24 weeks for a house to complete and counting....

possom46

My elderly mother accepted an offer on her property 24 weeks ago through a local estate agent, she accepted a lowish offer on the property as she wanted a quick sale (she had recently moved into a council elderly person's bungalow). Basically, the sale has still not completed. It turns out that the estate agent is good friends with the people buying the house (for their son to rent out) and they have had trouble getting the deposit together due to it coming from 2 of their existing properties. We are ringing weekly the estate agents and the solicitors and it still seems no closer to completing. Is there anything she can do? Obviously she could pull out of the sale but then she has to go through it all again probably at a better selling price and a quicker completion but why should she? Is there any way of reporting this situation, (we feel that the estate agents shouldn't have agreed the sale on the property if the buyers had no way of raising the cash), or does she just have to wait?

silvercar

You might not have been told the full story, maybe there is a chain and another sale is linked to yours. You are definitely being expected to wait around with no clear reason. I would be inclined to tell them to exchange within the next fortnight or you will remarket the property.

possom46

silvercar wrote:

You might not have been told the full story, maybe there is a chain and another sale is linked to yours. You are definitely being expected to wait around with no clear reason. I would be inclined to tell them to exchange within the next fortnight or you will remarket the property.

There is no other sale linked to it. My mother has just sold it and moved into a rented bungalow, and the buyers are purchasing it as an investment property for their son whilst he is studying at university.

Giving them a deadline would seem the only way forward at the moment, but then my mother is worrying about going through the whole thing again

Jorgan_2

It sounds like the buyer is re-mortgaging other properties to raise their deposit. The agents may not have known the situation with the buyer & their finances. Unfotunatley, agents get slammed for pushing buyers into speaking to their mortgage brokers & slammed when they haven't confirmed the buyers financial situation. If I were you I would give a deadline for when exchange & completion have to take place by. If you do this, you need to stand firm & stick by it. It may be uncomfortable having to remarket & start the process again but you aren't getting anywere know.

The agent is supposed to be acting in your best interests, by letting a sale run for 24 weeks with no chain either end, you could certainly argue that he/she isn't. Tell them you are not happy, give them the deadline to exchange & notice to terminate their contract. That could well speed things up.

AMILLIONDOLLARS

Are you sure the Estate Agents haven't under-valued the property because they are Good Friends with these people? I would in the meantime get the property valued by two other agents. You hear the horror stories of this type of thing happening and the house being subsequently sold for far more, a couple of weeks later, in the case of one of my previous neighbours £30,000 more:mad:.

This sounds like property developers who have made good friends with the EA!!

Woby_Tide

If she isn't desperate for the money then give them a deadline or say the price will increase to £x, if they aren't happy remarket it. I'm assuming at moment only costs incurred are some solicitors fees? Was there much interest when it originally went on i.e. are you confident it would sell again?

possom46

Thanks everyone for your replies

We're going to ring up Monday and give them a 2 week deadline. It definitely would sell again, probably at 10,000 more than the offer she is going with. The only reason she sold to this particular buyer is because the estate agents explained that there was no chain and it would be a quick sale.

possom46

UPDATE:-

The estate agent has just rung my mum to say that the buyers will be a further 2-3 weeks so it's now in her best interests to pull out of the sale and re-market it. My mother is now in a real state about it (she is now suffering high blood pressure for the first time in her life), she is worrying that she will have to start paying council tax on the property if it takes much longer to sell. The positive thing is that it will probably sell again quickly and at a higher price although the interest rate rise might affect it now, it will still be another 6-7 weeks at the earliest though

Jorgan_2

Possom46, why not try & take control of the situation. If you get offers on the property, accept them on the basis of a 28 day exchange. Stipulate this to the agent from the outset.

It generally gets stressful when people aren't informed of whats going on, keep on top of the agent & solicitors to ensure everything is being done.

possom46

Jorgan wrote:

Possom46, why not try & take control of the situation. If you get offers on the property, accept them on the basis of a 28 day exchange. Stipulate this to the agent from the outset.

It generally gets stressful when people aren't informed of whats going on, keep on top of the agent & solicitors to ensure everything is being done.

Thanks for this, have just had a call from the agent, they are taking someone round this afternoon and have stipulated that if they are interested it must complete in 4 weeks