EA getting narky.....

equitydealer · 29 August 2014 at 8:34AM

Not to scare, but I've just had a nasty experience where I was bullied and harassed by an EA, constantly setting 'deadlines' for exchange. I'm a FTB and I was to buy a vacant property. From making the offer to them pulling out was only 6 weeks which I find disgraceful as I am now out of pocket to the tune of around £2000. The 6 weeks included 4 weeks for me to get my mortgage offer through (with a 40% deposit) and the other two weeks were because my surveyor of choice was on holiday...it is August afterall!

I do think though they there were hiding something and were trying to get me to rush through the transaction. My surveyor found some 'level 1' issues the vendor was not willing to answer (I was paying full value for the property) and the vendor wouldn't answer my questions on an extension they had done, they didn't provide any documentation (building regs etc).

brooklyn07 · 29 August 2014 at 9:44AM

equitydealer wrote: »

Not to scare, but I've just had a nasty experience where I was bullied and harassed by an EA, constantly setting 'deadlines' for exchange. I'm a FTB and I was to buy a vacant property. From making the offer to them pulling out was only 6 weeks which I find disgraceful as I am now out of pocket to the tune of around £2000. The 6 weeks included 4 weeks for me to get my mortgage offer through (with a 40% deposit) and the other two weeks were because my surveyor of choice was on holiday...it is August afterall!

I do think though they there were hiding something and were trying to get me to rush through the transaction. My surveyor found some 'level 1' issues the vendor was not willing to answer (I was paying full value for the property) and the vendor wouldn't answer my questions on an extension they had done, they didn't provide any documentation (building regs etc).

This is what im worried about as the house has a garage conversion and the seller has stated on the property information form he hasn't made any alterations to the house which is what my solicitor is chasing up as he told me he did the conversion himself.

Worried he doesn't have the relevant paperwork for that either!

To answer some questions - my offer went in on 4th July and circumstances way beyond my control have made it take so long so far.

The reason I wanted to wait until the mortgage offer to get the building survey done as I felt I would be wasting money I couldn't afford to waste if the mortgage offer came back with some condition I couldn't meet so felt it better to wait until I had the offer.

I don't know if there have been other offers on the table - if there have then surely it will take a lot longer if they went with them at this stage as even if they have their mortgage offer they wont have had the relevant searches etc done like I have already?

Just wondering why they are so keen to go to exchange all of a sudden and im wondering if its the EA that wants to exchange right now rather than the vendor!

The house is unoccupied so the seller wont need to arrange removals or complete on another house so not sure why the rush all of a sudden...

JimmyTheWig · 29 August 2014 at 10:50AM

brooklyn07 wrote: »

my offer went in on 4th July and circumstances way beyond my control have made it take so long so far.

Sounds fair enough.
Have the delays been due to the vendor?
Does the vendor (and agent) know about the (presumably reasonable) circumstances that have caused the delays?
Imagine things from their point of view. Would it seem to them that you are just dragging your feet?

The reason I wanted to wait until the mortgage offer to get the building survey done as I felt I would be wasting money I couldn't afford to waste if the mortgage offer came back with some condition I couldn't meet so felt it better to wait until I had the offer.

Again, perfectly reasonable. But also again, does this look to the vendor like you are just dragging your feet?

I don't know if there have been other offers on the table - if there have then surely it will take a lot longer if they went with them at this stage as even if they have their mortgage offer they wont have had the relevant searches etc done like I have already?

You get to a point, however, when you have to ask is it actually going to happen.
A buyer can drag things out indefinitely. At any given point they are further ahead of a buyer starting from scratch, but a buyer who is able to push things through quickly may well be able to complete before a buyer who has already started but is going slowly.

Imagine I was running a marathon and was half way round.
I'm determined to finish, but not being a runner it's taking me a long time.
It would be quicker to say "Forget it, JimmyTheWig, we've got Mo Farrah at the starting line. We'll get him to run instead." Mo would (easily!) complete the whole course quicker than I would complete the second half.

Kynthia · 29 August 2014 at 11:00AM

What are the reasons for the delay so far as that will make a big difference? Normally a seller would have put their property back on the market if the buyer didn't have a mortgage offer and survey booked within four weeks. They are risking having to find another buyer late in the year when it is quieter should you pull out in a few weeks time unable to get a mortgage or not liking the survey results which explains why the agent is pressuring you.

Also you should definitely be concerned if alterations have taken place without building regs sign off. No matter how much you like a property and whatever pressure the seller/agent puts you under, you should only buy with your eyes open and full knowledge of the situation.

brooklyn07 · 29 August 2014 at 11:11AM

basically the reason it took so long was because I had just come off another mortgage with ex (or so I thought) and when current mortgage provider asked for proof that I was off I rang previous mortgage provider for a letter of somesort which they couldn't provide because someone had made a huge balls up somewhere and didn't take me off and it took the entire of july and august to get me off.

Vendor doesn't know about any of it because a) I was worried that he would pull out (yes maybe selfish on my part but I didn't want to lose the house) and b) he told me he wasn't bothered how long it took as he wasn't living in there

It possibly does seem like im dragging my feet but if valuation has been done and solicitor instructed ages ago I don't know what reasons they would have to believe I don't want to go through with it....

once I have the mortgage offer - theres nothing I can do my end to make it go faster is there so surely they shouldn't need to pressure me anymore as they will need to wait until my solicitor receives my mortgage offer and then solicitor wil presumably get in touch with me to make sure I want to go ahead? by which time I will have received my survey results anyway and know for definite what I want to do?

headachesrus · 29 August 2014 at 11:16AM

It's month end, the estate agents wants its figures in, and they don't count until you have exchanged. Your solicitors (buyers and sellers) won't let you exchance until everything is in order, think of it as a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Don't let them bully you.

rosie383 · 30 August 2014 at 11:27AM

I would agree with the others. Don't be bullied. Our estate agent is furious with us because we have had to withdraw our offer for a property after going through hoops for a month. The current owners had wanted things done asap but thankfully are top of the chain, but are really not happy. We did everything we could think of before we decided to pull out and it was a really hard decision. Unfortunately it's the same estate agent that we have sold through so we still have to deal with them but it's not nice. We are now desperately trying to find a new house but will end up having to rent somewhere for maybe a month which brings a whole new set of logistical problems. Lookjng on zopla etc now I dont even want to view a house that is on with our current EA.

m0bov · 30 August 2014 at 1:38PM

Get your offer in principle, then get your OWN building survey/homebuyer report done. Then, once you are happy/renegoitate, go for your mortgage offer. Make sure you also have a sol ready to engage. If you get pestered by EA, go and talk to the vendor and tell them to get the EA to back off or your go elsewhere!

brooklyn07 · 30 August 2014 at 2:29PM

headachesrus wrote: »

It's month end, the estate agents wants its figures in, and they don't count until you have exchanged. Your solicitors (buyers and sellers) won't let you exchance until everything is in order, think of it as a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Don't let them bully you.

I'm starting to think this is the case.... I managed to get hold of my solicitors yesterday who stated that they are absolutely not ready to exchange becuase they are still chasing information from vendors seller as they havent responded to the queries raised from the property information form! So where the EA got the idea that the vendors solicitor was keen to exchange ASAP as everything was now awaiting me I'll never know!

I have my own surveyor going in on Monday which is a good thing as I received a letter from my solicitor today to state that the vendor didnt obtain planning as he didnt think it was needed for the garage conversion so thats something that definitely needs looking into!

So EA is going to have to wait!!

davisc02 · 30 August 2014 at 9:36PM

Don't be bullied by EA's they are only ever after one thing. I would be extremely cautious of any seller/EA who is really trying to rush things through and putting pressure on you. A few months ago I had a seller who was really keen to get everything through within 6 weeks, I had a mortgage offer, valuation paid and then he started mentioning roots, drains and cracks, to cut a long story short the house had £60,000 of subsidence claim against it 7 years ago. I pulled out and I am glad I did.

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EA getting narky.....

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