First Time Discrimination?

betmunch

Once you have the memo of sale you can cut them right out the loop, do everything via your solicitors and the repo companies solicitors.

You didnt answer my question about who the EA is?

Lesmix

betmunch wrote: »

Once you have the memo of sale you can cut them right out the loop, do everything via your solicitors and the repo companies solicitors.

You didnt answer my question about who the EA is?

I don't want to name names here but it's not the company you mentioned earlier.

Thanks for the info about the memo.

LisaB1970

We're feeling your pain. We put an offer in on a repo almost 3 weeks ago now and the EA keeps telling us that the vendors "agents" haven't got back to them on whether or not our offer has been accepted. We asked if the EA could call the vendor direct and they said no! The story we have is that the property recently changed agents so it has to be re-marketed as a new instruction and its the paperwork that is taking ages. We love this house and have put in a good offer so cannot understand why the vendor is being so slow, although we are beginning to wonder if its the EA's doing! We thought the mortgagee would be wanting to sell this house. The EA keeps promising they will "Try for an answer by tomorrow but will call you either way" and they never do. My husband wants to withdraw our offer as he said its preventing us from really finding anywhere else - although there's not much out there we like at the moment. We have a mortgage agreement in principle and a good deposit which the EA knows about so we are ready to go, i just dont understand the hold up!
Good luck with your buy, i sincerely hope it all goes well for you :-)

Lesmix

That sounds like an awful situation and one I wouldn't put past our EA trying to pull. Is your solicitor onto the EA? The only thing that has worked so far for us is uncharacteristic shouting and demanding over the phone - most unsavoury but necessary. In your situation I'd walk and see if the EA chases - doesn't sound like they're inundated with offers on the property.
There must be a way of getting repo vendors' details.
Thanks for the kind words and I hope your situation gets sorted soon.

LisaB1970

Hubby is going to call tomorrow see if we get anywhere although im not holding my breath to be honest. If we start shouting at them they may refuse to deal with us although after all this messing about we're not sure we want to deal with them! Keep us posted on how it all goes

Lesmix

I think the EAs now realise we're not mugs and won't be messed around. They've sent the Memorandum today and I'm thinking about dealing direct with the seller even though it seems to be a branch of a well known bank. Solicitor is on board and bristling about what the EA said about her - I reckon we'll get this sorted if we stick to our guns.
Thanks to all who gave us great support and advice in what is possibly the UK's most useful forum.
Cheers.

Lesmix

We had a full building survey done on the property which brought in some disheartening results concerning damp proofing and roof work. The surveyor valued it 5K less than what we're paying although he reckons we're still getting an OK deal. However the estimated repairs will come to about 5k. We informed the EA about the jist of the survey without going into specifics but they're hammering us with emails and calls wanting to get a hold of a full copy of the survey.

I've fudged it so far - the fact that they're so eager to get it leads me to distrust them on a number of levels.

1. they're pretty crap to get a hold of usually and never answer emails. Today they've been all over me.
2. EA is already expecting us to renegotiate the price (without me actually saying I want to) and want to use the survey as evidence.
3. I reckon that instead of us driving the price down they would use the survey as an added incentive to a buyer who might outbid us (it's a repo 28 day thing) eg "Hey! No need to do a survey, we've done one for you - just outbid these troublesome meddlers and the house is yours!"
4. I've booked in some contractors to get some vital estimates but EA will only give us 30 minutes with the keys - yes, they said this even before I suggested the time I wanted to be in there!
5. The suvey explicitly states that it's for my use only and anyone wanting a copy MUST APPLY IN WRITING to the surveyor's office. The EA talks like they're expecting a copy.
6. I don't like their tone and I don't trust them.
7. Oh yes, the EA also said the property is "Sold as seen" when I mentioned the surveyors valuation - meaning our current offer is non-negotiable.

What do you all reckon? Am I being paranoid or will they use the survey against us somehow?

Cheers.

p00hsticks

If you're not going to renegotiate the price based on the survey findings, then there's absolutely no need to let the seller see the survey.

However, if you DO intend to look for a price reduction because of the findings, then I think the seller would be justified in asking for sight of the survey.

Lesmix

We really want to get the repair quotes in first and then we plan to re negotiate based on the exact costs of the repairs - we're quite happy to share the survey's findings after this point but to give them the whole document lock, stock and barrel, which they're pressing for seems excessive and possibly dangerous to me at this moment. If I was dealing with the seller directly I'd be more comfortable doing this.