Vendors pull out AFTER exchange of contract

F_T_Buyer

It sounds like the Vendors have only lost their reservation fee, £500 ish (not their deposit, usually 10%). Small fry in the scale of things.

benood

WW have you considered paying the vendors a visit?

RabbitMad

I'd be tempted to claim to be homeless and set up camp on the vendors lawn after parking my car across their drive to block them in.

Such trespass (as there is no criminal intent) isn't a police matter I think.

oldone_2

Welshwoofs wrote: »

Not only had they not exchanged when we exchanged....they hadn't exchanged when our completion date rolled round. What they've lost appears to be a small (1% most likely?) deposit paid to the developers to secure the property.

If they had not exchanged on the new property, but on their sale, where did they plan to move to on completion. Perhaps they thought that exchanging on their sale was no big deal, and that they could get out of it easily.

The more I think about this, the more obvious it becomes that they wanted to back out of the sale a long time before exchange with the O.P., and were either panicked into doing so, or considered it didn't really count.

Welshwoofs

benood wrote: »

WW have you considered paying the vendors a visit?

In a manner of speaking..... lol

Welshwoofs

oldone wrote: »

The more I think about this, the more obvious it becomes that they wanted to back out of the sale a long time before exchange with the O.P., and were either panicked into doing so, or considered it didn't really count.

Well I personally think they changed their minds a long, long time ago. Initially they wanted a super quick sale with an extremely short time between exchange and completion (which sent us chasing around like crazy things to do works to our own property to get it suitable for renting) and then they suddenly changed and pushed back the completion date to nearly two months after exchange. We agreed to that as we wanted to be flexible for them (more fool us!).

My opinion is that it was at that point, when they asked to push completion dates back, that they knew they weren't going through with it and the big time lapse has simply been so they could scrabble around and get advice. I absolutely don't believe they only decided to pull out the before day before completion - if that was the true position then I'd have thought they would have exchanged on the property they were due to move to, otherwise they'd have been sitting in a removals van with nowhere to go!

beccad

Welshwoofs wrote: »

Well I personally think they changed their minds a long, long time ago. Initially they wanted a super quick sale with an extremely short time between exchange and completion (which sent us chasing around like crazy things to do works to our own property to get it suitable for renting) and then they suddenly changed and pushed back the completion date to nearly two months after exchange. We agreed to that as we wanted to be flexible for them (more fool us!).

My opinion is that it was at that point, when they asked to push completion dates back, that they knew they weren't going through with it and the big time lapse has simply been so they could scrabble around and get advice. I absolutely don't believe they only decided to pull out the before day before completion - if that was the true position then I'd have thought they would have exchanged on the property they were due to move to, otherwise they'd have been sitting in a removals van with nowhere to go!

As well as the belief that you'd be happy to give up if they merely repaid your costs. Plenty of people would have done that too I suppose if their property requirements weren't quite so specific as you require (with good reason obviously)...

Do you think they've taken any legal advice? Their responses seem rather amateur, in the sense that they seem to be writing the letters themselves without any legal advice, or at best very bad advice from some cowboy telling them what they want to hear in order to make a quick buck!

To add: is there any chance of writing to them to ask what their exact financial situation is? If they hadn't exchanged on the new-build where were they planning to live after they'd completed with you??!

clutton_2

is their solicitor a sole practitioner and a friend of theirs ? might this explain the whiney letters ?

pawpurrs

How about sending the big guys in, I know a couple of ex baliffs, they know how to get people out, and a lot cheaper than court

Strapped

Much as I'm "enjoying" reading this thread, I agree with the other posters who have said that WW should now "go silent" on t'internet because I'm sure that if the vendors are not reading this thread, then someone who knows them is. Don't give your hand away before court.