Bunny Boiler Buyer?

CGG

My 74 year-old widowed Mum is downsizing. She accepted a couple's offer approximately 6 weeks ago. Mum has 'detached' herself from her house, and has been packing up boxes for about three weeks now. She has, in turn had her offer accepted on a much smaller bungalow, which needs a bit of work doing on it. This is no problem as my sister plans on housing Mum with her, until the work on the new place is done.
Are you with me so far? Mum's solicitor knows she is not desperate for the completion of the sale to co-incide with the completion of the purchase, and Mum is not dependant upon the sale to fund the purchase.
Mum accepts that conveyancing takes time, and all necessary parties know she is at the end of the chain.
However, the buyers are continually on the phone to her - on a daily basis, pushing her to hassle her solicitor. It is stressing her out. I rang Mums solicitor on Friday, who said everything is in place as far as her sale is concerned, but that the chain behind her has 3 buyers/sellers. Her buyers are aware of this.
Today I was at my Mums when the phone rang. Guess who it was? That's right, the Buyers wife, again. I told her that my Mum was away for a couple of days, and what did she want? She let me know in no uncertain terms that I should be on the phone to the solicitor on a daily basis, as they had signed up a fortnight ago. At this I laughed, and asked what on earth did she mean, "signed up" ? Did she mean they had signed to accept a mortgage offer? Or what.
I told her everything is fine as far as we were concerned, and that I had no intention of hassling the solicitor every day, running up my Mum's conveyancing bill. She ranted at me about she rings hers all the time, and that she wants to be in by the end of the month. She then put the phone down on me. Bunny Boiler.
That's fine, the sooner the sale goes through, the better, but her creating like a banshee just got my back up.
Things then got better. Mum's post arrived. She opened it. Amongst the bundle of letters was one which - she didn't see until she'd opened it, was a car insurance policy addressed to Mr & Mrs Bunny Boiler at Mum's address. I was gobsmacked. I took hold of the paperwork and noticed they'd claimed their car was being kept overnight on Mum's drive!
I mean, for heavens sake, they haven't even exchanged Contracts yet. The chain isn't just "them buying, Mum selling" and they're behaving like a pair of fruit cakes. Surely their insurance company would be interested to learn that they have been fed a pack of lies. I'm not malicious, so probably won't report it, anyway.
1st time buyers do at least have the excuse for being impatient after a few weeks of dealing with solicitors, because they have no experience - but a middle aged couple, come on.
Sorry for the rant.
Do you have any constructive comments?

imoneyop

Sounds to me like insurance fraud - your mum's postcode is probably a lower risk than their current one (or they only have on-street parking). I'd return it to the insurers marked not known at this address!

Mozette

I would pass the post off the car insurance company to your Mom's solictor - that is plain dishonest of them! I know it's stressful, and I know that it is necessary to keep things moving, but to harrass an elderly woman is unforgivable. I'd get their phone number barred - perhaps they'd get the message then?

olly300

Actually returning it to the insurance company would sort the matter out.

Insurance companies don't like dishonest people and the car wouldn't be insured so the couple would be driving an uninsured vehicle.

CB1979_2

why on earth have they got your mum's number?

just tell them that you will only be dealing in future via the solicitors.
your mum's in the better position than them anyway.

I'd just phone up the insurance company as well as return to sender, but was it a quote or their actual policy? if quote no real probs there to be honest cos the company probably just sent the quote out in the post.

CGG

They got her number from the BT phone book.

The insurance paperwork was definitely the actual policy. It was with the Post Office and one of the pages included a receipt for the payment made.
The covering letter was dated 17/4/2007.

CB1979_2

well tell your solicitor, tell the insurance company, threaten them with harrassment, tell them in no uncertain terms that if you find any other policies/applications at your mum's address you'll seek further advice on what to do, and lastly if they don't sort themselves out you'll pull the plug and remarket the property.

they're just trying to bully you/your mum and want it moving along quicker than can be done.

peter999

CGG wrote: »

...was a car insurance policy addressed to Mr & Mrs Bunny Boiler at Mum's address. I was gobsmacked. I took hold of the paperwork and noticed they'd claimed their car was being kept overnight on Mum's drive!

Alarm bells !!
Why would they do this ??

peter999

hearts

<sigh> a mountain out of a mole hill. Tell them as suggested above that they should not contact you any more. All dealings through solicitor.
As for the insurance forget it. Its not causing you any bother and it cant so why bother about it?

shelly

If I was your Mum OP I would give the buyers her solicitors phone number and tell them to call them theirselves!!
I agree to a certain extent that you have to keep on the sols back to keep them moving your sale/purchase along but to harass your Mum is out of order. I would also get onto the EA your Mum sold through and ask them to explain to the buyers that if they keep harassing her then she will pull out of the sale.
See how quiet it goes then!!

BusyLizzie_3

Giving an incorrect address to an insurance company is fraudulent! I would definitely contact the insurance company about it. Is there any way your Mum could screen her calls, so she doesn't have to accept calls from these people? BT call screening service maybe? I think their treatment of her amounts to harassment, quite honestly.