Did our vendors pull out on the day we were exchanging/completing???

jiggermanch

Hi, never posted on here before... in a very stressful situation at the moment and hope there might be some advice or shared experiences out there to help make us feel better!!!

We are first time buyers, and from comparing our experience with friends and family, we seem to have been really unlucky to have come across a very difficult vendor. All the way through the process he has acted like he is doing us a favour by selling us the house! From keeping changing his mind about what inital buying price he would accept... to being very difficult about renegotiating the price for essential work that needs to be done from the survey (he had personally told us he would be happy to split it 50%-50%, but then told us he was not going to drop the price by a penny!)... to not leaving the keys with the estate agent and going away for weeks on end! Its been a nightmare and we thought that it would all finally be over this week when we were due to exchange contracts and complete on the same day.

On top of this we have had massive problems with the bank regarding getting the mortgage paperwork sorted - the customer service has been shocking!!! but to be fair to them, they did get the funds to our solicitors in time...

So on D-day (confirmed by vendor as not a problem), his solicitors tried to contact him to get the final nod. It transpires that he is out of the country and is not contactable - on the day he is selling his house! He had been in contact with his solicitors the day before and told them everything was still on for the next day. The solicitors managed to get hold of his partner who said that there was some problem with their mortgage/bank account and she wouldn't be able to access funds if they completed today and so we now have to wait until next week when he is back in the country and can make alternative arrangements with the bank. The solicitors on both sides were in dicussions for the rest of the day, with his trying to get hold of him or his partner to see if they were willing to exchange and let us have the keys (the property is currently vacant). Yup, you guessed it - they were not able to get hold of them.

We were obviously gutted - we had taken time off work, packed the car up, were going to order stuff for the house, get to measure up and maybe do a bit of decorating. We agreed the completion date weeks ago as it was really important to us to get it done this week. We've not even had so much as a sorry, or a phonecall from the vendor.

We're hoping and keeping our fingers crossed that it will all go through on next week. However, we are aware that we haven't exchanged yet and so technically the vendor could tell us next week that hes changed his mind and isn't going to sell the house. Eeeeeeekkkkkkkkkk!!! The frustrating thing is we just have no idea what is going on. Anyone got any words of wisdom or had a similar experience????

Blackpool_Saver

Is this the vendors own residence?
Have they got lots of houses, I am thinking that if they have this might not be such a big deal to them, more like oh another house sale etc etc,
In any case it is very bad manners and behaviour, what does your solictor say?

jiggermanch

It is, they have already relocated to another part of the country, so the house is empty and i guess they need to sell this house before they can buy another house...

Our solicitor was frustrated yesterday, and by all accounts so was the vendors solicitor - being on fixed fees, this is meant to be the straightforward easy part for them! Our solicitor has said we just need to sit tight and go through the process again on monday. it gets a bit more complicated if it doesn't happen on monday as our solicitor will have to send the funds back to the bank. its such a mess.

we can't help feeling that there is something else going on that the vendor isn't telling us the truth about... but then again he wouldn't need to give us a reason if he does pull out. the estate agents can't even let us in the property this weekend to measure up - because they can't get hold of the vendor, aaarrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!

Ulfar

I am assuming that you were going to complete and exchange on the same day. This is another reason to not agree to this arrangement.

It leaves things open to this sort of abuse.

It just doesn't work for wither a seller or a buyer. I cannot imagine the levels of stress it would cause if you were part of a chain.

iamana1ias

Whose idea was it to exchange and complete on the same day? It's almost asking for trouble!

jiggermanch

As FTBs, we're not used to this whole game... we took advice from our solicitor re: exchange/completing together, thats just how we were told it would happen. Now we are wishing we had queried it and pushed to exchange before now.

What is the norm? Do people tend to keep the exchange and completion parts seperately or do most people exchange and complete on the same day?

It seems that a lot of this house buying process involved a level of trust on both sides, and when one side isn't playing fair the other is left in quite a vulnerable position. We feel like the vendor has been out for what he can get and just doesn't care about how he affects anyone else.

iamana1ias

jiggermanch wrote: »

As FTBs, we're not used to this whole game... we took advice from our solicitor re: exchange/completing together, thats just how we were told it would happen. Now we are wishing we had queried it and pushed to exchange before now.

What is the norm? Do people tend to keep the exchange and completion parts seperately or do most people exchange and complete on the same day?

It seems that a lot of this house buying process involved a level of trust on both sides, and when one side isn't playing fair the other is left in quite a vulnerable position. We feel like the vendor has been out for what he can get and just doesn't care about how he affects anyone else.

Put it this way I'd never exchange and complete on the same day. I didn't even as a first time buyer (I guess I did my homework). It's just too risky.

Have bought 6 houses and sold 5 and have never done it. Always had at least 2 weeks between exchange and completion and in 2 cases had more than 2 months.

I'd guess that around 5-10% of people try and do it all on the same day. But think about it. They are separate things for a reason

jiggermanch

Yeah, that does make sense. I guess that we just thought that our solicitor is much more experienced in these kinds of matters than us and so just went along with what he was saying to do. If he had made us aware that the majority of people DO NOT exchange and complete on the same day then we would have maybe had a different opinon. Unfortunatly, we might have to put this down to experience. All the control of this situation is firmly planted at the vendors feet.... its a very uncomfertable position for us to be in. Oh well, lets hope Monday has a happy ending!

G_M

Go for a reduction in price because of the costs/hassle you've incurred. You'll soon find out how serious the vendor is/or isn't about selling. Chances are he'll mess you about again so show that you are fed up and will either walk away or Exchange at a reduced price (this time with Completion 2 weeks later).

Curlywurli

I've exchanged and completed twice before with no problems at all, so think it depends on who you're dealing with. Some people are just strange when it comes to selling or buying.
We had a woman pull out on us the day before exchange- she had been difficult the whole way, even sent someone round to check that the soil pipe wasn't leaking down the wall in our living room! I don't know many people who'd sit in their living room with a leaking soil pipe!

Ulfar

Curlywurli wrote: »

I've exchanged and completed twice before with no problems at all, so think it depends on who you're dealing with. Some people are just strange when it comes to selling or buying.
We had a woman pull out on us the day before exchange- she had been difficult the whole way, even sent someone round to check that the soil pipe wasn't leaking down the wall in our living room! I don't know many people who'd sit in their living room with a leaking soil pipe!

You were lucky. I have been both a vendor and a purchaser where the other side wanted to exchange and complete on the same day.

As a vendor it was mentioned that this was what was going to happen and that they wouldn't be paying a deposit up front by my estate agent. As I was moving into rented at the time and had made the estate agent aware that I would want at least 4 weeks between the exchange and completion. I was not a happy bunny, even more so as my purchaser seemed to be having second thoughts.

I set the estate agent very firmly in their place by reminding them that they were working for me not my buyer and that the conditions of the sale were my decision not theirs. Amazingly exchange happened two days after this with a month before completion.

It also leads you open to gazundering a s a vendor.

As a purchaser it is much worse as if your vendor backs out you have no comeback. The stress for the OP must be huge.

I have to say I use the same firm of solicitors now and have discussed exchange and completion on the same day with them, they would never suggest this as it is as outlined above too risky.