Vendor is pulling out. Can I get compensation for survey and legal fees?

EyesAndEars

My situation:

I'm a first time buyer, and the vendor I'm supposed to be buying a flat from says he thought my final offer (the one he accepted TWO MONTHS ago) was £5000 higher than the actual one I made.

I believe he is now pulling out of the deal (I say "I believe" because nobody - not myself, the estate agent, my solicitor or the vendor's lawyers - seem to have any idea what's going on here).

I now stand to lose around £1000 already spent in survey and legal fees. Is there any way I can get them back from him?


To give you the background; I made a series of offers for the property in late 2010, which were all rejected. In mid-January 2011 the vendor finally accepted my last and absolute final offer.

Letters were sent out by the estate agent, both to myself and the vendor (as far as I know), stating the correct acceptance price and that the deal was now subject to contract. I immediately instructed a solicitor and got the ball rolling with my mortgage lender. Within a couple of weeks, my mortgage lender had already sent a surveyor out to the property, for which we paid almost £500 in survey costs. I also handed a £500 deposit to my solicitor.

Things started going sour when my solicitor informed me after two weeks that she hadn't heard anything from the firm supposedly instructed as the vendor's lawyers. Two weeks turned into a month and, after frequent calls to the estate agent, we were reassured that the vendor still wanted to sell, but that he had appointed a terrible bunch of lawyers that weren't doing their job.

We were told that he was changing them and that a new letter would be sent to our solicitor immediately to inform her of the new lawyers. Another two weeks go by, and our solictor hears nothing. By this stage, we are very worried but with the survey completed, we don't want to lose they money, so we start chasing the estate agent with increased fervour.

Almost two months down the line, the sale going nowhere, we give an ultimatum to the estate agent and vendor: instruct lawyers by the end of the week, or we're pulling out. Just before the end of the day last Friday (our deadline), the vendor's lawyers #2 ring my solicitor and confirm they have been instructed. They will meet the vendor on Monday and send a confirmation letter by the end of the week, they say.

Monday was today. My lawyer rang me at lunch time to tell me the vendor's lawyers #2 were now uninstructed. Why? The vendor had turned up to see them and apparently was shocked to find out he was selling his flat for £5k less than he thought.

Can someone please tell me what I'm dealing with here? Am I the stupid one or is he? He's had TWO MONTHS to review the initial paperwork!

I have a whole host of letters and emails in my possession from the estate agent with the correct acceptance price - the correct, final offer I made. I can't afford to go any higher as I'm at my absolute limit.

I'm also in despair because I must have seen around 80 properties in London so far in a bid to find something inhabitable at my price level, and this is the only one that came anywhere near close to being ok (people outside of London, imagine that £200k buys you a derelict squat off the Finchley Road -or a one-bedroom ex-councill flat in Willesden, so damp that the family of four renting it have to fire electric heaters at the walls all day and night to stop plants growing on them).

Either way, I imagine the vendor is going to pull out. Can I claim back my money from him for time-wasting and misleading us, or perhaps breach of a provisional written agreement?

Any advice from solicitors or people who have faced similar situations would be appreciated.

Running_Horse

EyesAndEars wrote: »

Vendor is pulling out. Can I get compensation for survey and legal fees?

No.

.......

EyesAndEars

Why isn't the property buying process better regulated?

Running_Horse

Because life isn't fair.

EyesAndEars

I'm not satisfied with that answer.

Try to be a bit more gentle with people posting on this forum, we're all very well aware that life isn't fair. But a bit of human understanding and empathy makes it all the more bearable...

There must be some sort of lobbying group for a fairer and more transparent housing market on both sides?

Running_Horse

Whether or not you are satisfied makes no difference to the answer.

david29dpo

As the law stands you have no redress from the seller. This does not stop you trying to sue if you wish.
Lobbying? Sit outside number 10 and see where it gets you! Seriously, most of the country would agree the buying/selling process is a little dated and needs to be changed.

evoke

Jeez. The answer is no.

Doo-doo happens in the murky, unethical, immoral world of property.

DVardysShadow

EyesAndEars wrote: »

I'm not satisfied with that answer.

Try to be a bit more gentle with people posting on this forum, we're all very well aware that life isn't fair. But a bit of human understanding and empathy makes it all the more bearable...

There must be some sort of lobbying group for a fairer and more transparent housing market on both sides?

There are risks with buying property, which is why, as buyer, you are free to pull out to the point of exchange. For example, there may be plans to build a motorway past your bedroom. Or you discover your neighbour actually owns what was shown to you as your garage. Or etc.

Which is why there is no deal until contracts are exchanged. The down side is that as buyer you are taking a risk that the vendor may pull out at your expense. But your costs will be less than the costs of buying a house under a misapprehension. You should always regard the money you spend on the process of purchase as risk money.

You have been right royally mucked around. In terms of general legal protections, there is not a lot which can be done - the much maligned HIP was part of a plan to improve the process, but people made such a stink about it that it was abandoned.

Your problem, I think, is that you have probably relayed the message to the seller that this is the property for you to such an extent that he is now intent on screwing you. You need to move on from this property and not convey your keenness so obviously

Richard_Webster

Nothing you could do other than to have threatened to have walked away (and done it) at an earlier point in the the seller's faffing with solicitors.

Also if you don't ever get to actually talk to the seller this causes more uncertainty because you are reliant on second hand messages relayed by estate agents. If you had met him then you might have realised he was a shifty character. So another factor to be wary of is the remoteness and relative uncontactability of the seller.

shortchanged_2

Unfortunately as the system stands there is pretty much nothing you can do EyesandEars unless contracts have been exchanged.

I think a better system would be that as there are costs involved in buying a house even before contracts are exchanged that the liability for any costs should be on the person/s who pulls out of and scuppers the deal.

This system I believe would help reduce the risk of people 'messing' other people around and would maybe also help reduce gazumping.

The current system as it stands is a total mess and needs some serious reform.