Buying a House - Our fears

Burnred

Hi there,

My girlfriend and I are first time buyers and have recently signed contracts for the house we are purchasing and also paid the deposit, we have been trying to get a completion date for the end of this month for a few weeks now but areyet to exchange contracts, the estate agents claim they cannot get hold of the vendor and I am personnally slightly worried that she may be avoiding us and possibaly tring to get out of the sale, I wasn't sure if she could do that at this point of the game without us being able to take action against it.
I am hoping that she is away and will be back shortly but the paranoid part of me is worried to lose out at this stage.

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated,

Thank you

Pigster_2

This does seem a bit odd. I would have thought decent buyers are like gold dust at the moment.

Have you tried getting your solicitor to speak to the vendor's solicitor to find out what the problem is? Do you have the vendor's phone number - might just be worth a quick call to see if you can speak to her directly, although EAs and solicitors probably would not be all that happy about this.

Is there any reason why you think she might want to back out of the sale?

Unfortunately until you've actually exchanged contracts, it is always possible for the vendor to have a change of mind, although she could have the decency to be up front about it.

I hope it is something straightforward like the vendor being on holiday or something.

Good luck!

Burnred

Thanks for the quick response. Personnally I think I might be over re-acting as the only thing to go on is the lack of response from the vendor to her estate agents, they are claiming not to be able to reach her by phone and no reply from a letter they said they sent out on tuesday.

She did have another buyer of the house a month before we put an offer in and they had to pull out because she couldn.t complete in time, which gave us a chance to get in there. The vendor is a single mother with a fairly young son so I understand that she may be busy with everything else life brings, also, not to sound harsh, she did seem a little ditzy when we were viewing the property, but that is just my opinion, that could be another aspect to it.

I'm not sure if she has finalised the deal for the property that she is moving into, so there is another thing that could be holding it up.

Its just the lack or response that has me worried.

We do not have her phone number but are considering popping round to see her at the weekend, in the meantime the estate agents say they are going to try contacting her by going around there as well but don't know that we may do the same if they have no joy.

Once again thanks for the quick response.

huntersc

Hold on, you've paid a deposit and signed contracts but haven't exchanged or set a completion date?

'Exchange' is the signing of contracts and you don't pay a deposit until you've done that and have a completion date. Why on earth have you paid a deposit and what have you signed?

All sounds a bit weird to me...

My advice, go speak to your solicitor. You shouldn't even be speaking with the agent at this stage.

Pigster_2

In my experience it's normal to sign the actual contract some time before exchange, so that it's ready to go when everything else like searches etc are all confirmed as satisfactory. Perhaps that's what the OP meant.

maninthestreet

huntersc wrote: »

Hold on, you've paid a deposit and signed contracts but haven't exchanged or set a completion date?

'Exchange' is the signing of contracts and you don't pay a deposit until you've done that and have a completion date. Why on earth have you paid a deposit and what have you signed?

All sounds a bit weird to me...

My advice, go speak to your solicitor. You shouldn't even be speaking with the agent at this stage.

Exchange can't take place until contracts have been signed, but just because they have been signed does not mean exchange has taken place yet.

Fortheloveofmoney

huntersc wrote: »

Hold on, you've paid a deposit and signed contracts but haven't exchanged or set a completion date?

'Exchange' is the signing of contracts and you don't pay a deposit until you've done that and have a completion date. Why on earth have you paid a deposit and what have you signed?

All sounds a bit weird to me...

My advice, go speak to your solicitor. You shouldn't even be speaking with the agent at this stage.

No exchange, is when the signed contracts have been exchanged between solicitors. The deposit should be handed over to the vendors solicitor at that point but would be with your own solicitor first.

pinkshoes

maninthestreet wrote: »

Exchange can't take place until contracts have been signed, but just because they have been signed does not mean exchange has taken place yet.

So why have they already paid the deposit????

(unless they meant that they've just handed it over to the solicitor for holding??)

zone

How long have they been trying to contact the vendor? Are they having second thoughts about selling or received a better offer?

Burnred

We have paid the deposit to our solicitor for holding 3 weeks ago and they are still waiting for enquiries to be completed before the next step is taken, we first tried contacting our solicitors to arrange a completion date and after a week they told us to contact the estate agents as that way we might have more luck, as they were waiting for the vendors solicitors to finish the enquiries. We have been trying to get hold of the vendor for a week via the estate agents and they told us that they have been trying to get hold of her by phone, snail mail and actually have gone round to see her in person but haven't had any luck as of yet. Whether they have or not is a dierent story.

We are thinking about going round to see her at the weekend but don't to seem pushy but at the end of the day we are starting to get worried that she may pull out. Its more paranoia on our behalf as we are new to the house buying game.

Thank you to everyone who has responded.