Threatening to pull out

Hellsbells84

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if anyone has ever threatened to pull out of buying a house?

We are considering pulling out of buying our house as the vendors solicitors are messing us about.

Do you think giving them 5 days to sort it all out will make them pull their finger out?

arbrighton

What do you mean by 'messing you about'?

How can anyone answer the last question without any details?
Depends if they are genuinely trying to sort something out, an issue has come up, or whether they are simply not very good. Is it a chain, and some issue further up cascading down.

Bear in mind that banks / solicitors will have been closed down over the extended BH weekend.

Also depends how much you want to p*** off your vendor. Threatening to pull out could quite likely be seen as messing them about and they might request papers be sent back

Hellsbells84

Well to cut a long story short our solicitors have been asking the sellers solicitors for paperwork relating to the house for the past 6 weeks, they say that they are still waiting to hear back from the council.

What would be the best way to go about it then, we want the house but we are getting fed up of waiting. We are in no chain and have signed the contract but cannot exchange as our solicitors are waiting for the documents.

arbrighton

It could well be they are waiting to hear back from the council- the EA for the house we're buying said that local authority searches could take 5 weeks (but we haven't progressed to that point yet)

Talk to the EA, who has a commission at stake and suggest that perhaps you will look elsewhere if things do not progress soon. They can talk to vendor and get them to chase their sols.
LIttle else you can do. Unless you are willing to walk away and start again, don't threaten to pull papers as it will be an empty threat and 'show your hand'

Hellsbells84

They only require a copy of the s106 relating to the property. I contacted the council on Friday they said they had not received any letters from anyone regarding the property requesting the documents.

BungayBound

I think it depends on whether you genuinely want the house or not. If you do, then you really need to stick it out and just keep pushing their solicitor. If you are not that fussed and think you can find something else then you could issue them with an ultimatum.

We were in a similar situation with our vendor, the EA and/or vendor kept pushing back on an issue we wanted sorted out before we would exchange and it got too much for us. We loved the house, but not that much. We advised that we were sending back papers which our solicitor did and the following morning I had frantic phone calls and emails from the EA, solicitor etc and within the space of that day, they have largely sorted out what they wouldn't do for weeks! Sometimes they need to know you are not going to be taken advantage of.

Hellsbells84

BungayBound wrote: »

We were in a similar situation with our vendor, the EA and/or vendor kept pushing back on an issue we wanted sorted out before we would exchange and it got too much for us. We loved the house, but not that much. We advised that we were sending back papers which our solicitor did and the following morning I had frantic phone calls and emails from the EA, solicitor etc and within the space of that day, they have largely sorted out what they wouldn't do for weeks! Sometimes they need to know you are not going to be taken advantage of.

We do want the house but feel like no one is taking us seriously we have been telling the estate agents for ages we need it sorting by the 10th of June due to our tenancy agreement as this is when we have to give our months notice. We have been waiting four months so far and feel like this is not going to be sorted in the next month let alone weeks. What did you say to your solicitor?

BungayBound

Our solicitor knew about the issue we were having and was helping us work with the EA to get it sorted, we told her we were getting frustrated and were ready to walk. Then another issue arose and the manner in which the vendor/vendor's solicitor dealt with it was incredibly rude and unhelpful so we just told our solicitor to return papers and send us her final bill, we were done. We are still not 100% back in despite the EA scrambling to get it worked out. We have asked for written proof it is being rectified and then we will re-instruct our solicitor. The last thing we want is to come back to the deal and run into the same excuses in a few weeks time.

But I suspect the difference between us is that we can live without this house whereas you seem set on the one you have found. Perhaps you could start looking again and then if you see other options you may feel differently about the house you are buying now?

JonnyBravo

Hellsbells84 wrote: »

We do want the house but feel like no one is taking us seriously we have been telling the estate agents for ages we need it sorting by the 10th of June due to our tenancy agreement as this is when we have to give our months notice. We have been waiting four months so far and feel like this is not going to be sorted in the next month let alone weeks. What did you say to your solicitor?

Speak to the vendors direct and let them know what's going on.

Tell them the situation and ask them to give their solicitors a hurry up. Mention that your O/H has started looking at other properties again in case it all falls through and they've seen something nice.

AtomicSkunk

If you like the property its nomally worth pursuing with the solicitors, threatening to pull out of the deal may actually backfire and they could find another buyer

robatwork

Hellsbells84 wrote: »

We do want the house but feel like no one is taking us seriously we have been telling the estate agents for ages we need it sorting by the 10th of June due to our tenancy agreement as this is when we have to give our months notice. We have been waiting four months so far and feel like this is not going to be sorted in the next month let alone weeks. What did you say to your solicitor?

Realistically you're not going to exchange by 10th June so you won't be in a position to give your notice to your LL. I am in a similar position. So you probably won't want to complete until 9th-ish August (unless you want to complete and renovate before moving).

What you could do is request that as this delay is not your fault, the vendor pays this unexpected extra month's rent. That way he is also showing some good faith (ie. cash) like you have already done in fees, survey etc.

Rob