you do pull out your buyers may well give in and look elsewhere (depends how financially commited they are now)

tek-monkey · 8 September 2009 at 2:39PM

Take a video camera, explain this is easier than taking lots of photos. Leave it running, record everything. Just a sweep of each room can give you backup should they change something, and has the added bonus of recording your conversation. Please make sure they are aware the camera is running though.

purplebuzz · 8 September 2009 at 2:43PM

tek-monkey wrote: »

Take a video camera, explain this is easier than taking lots of photos. Leave it running, record everything. Just a sweep of each room can give you backup should they change something, and has the added bonus of recording your conversation. Please make sure they are aware the camera is running though.

Thanks!!

Unfortunately, I don't have a video camera, and I don't think a mobile phone video recording would quite cut it.

mlz1413 · 8 September 2009 at 3:43PM

one final look over the property before exchange to check that the vendors has completed bits and pieces of work that he had confirmed he would.

Remember you are going to ensure the house is now/still in the condition you agreed to buy it in, I bought a flat once that was empty and my solicitor & EA did not recommend this so I ended up buying a flat with no bathroom ceiling due to a leak from the upstairs flat - not a great start!

You are going for your benefit not theirs the same as your buyers should be checking your property and your vendors should be checking theirs. No more or less than a business deal.

Decide what you will do if the 'bits and pieces' have not been completed or not done to agreed standard, don't discuss it with them go straight back to solicitor and let them know any problems.

If the vendors are shouting at you change the ring for them to a single beep and let them get your voicemail, don't get upset and don't let them upset you.

Buying & selling property is very stressful so try and remember the final goal - good luck and hope it goes as well as it can.

tek-monkey · 9 September 2009 at 10:15AM

How did it go?

purplebuzz · 9 September 2009 at 10:20AM

Well it wasn't really as bad as we thought it was going to be, everything in the house in fine and they let us look at everything we wanted to and we took photos of stuff which we wanted to as well.

It did get a little heated when Mr Vendor started to moan about about solicitor and her "probing" questions. Then he said that she accused him of being a liar and withholding information (which he practically was so...) which he wasn't happy about.

But during the conversation he let slip that his estate agent had told him that his solictors weren't very good and he admitted that some of the problems could have been caused by them.

He was still not happy that we didn't know when exchange was going to happen and said that it better be before the end of the week or else!.....

It's just a case of waiting and chasing solicitors to get it sorted so I don't have to speak to Mr/Mrs Vendor anymore.

tek-monkey · 9 September 2009 at 10:30AM

Or else what? Does he not want to sell?!?!?!

Just ignore them from now on, its your solicitors job. God knows you pay them enough.

Advice Please, Vendors from Hell (well nearly!!)

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