Time to put my house back on the market?

tigerminxy

I accepted an offer on my house a while ago, with certain deadlines including that the sale be completed within 6 weeks. (No chain involved either end, buyer accepted the deadlines.) It's been well over the 6 weeks now but since there was clear progress being made in the early stages I was relaxed about the early deadlines.

Now, however, we seem to have stalled and literally every time I've rung in the past four weeks the agent claims 'we should complete on Friday' whilst giving me some story or other about the other side's solicitors.

My solicitor says the other side have not made contact with her at all for the past 6 weeks, not even to acknowledge a fax she sent just basically checking that they were still alive.

The buyer is supposedly very keen to get this sorted and, according to the agent, has been screaming at her solicitor to get it sorted but frankly, I'lve lost my patience.

I've shown a huge amount of goodwill, not just in extending deadlines, but also in turning down higher offers for the house because I didn't think it was morally fair to stitch up the buyer. However, none of this goodwill seems to have been returned and I'm now thinking I should just say 'all bets are off' and put the house back on the market.

Yes, I will have incurred solicitors fees and wasted time but, to be honest, I'm confident I'll get a higher offer elsewhere which will more than compensate me for it.

What would you do in my position?

PoorDave

I'd set a new deadline of say 2 more weeks, and do this in writing from your solicitor to their solicitor.

Make it clear that if the tasks you want sorted aren't done by then, you will have no choice but to put it back on the market, highers offers etc. Doing this out of goodwill, despite buyer not sticking to original deadline and going a bit AWOL etc.

Also you accept no responsibility for their wasted costs, as they agreed to the 6 weeks (in writing?)

tigerminxy

I've already warned about putting the house back on the market, albeit verbally through the EA. Good advice about doing this through the solicitors, though.

The original deadlines were in the solicitors letters and the EA's memorandum of sale, too, so I've got that covered. To be honest, even without that, I don't think I have to cover their costs anyway, do I?

Doozergirl

No response from a solicitor in six weeks sounds like a very poor state of affairs.

I wouldn't dump your buyer altogether but I would put your house back on the market and send the message through the estate agent that you are very sorry to have to do it, that you are not blaming her, but your solicitor is very concerned about having no response from hers.

If she wants to continue with the purchase, I'd suggest that your buyer speaks to the complaints handler at her solicitors office. They should all have one and if she has a 'terms and conditions of business' booklet, it should state the person to deal with. If she gets things sorted, then you can carry on, but I'd be asking for an olive branch from her solicitor too.

SammyD_2

Can you speak to the buyer direct - when I was buying I found it quite useful to understand direct from the horses mouth what was going on. You might then understand whether she is hopeless or whether she needs to give her solicitor a stern talking to. I would give 7 days for clear intention to proceed, otherwise back on the market.

Jorgan_2

Try & find out what, if any, progress the buyer has made. Have they had the survey done, mortgage offer issued, searches applied for. If they have all 3 I would probably extend the deadline. If a survey was done some time ago & their is no mortgage offer, try to find out why. If nothings been done then re-market straight away.

You are correct in saying that you do not have to cover their costs.

tigerminxy

Thanks all for responses so far.

As far as I am told, everything has been done - survey, mortgage offer, &c. The only thing left to happen is the actual exchange yet nothing has been done, despite the buyer supposedly being happy about the survey and searches. This is the most frustrating thing about it. I could understand if they were hanging on for the local authority searches or whatever.

lynzpower

Couldnt you ask the buyer to just get a new conveyancer, these ones seem to be pretty rubbish. Or complain of course.

NastyMatt

tigerminxy wrote:

Thanks all for responses so far.

As far as I am told, everything has been done - survey, mortgage offer, &c. The only thing left to happen is the actual exchange yet nothing has been done, despite the buyer supposedly being happy about the survey and searches. This is the most frustrating thing about it. I could understand if they were hanging on for the local authority searches or whatever.

Phone the buyer direct.. say "what day do you want to complete?" when they reply with a date answer "that's good for me.. now ring your solicitor and confirm the date. I will ring mine now. Mine will then ring yours to exchange in 20 minutes".

If the conversation does not go exactly like that you know something is up and it is time to say "I am happy to put this back on the market with in 24 hours if we do not set a completion date".

They will lose a lot of ££££.. a lot more than you.

coolamoke

Have a word with the buyer and at least give them a fighting chance.

It's stressful for all parties not least the vendor.

If you want to take it off the market and cash-in on a better offer, all good luck to you - you were happy enough to accept the buyer's original offer after all. Personally - I would hope that Karma prevails and you don't.

Doozergirl

coolamoke wrote:

If you want to take it off the market and cash-in on a better offer, all good luck to you - you were happy enough to accept the buyer's original offer after all.

Yes, on the assumption that they might actually be serious about buying it. If you are going make an offer on a house, the very least you can do is drive the deal along, or take some kind of action if your attempts fail.

coolamoke wrote:

Personally - I would hope that Karma prevails and you don't.

SO, when the OP has been messed around for weeks on end, the solicitor has gone AWOL and it appears that the sale has pretty much fallen, it would be karma if they couldn't find another sale? Absolute Rubbish. :mad:

The OP and their solicitor have tried repeatedly to re-establish contact without luck and the OP is perfectly entitled to start the remarketing process.