How to ask the vendors for lost fees?

madfrenchgirl

Hi guys,

As my sig says, our vendors pulled out on us, leaving us dry of 3 months of our time and energy and 850 pounds of our hard earned cash.

We know that they are not obliged to refund us jack, but there is nothing to lose in asking, is there?

Problem is our sh1tty sollic refuses to write the letter for us. My boss has advised me not to send the letter to the vendors directly as they could take me to court if they did not like any of the words written down. If we write a letter and give it to our sollic, then they will have an obligation to go though it and double check it: another failsafe in case the vendors "dont like it".

Now, we dont have a clue as to where to start... Since this situation is quite common, does anyone have experience in writing such letters?

Any help would be most welcome.

snarffie

madfrenchgirl wrote:

Hi guys,

As my sig says, our vendors pulled out on us, leaving us dry of 3 months of our time and energy and 850 pounds of our hard earned cash.

We know that they are not obliged to refund us jack, but there is nothing to lose in asking, is there?

Problem is our sh1tty sollic refuses to write the letter for us. My boss has advised me not to send the letter to the vendors directly as they could take me to court if they did not like any of the words written down. If we write a letter and give it to our sollic, then they will have an obligation to go though it and double check it: another failsafe in case the vendors "dont like it".

Now, we dont have a clue as to where to start... Since this situation is quite common, does anyone have experience in writing such letters?

Any help would be most welcome.

Personally, I wouldn't bother, as it just drags out the agony of the whole situation, and is very likely to waste even more of your time. Chalk it up to experience, get a different solicitor and look for an even better house to buy than the one you missed out on.

Sorry, I'm not giving any useful advice, but I really can't see you getting anything out of the vendor.

Best of luck, whatever you do!

Debt_Free_Chick

I agree - you should move on. And prepared for this to happen again.

When you make an offer for a property you are effectively saying "Hey, I might want to buy this. Just give me some time to investigate the state of the property, do the searches, explore my mortgage options, instruct my solicitor etc etc". The real offer doesn't happen until exchange. Up till then, you can pull out and the vendor has no come back. Or they can pull out - again no come back.

You have to go into every potential purchase on the assumption that things can go awry before you exchange and, if they do, you will have spent money and have nothing to show for it.

Do you know why they pulled out? It could be for any one of a number of reasons and you might be sympathetic with some of them.

At the end of the day, you simply have to write it off to experience.

This situation has never been unusual. What's changed is that people now want someone else to pay. But the costs are simply part of the risk you take when you buy a property.

Sorry, but I think you should move on to more positive things

Joe_Bloggs

Did their vendor pull out and break the chain ? Did the vendor of the vendor's vendor pull out ? If you are a first time buyer then you are often at the bottom of a chain. I'm sure a great many people are dissapointed in the sale falling through. Perhaps you can arrange for certain fees to be paid on completion of the mortgage in the future.
Perhaps write the letter to yourself as to why you feel so angry. Perhaps you could get an explaination and commiserations if you express your regret and sympathy to the vendor regarding the lack of a sale. Demanding money will get you nowhere in this case.
J_B.

madfrenchgirl

just to clarify things: we have moved on to or epositive things, I am not one of those "lets sue them brigade" and i am not putting the blame on anyone.

Just that I was brought up with the "if you dont ask, you dont get". That's it.

The reason why they pulled out is quite obscure I would say, but there was no chain involved. IMO, they changed their minds and wanted to come back to their "already-paid-for" house instead of going on paying a mortgage on a one-bedroom flat in London (they were already there).

So the way I see it is: ok we lost that house, we will find something better and I wont lose sleep over it. I tend to think of things like that as just not meant to be and hope for the best.

Oh dear, I am so looking forward to HPI's! Even though the already home owners' brigade are so against it, it is ridiculous.

missk_ensington

I'd write a letter and send it to the Vendors, you cannot be sued for writing a letter someone doesn't like! My Mum has a law degree and a property company, and two go hand in hand. She bought a flat once and found 'swingers' equipment in cupboards. By coincidence she ended up in court with him for mis-rep and embroidered her Witness Statement with tales of a 2 foot inflatable penis. It made the judge laugh anyway!

As long as your letter isn't calling them the scum of the earth there realy isn't anything you can do, although to be honest I doubt you'll be successful. Play the 'thats all my savings gone' card and appeal to their better nature, and then try and agree 50% each of what you've lost

silvercar

We wrote a similar letter when we were gazumped; they wrote back saying "sorry, its life" but they did add a paragraph saying that they had since lost their dream house. Made me feel a lot better.

lynzpower

madfrenchgirl wrote:

just to clarify things: we have moved on to or epositive things, I am not one of those "lets sue them brigade" and i am not putting the blame on anyone.

Just that I was brought up with the "if you dont ask, you dont get". That's it.

The reason why they pulled out is quite obscure I would say, but there was no chain involved. IMO, they changed their minds and wanted to come back to their "already-paid-for" house instead of going on paying a mortgage on a one-bedroom flat in London (they were already there).

So the way I see it is: ok we lost that house, we will find something better and I wont lose sleep over it. I tend to think of things like that as just not meant to be and hope for the best.

Oh dear, I am so looking forward to HPI's! Even though the already home owners' brigade are so against it, it is ridiculous.

Im not I cant wait either

madfrenchgirl

Silvercar and Kensington... do you still have the letters lying around? maybe i could use them as a starting point?

courtjester

madfrenchgirl wrote:

Oh dear, I am so looking forward to HPI's! Even though the already home owners' brigade are so against it, it is ridiculous.

A Home Information Pack won't make a jot of difference to your situation - there is nothing in the terms of the pack proposals to stop any buyer or vendor from pulling out of a sale anytime they like for no reason - it is entire fallacy that the introduction of the pack will make the process more certain, quicker or prevent gazumping or any of the other ills that beset the current process.

Only when legislation is introduced to make offer and acceptance binding in property transactions (as it is in general commercial transactions) will this sort of thing be avoided, or at least compensation made available.

I agree with other comments - there is no point in sending a letter to the vendors other than to pile on more grief. I can't see any situation where a vendor would offer to pay your expenses and certainly not if you try and claim any rights to compensation, which plainly don't exist. You might conceivably appeal to their sense of fairness if you word your letter nicely, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Bossyboots

While it is true HIPs wont stop this situation, they will mean that the buyer loses less money when it does occur.