Buyer of my house is messing about

blondeblondie

We sold our house a few weeks ago, taking £4000 less than asking price, survey came back with no problems, so everything was going ahead. We got a call from our solicitor Weds 5th July 2006 telling us to be out of our house by 2pm Weds 12th, so this is what we aimed for. Sorted out van hire, sorted out all change of addresses, including insurances all to take place on 12th. The people whose house we are buying are moving to Cyprus, so they sorted everything out to take place again on the 12th as their solicitor also told them to be out by the 12th. All was going well until around 2pm on the 12th when we got a call from the solicitor telling us that the buyers money hadn't come through, well you can imagine what state we were in, half of our furniture was at the new address, the hire van had to be back and we were stuck in limbo. The people who we are buying the house off kindly let us stay in their house against the advice of their solicitor as we have two young children and they are very kind hearted people, obviously!! We were told that it was guaranteed to go through Thursday, again, this never happened, then we were told Friday, again, it never happened, so we had to sit tight all weekend on the guarantee that it was going to go through today, Monday 17th July, it's now 4pm and it still hasn't happened. Nobody can tell us anything despite being in constant contact with solicitors and estate agents. Any advice whatsoever would be greatly accepted.

mjfusent

I'm not sure I can offer any direct advise but those who can would want to know what your contractual situation was, i.e. has the chain exchanged contracts? Or where you planning to exchange and complete at the same time?

Also what is your solicitors view?

dougk_2

Your solicitor should be sorting things out and advising accordingly.
Keep chasing them until they have a definitive answer from your buyers solicitors.
If they are in breach of contract then your solicitor should be threatening legal action.

Jorgan_2

Sounds to me like you haven't exchanged contracts, can you confirm this OP? If you haven't exchanged contracts then there isnt't a lot you can do except to find out what is causing the delay.

If you have exchanged contracts then the property will go under licence for a period of 10 days, you can not offer it for re-sale during this time, it is meant to give your buyer time to resolve the situation. If, after 10 days the situation hasn't changed you solicitor will advise you what action is best to take, depending on whether a depoist was used for exchange.

Best of luck, keeping trying to find out why there is a delay, at least if you find that out it may give you some understanding rather than wondering what the hell is going on.

lilyann1

Can I ask where you are staying amongst all this????
Sounds awful!!!

blondeblondie

No this is the unfortunate thing, we haven't exchanged as yet, we were supposed to be doing this all at the same time, so it doesn't look like we can do a damn thing about it. Thanks anyway

blondeblondie

We are actually staying in what is supposed to be our new house, as the people we are buying from are very nice people, and we have been in contact with them throughout. By law, I guess we are squatting!!!

dougk_2

If I were you I would get your solicitor to give them 48 hours to either exchange or you pull out. Sorry it doesn't help you that much but if something isn't sorted out you could be in the same situation for months. Regardless I would tell your EA to put the property back on the market with immediate effect.

Debt_Free_Chick

blondeblondie wrote:

No this is the unfortunate thing, we haven't exchanged as yet...

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Sorry, but you have no contract. The contract isn't valid and enforceable until exchange - without it, you have no grounds to take action against anyone :eek:

blondeblondie

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Sorry, but you have no contract. The contract isn't valid and enforceable until exchange - without it, you have no grounds to take action against anyone :eek:

can I not sue for maladministration or delay on the estate agents part?

Doozergirl

blondeblondie wrote:

can I not sue for maladministration or delay on the estate agents part?

The short answer? No.

Nobody has commited to anything until contracts are exchanged and your estate agent really isn't the one to blame, no matter how much they frustrate you.