Vendor causing us problems- advice gratefully recived

Pumpkin7

We have been left in a mess by our vendor and would greatly appreciate some advice on what to do.
We sold our house in August on the basis we would move quickly to allow the buyer to be in time for school applications. So we found a house and put an offer on also dependant on the fact the vendor moved quickly to which she replied she would be renting. We ensured that the vendor knew she was to act quickly before we proceeded and she constantly agreed to this.
The original completion date was 10th November. However this was not possible so everyone agreed on the 3rd December. Then 2 weeks ago vendor claims know nothing about the 3rd! In the meantime the FTB at bottom of chain demands we complete by 3rd anyway or they walk. Our vendor refuses to complete by the 3rd but agrees to the 17th.
So we decide to grin and bear the extra hassle and cost of having 2 weeks of having no home as there is no way we would risk losing our buyers in this current climate and we feel it is imperative to bend over backwards for buyers.
Then we find out yesterday the vendor no refuses to move out by 17th. It turns out she has decided to buy after all and is waiting for her purchase to be ready for exchange.
We were livid that she has misled us about going into rented and not bothered to inform us until after we are now left with no home come Friday.
The huge issue we have is that our mortgage offer expires on 31st December and our broker has warned us we will be offered 20k less. Yet even after this the vendor still will not agree to move out by the 17th as orginally agreed! So that means chain collapses(or she loses 20k)
We are very angry and upset at the vendor for misleading us and she will potentially lose us mortgage money. She has let us waste the past three months and left us with no home over Christmas. We would have pursued another house if she had been honest. Not mention the money that we be wasted whilst our belongings are stored.

The problem is this is literally the only house in that ticks all our needs (there is so little for sale in our relatively small budget that is near by our child’s school and a train station). If we don’t get it before the 31s December I have no idea what will do and where we will live. I am reluctant to change my child’s school but we may have to leave the area as if we do lose this 20k we will be totally priced out of this area.

Part of me want to never to deal with this horrible woman again (we also have issues where she refused us a measuring up viewing and also lied that a broken window was a fire escape window) and even give 1p to her but I don’t want to cut off my nose to spite my face.
Do we just walk away and risk not finding a home suitable for an unknown amount of time?
Is there anything we do regarding her breaking her verbal agreement and wasting and losing our money too?

TrickyDicky101

If you haven't already exchanged with her (and it sounds as if you haven't) then AFAIK there is no legal recourse open to you to try and recover money from the vendor (other than by reducing any subsequent offer you make - which she will not be forced to accept).

sonastin

If you haven't exchanged contracts with her then I'm afraid there is nothing (legal!) that you can do to her.

Are there any options for renting yourself in the area?

Pumpkin7

Thanks for the reply Tricky.The house buying system is ridiculous. You sue a supermaket if you fall over a an apple on the floor.Yet if someone wastes your time, your money, breaks a verbal agreement a leaves a family homeless and loses you 20k then there is no recourse at all. Seems very fair.

Come January we will have to offer less if we still want to offer anything at all.Am shocked a vendor would gamble a sale like this we have sacrified a lot for our buyers and rightly so.

Pumpkin7

Sonastin we are in an sitiuation where we can afford a mortage but not to rent. Have looked today and a 1 bedroom flat is £750pcm where our mortage would be £450 pcm

pimento

Does your vendor know all this?

G_M

The general rule is that Exchange on all properties in the chain takes place simultaneously. For a reason.

Until Exchange, no one is committed and anyone can withdraw or delay.

Thus there is a very well established process for simultaneous Exchange.

ps - I agree about the apple though!

casperlarue

What a horrible situation for you to find youself in. You're right it is a ridiculous system we have in the UK, but its the only one we have right now so you have to do the best you can with it.

- Has your vendor indicated when her purchase will be ready to exchange? I assume she wants to tie her sale to you in with her purchase.

- Has your sale exchanged yet? Would you be prepared to sell and go into rented?

- Obviously you can't force your vendor to do anything she doesn't want to do, it seems as though she has been tricky up to this point. Is she aware that if she doesn't complete with you by 31st December then you will have to resubmit your mortgage application and your offer will be sustantially reduced because of this? Her purchase will not progress if you pull out.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do, its unfortunate that you have come up against the worst type of seller......a practical head is needed, not the emotional one!

Pumpkin7

Pimento do you mean about the mortgage offer reducing?Yes she does know.

Dont know if we should hang on incase in goes through or walk away and look into different areas

Pumpkin7

casperlarue wrote: »

What a horrible situation for you to find youself in. You're right it is a ridiculous system we have in the UK, but its the only one we have right now so you have to do the best you can with it.

- Has your vendor indicated when her purchase will be ready to exchange? I assume she wants to tie her sale to you in with her purchase.

- Has your sale exchanged yet? Would you be prepared to sell and go into rented?

- Obviously you can't force your vendor to do anything she doesn't want to do, it seems as though she has been tricky up to this point. Is she aware that if she doesn't complete with you by 31st December then you will have to resubmit your mortgage application and your offer will be sustantially reduced because of this? Her purchase will not progress if you pull out.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do, its unfortunate that you have come up against the worst type of seller......a practical head is needed, not the emotional one!

There is no date set what so ever as far as aware for her purchase. All seems a bit pointless if she loses her buyers anyway.

Our own sale has exchanged and we are bound to complete on Friday. We were aware of the risk of exchanging just on the sale but did not want to risk a total collapse. The vednor agreed to move out two weeks later anyway.

We are staying with family but this is only meant as tempory measure and we have to leave January 6th

She is fully aware of the mortage but refuses to budge

I think she doesnt atcually want to sell I can see no other reason for this. Also just had the excuse she wont commit to a date incase the removal people arent available!

TrickyDicky101

Somewhat off-topic, but I think the English system of no enforecable contract on property transactions until exchange has taken place isn't necessarily bad: it has benefits in that the contract is only in place once all parties have carefully considered whether they are happy to move forward with the purchase/sale. If all verbal agreements were enforceable, I wager it would probably result in as many grievances occuring as under the current system; they would just be different. I'm not saying it's perfect but you do know where you stand (ie nowhere) until exchange has taken place. Hence why exchanges should be synchronised up and down the chain.