Advice needed - vendors said they would move out and now change their mind

ginvzt

Thanks for all you encouragement. Emailed the letter to our solicitor this morning to see what they think and waiting for a reply at the moment. If everything is fine, will deliver the letter to EA and vendors this afternoon.

We did go to see another house close-by (must be less than 50m away). It was the same that we initially wanted to buy, but it was withdrawn from the market day before. It is exactly the same layout, but has a garage (plus) and a conservatory (minus,as a small garden is made even smaller and we wuoldn't have a use for the conservatory, really). Asking price - £22K more than we had accepted on the one we are in the process. We made an offer during the weekend on it, £17K less than asking price, which, obviously, was refused. We will think more about this.

ginvzt

Ok, solicitor replied saying it is fine. So, two copies of the revised offer letter were delivered to EA - one for them and one for vendors. EA said they would talk with vendors explaining them how lucky they are that we haven't pulled out yet!!!

Now we just need to wait... How do you think - they will pack they stuff and start moving or will they stay where they are and put the house back on the market?

icklejulez

Glad your standing up to them, this whole process in England is appaling. Im awaiting survey results of my broker and them Im going to contact EA on a house Im buying to find out when the vendors are planning on completing. We offered 3k over the asking price(slight bidding war) but offered them till middle of may to complete as they hadnt found a property. Up till now I dont even know whether they have found anywhere yet. Ive waited for things to progess for a few weeks before getting pushy so they dont back out and go to other buyers but I feel as Im paying for the property they better not mess me around else I too will do as your doing. As soon as I get survey results from mortgage company I can start questioning them about planning a completion date.

Good Luck and Im following your posts so keep me updated.

ginvzt

Well, it seems things are going to start moving! Vendors came back today saying that they would exchange tomorrow or thursday this week with a completion within 2 weeks. I would rather complete as Monday or Tuesday of the week comencing March 5 and I hope we will manage to agree on that. This would give them 2 weekends for moving, I think that should be enough.

So, fingers crossed - we will be moving soon!!!!

Doozergirl

Well Done you!

So pleased it worked out for you!

ginvzt

Well, it was too good to be true. We signed the papers, delivered them to solicitor, transfered the money. And then we get news from our solicitor that she sis still waiting for some paper from vendor's solicitor and we will exchange as soon as that arrives.

Apparently there was some reference to another paper in the title deeds something to do with the garages or smth and she requested it from vendors solicitor in January and vendors solicitor applied for it from land registry. But they say they haven't recieved it yet.

How can we be sure that vendor's solicitor even applied for that paper from land registry? If he did apply, how can we be sure that he hadn't recieved it?

The way things were going so far, it feels as vendors were trying to delay the transaction all the way through. Who can say that their solicitor doesn't have the paper and just trying to hold up the exchange until vendors are ready? I mean, when they tell their solicitor 'Ok, now we can exchange', the paper will suddenly appear?

Would there be some reference number of the application to land registry that we can check that the application was submited and not received yet?

Because as it stands at the moment - we are no better than we were last week or Monday - we don't know when are we exchanging or completing. Yes, vendors 'agreed' to complete March 6, but if the paper doesn't arrive by then, we are, obviously, not completing.

Can anyone give some advice what could we do?

rach29

Can you find out from your solicitor exactly what this piece of paper is? AFAIK most Land Registry paperwork is downloadable online for a small fee. Maybe your Solicitor can get it for himself.

ginvzt

Just tried to talk with the solicitor and she said it is a some paper to do with the lease of the garages and land(?) for X years (the title was so long, that I couldn't remember begining when she reached the middle!!!). She said it is not available online and vendors solicitor is waiting for it to be recieved by post.

Doozergirl

Hold Out

You will get there. It never seems to happen on the right day but at least now, all the other tooing and froing has stopped and this is a genuine conveyancing problem.

It really doesn't sound like the sort of thing people make up to delay things.

Richard_Webster

It would be nice if prospective house buyers read threads like this before they make offers!

I personally hear 'we'll move into rented or with family' a great deal. When the comment is made I think most people mean it. The problems start when they look into the price and inconvenience of moving all their belongings into storage and then doing it again when they eventually find.

I agree. A buyer needs to:

a) to make sure it is the seller and not the estate agent telling you the seller will move out. Agents are good at catching people on the hop and the "Well, I suppose if we really had to and it was just for a short period my mum might put us up..." said to the agent gets changed into "The sellers will definitely move out..."

b) if you know the sellers are saying it, get them to think it all through at the beginning - sit them down and get them to tell you what their arrangements will be and explain your position, and that you don't want to be let down after when they look into it, they realise it isn't as easy as they think. Then they will either come back and say that they definitely can make arrangements to move out, and they give you a level of detail that shows they have thought it through, or they have to admit that, having looked into it, it probably won't work. With the first situation they will feel more morally committed to you and with the second, you can at least walk away at an early stage.

This level of moral commitment isn't a legal one, but in a lot of cases making people think something through means that they do feel more committed to you.
If the sellers don't really answer your questions and maybe (if there is a couple) they don't quite say the same thing, you have a cause for concern...

As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients