Strange buying process for a house! any thoughts???

dander

So the vendor expects you to get involved in an unusual deal, with no warning and with refuses to pay the extra costs even though he claims the cost would be small? And when you start asking questions and showing that you have some concerns about his plan, instead of offering explanations or reassurance, he says, "There's another buyer."

I don't like the sound of him one bit. Even if the deal is OK, I don't like the way the vendor's playing this. Remember it's a buyer's market, and he's bloody lucky to find someone willing to buy.

Entertainer

I really think some of you are making this more complicated than it is.

What he appears to be suggesting is a delay between exchange and completion beyond the normal 28 days. Once you've exchanged you have both agreed a legal contract at that price. There would be no question of the seller walking off with your deposit- it would be held by the solicitor.

As long as you are happy with the price then go ahead; if you wanted to anticipate future falls then presumably you have done this already in the agreed price. The area you want to cover yourself is in your mortgage valuation which you should confirm with your lender.

As to you "renting" until completion, the risk is all on him not you. After all, he is letting you live in a property that is still his. You shouldn't have many more legal fees either- perhaps an amendment to the contract for sale or a letter confirming that you are allowed to take up residence there before completion.

silvercar

As to you "renting" until completion, the risk is all on him not you. After all, he is letting you live in a property that is still his. You shouldn't have many more legal fees either- perhaps an amendment to the contract for sale or a letter confirming that you are allowed to take up residence there before completion.

The risk to the buyer is that prices drop before completion. If the lender decides to revalue or the original mortgage offer expires, the buyer could be stuck having contracted to complete with no mortgage.

poppysarah

I think it sounds iffy. And I really think if there's another buyer you should let them have the ag of finding out whether it's a scam or not.
And for that reason I'm out!

dawsinho

dander wrote: »

So the vendor expects you to get involved in an unusual deal, with no warning and with refuses to pay the extra costs even though he claims the cost would be small? And when you start asking questions and showing that you have some concerns about his plan, instead of offering explanations or reassurance, he says, "There's another buyer."

I don't like the sound of him one bit. Even if the deal is OK, I don't like the way the vendor's playing this. Remember it's a buyer's market, and he's bloody lucky to find someone willing to buy.

I think i should make clear, i have had no contact with the vendor at all it has all been through the estate agents. As for the "other offer" i am also very sceptable if this is actually the case... when i originally enquired about the house i was informed that they already had an offer on the property so it would not be worth while to offer below that amount. On hearing this i said i wasn't interested and left it a week.

Obviously this didn't seem to prompt them into negotiating a lower offer, so i made an offer on Monday and here we are now.

All being said i'm relatively happy with my offer price as its over 40k cheaper than similar houses on the same street which were sold in recent years.

Still waiting to hear from the solicitor.

Cheers,

Phil

dawsinho

OK. To bring a conclusion to this thread, things have now moved on.

I spoke to my solicitor yesterday who having read through the proposed contract gave me her thoughts. As the contract had been written it was very one-sided and protected the vendor (to be expected) trouble being it didn't give enough reassurances to me encase things went wrong: Basic details:

The exclusivity contract would be entered into by myself and the vendor, i would leave a deposit with the vendors solicitor who on completion would issue the money to the vendor. In the mean time i would be allowed access to the property to live in and to carry out any works that i deemed necessary (needs some work doing to it). The property would be taken off the market and not advertised.

If i defaulted on the agreement the vendor would be able to take my deposit and i would be left out of pocket, in my opinion this would be fair doos apart from the fact a great deal was out of my hands i.e if my mortgage got refused for some reason, if i was made redundant, sickness etc etc

If the vendor defaulted on the agreement i would be able to get back my deposit, but their seemed to be some uncertainty about what would happen regarding any work that i had done to the house etc plus my solicitor said in some circumstances i might have go via the courts to get my deposit back which could cost me a great deal of money, time and effort.

In short i didn't fully understand the contract and felt uncomfortable proceeding.

Rang up the estate agent and retracted my offer last night. Have now received a phone call stating their might be a possibility to just go down the normal route/house buying process and completing on the 2nd of march!

I not covered every aspect of the contract, but was given reassurances from my solicitor that it would be very hard to make it 100% watertight.

Thanks to all for their input.

Ta,

Phil

poppysarah

Well done for being brave enough to say no.

Trollfever

Have now received a phone call stating their might be a possibility to just go down the normal route/house buying process and completing on the 2nd of march!

Where has the other buyer gone who was keen and ready to proceed?

:rotfl:

silvercar

TBH there seems nothing unusual about the contract other than the long time between exchange and completion and that you would be allowed to live in the property before completion.

The greater risks are all because of the long delay, rather than anything dodgy contained in the contract.

GDB2222

Trollfever wrote: »

Where has the other buyer gone who was keen and ready to proceed?

:rotfl:

Hehe. I wonder what the EA has to say about that?