Am I allowed to contact the vendor direct

lindos90

Would really value some opinions on this.

We recieved Fixtures and fittings and property information questionnaire from our vendor, there were several problems with the forms (briefly..F&f form 65% blank, items initially included in sale, now excluded unless we pay extra, several major contradictions in the documents)

We emailed our solicitor with all the points almost 4 weeks ago, they say they are still waiting for feedback from the vendors solicitor.

EA called today saying the vendor wants to organise dates/contracts asap etc. The vendor appears to know nothing about any outstanding issues, so it looks like his solicitor has not passed the info to him!

I explained this to the EA, who said they would contact the vendor and explain that I am having problems with my solicitor, so the vendor didnt 'loose faith' in his solicitor!!!!

Im not happy with this, the chain of information and possiblilties of each person only passing on selected pieces of information seems a big problem.

Im sat here pondering on what to do, and wondered if I should write a friendly note and pop it through the vendors door, explaining that we are waiting feedback from him/his solicitor (not going into the details of that), and explain the time we have waited, and we are not sure if they know about this.

Im guessing the EA and solicitors would not want me to have direct communication, but im not sure what else to do?

m_13

If there are already problems on the form - issues with things you weren't expecting to pay for etc - then I don't think approaching the vendor directly is the answer.

I would suggest you chase the person you are paying - your solicitor - and the agent who wants the commission from the sale (the one you are buying through).

It's a disgrace that the EA would be telling lies so not to cause the vendor to 'lose faith' in his solicitor! That's not the way to do business.

I suggest that you write to your solicitor requesting that they gain a response from the vendor within 7 days. A letter has to go in a file whereas we found the emails used to go missing. Advise them that the vendor's solicitor does not appear to be communicating with their client but that this is not your issue. You could also tell them what the EA said to you.

I'm sorry but it doesn't sound like this one is going to run smoothly!

pie81

lindos90 wrote: »

The vendor appears to know nothing about any outstanding issues, so it looks like his solicitor has not passed the info to him!

I explained this to the EA, who said they would contact the vendor and explain that I am having problems with my solicitor, so the vendor didnt 'loose faith' in his solicitor!!!!

This is a really bad idea on the part of the EA - not just because it's lying but because it means the problem won't get fixed. Vendor's solicitor will think it's your solicitor causing the hold up and won't get his skates on.

Why is the EA protecting the vendor's solicitor? Did they recommend the solicitor to the vendor by any chance?

lindos90

pie81 wrote: »

Why is the EA protecting the vendor's solicitor? Did they recommend the solicitor to the vendor by any chance?

Yep! you guessed it! (on first name terms!)

Thanks for all your replies, true I should leave it to the people im paying, but its coming to something when I feel I can make a better job of it!!

There has been another development, Ive called my solicitor and pinned him down, apparently the vendors solicitors HAVE passed on this info, but the vendor has not, (or will not) respond. So no need to put the vendor in the picture now, he is aware, has been all along, (unless both solicitors are lying!)

I made it quite clear that I will not consider signing any contract with these issues outstanding, particularly as the F&F list forms part of that contract, and as far as im concerned it is inaccurate and incomplete.

Guess its time I toughened up and got assertive now, with everyone, decided I will be calling my solicitor daily from now on, until he cases things up, even if he does it just to get me off his back!

G_M

Nothing to stop you talking to the vendor direct. Whyever should you not? He/she may not wish to talk to you direct - that's his choice, but if it resolves an issue it's in both your interests.

A frequent issue with property sales is the number of people involved, passing (or not pasing) info back and forth. Sometimes the communication fails and you need to go straight to the horse's mouth.

tek-monkey

The EA only passed on my offer (which was accepted), not the terms I'd attached to it which where that I'd need some of the furniture as I could no longer afford to furnish it as I'd hoped. Once I realised this I called the EA, and reminded them it was a condition of the sale and that I wouldn't budge on it, so they sorted it out.

G_M wrote: »

A frequent issue with property sales is the number of people involved, passing (or not pasing) info back and forth. Sometimes the communication fails and you need to go straight to the horse's mouth.

Yup, in my case the vendors sol was being a pain and not responding. So I went back to the EA as I knew they wanted the commisiion, and they kickstarted it all again. I think you need to be able to put pressure in different places sometimes, the only people I'm not in direct contact with are the vendors sol,

gemstars

This may not be the correct approach for everyone but I 100% believe that if I had not given up trying to sort things via me-my solicitor-vendor's solicitor-vendor or me-EA-vendor and contacted the vendor myself, then I would still be sitting here waiting for an exchange date.

From personal experience I would advise contacting the vendor asap.

1echidna

I agree entirely with G_M. In our purchase we had negotiations over costs identified by survey. At first we went through the EA. We had the distinct impression that:
i) The EA was being aggressive and influencing the vendor without being fair to the validity of our claims
ii) He was not accurately passing on details of problems
We then wrote directly to the vendor with a lot of detail and costings about work required. We did not pressure the vendors, just stated that we were disappointed that the vendor had not agreed to pay what we thought was very fair, half the costs. In response to what was a very low key letter, the vendor immediately agreed to pay half.

It was not the first time in our experience of buying that we found the vendor's EA to have poor communications. In contrast our EA was exceptional with good grasp of detail and gave us full and accurate reports at all stages of the process.

lindos90

m_13 wrote: »

If there are already problems on the form - issues with things you weren't expecting to pay for etc - then I don't think approaching the vendor directly is the answer.

I get what you mean, but my letter was just to say 'look, there are some things that are outstanding, I think your solicitor has not told you we are waiting for' not 'hey, why have you changed your mind about this and that'

Anyway, turns out vendor does know, so dont need to consider a letter, just need him to play fair and communicate back!

SGE1

The same thing happened to us - a partially blank form. But at that point we'd given up trying to change anything. The vendor's solicitor was terrible at passing on information to his client, and knowing that it would have taken us another month to sort things out, we gave up.

I would suggest you start getting angry, and tell them that if you don't get a response within a week or something, you're going to pull out of the deal and look at other properties.

lindos90

1echidna wrote: »

It was not the first time in our experience of buying that we found the vendor's EA to have poor communications. In contrast our EA was exceptional with good grasp of detail and gave us full and accurate reports at all stages of the process.

Problem is that my EA and their EA are the same person!! :rolleyes: