help needed

Melissa177

How much do you want this house? Are you prepared to be messed around to get it?

I'd be looking elsewhere....

shelly

I'd definately tell the EA you want to start looking at other properties now. I wouldn't allow the vendor to keep me hanging on any longer. It won't cost you anything to look and you might just find a better place.

bbbunny

New update

Well we manage to arrange another visit to the house to measure for curtains etc. The woman met us there and was very nice with us and said that they were just as frustrated us. She said pretty much the same as the husband that they kept sending forms back and getting them returned.

About a week after that we got a phonecall from the EA to say that they had been in contact with the sellers solicitor and that they had returned the last of the forms and that the solictor had checked and approved them and passed them on to our solicitor and that hopefully we should get a phone call within the next few days. We waited and waited but instead of a phonecall we got a letter from our solicitor saying that they had indeed received the forms but that they were still not complete. They enclosed copied of the forms and we cannot understand how their solicitors passed them. Some of the questions had no answers and the form had only been filled out and signed by one of the sellers (the husband) and he had answered some questions with things like "I dont know you will have to ask the wife" or "the wife will not let me have those details". I could have screamed when I saw it.

I spoke to the EA again and told her what had happend and she called the sellers solicitor and explained. They said that they would contact the sellers and get the forms completed. And that is really as far as we have got. The EA called today to say that she had spoken to the sellers daughter and said that she needed to get her mom to call her solicitor to get this sorted.

Meanwhile we are still living at my moms surrounded by boxes and bags full of stuff. The only upside to this is that we have managed to buy the majority of the things we needed for the house. When we were originally goven the 27th April as completion date we panicked that we wouldnt have time to to save up the solicitors fees etc plus get basic furniture like a sofa and a bed but now we have got all the major things and are now buying things like plants for the garden and lamps. Plus we have saved up enough for the first months bills and all the solicitors costs etc. So I guess there is a good side to this.

shelly

This really isn't acceptable. I'd be asking if they really want to sell the property or not. I'd also put the wind up them and tell the EA you want to start looking at other properties in case this one falls through.

Mind you, I'd have walked away from this one ages ago.

Doozergirl

bbbunny wrote: »

Some of the questions had no answers and the form had only been filled out and signed by one of the sellers (the husband) and he had answered some questions with things like "I dont know you will have to ask the wife" or "the wife will not let me have those details". I could have screamed when I saw it.

Doozergirl wrote: »

It's quite possible that with this being a divorce that your vendor is being purposely difficult. She may just not want to sell or is playing political games with her husband.

Sweetheart, I said that to you in May. What the husband has written makes it now blatantly obvious that she has no intention of selling unless he forces the sale. She will cut her nose to spite her face.

You have a house purchase, with no chain that has taken 4 months. That just doesn't happen. You should have been in the house within 6 weeks if they were wanting to sell and genuinely had no chain.

Doozergirl wrote: »

That said, I'd be looking for somewhere else by this point; my feeling is that you are being used.

If you want to move house, that really is what you need to do Put it down to experience and move on. She's a !!!!!. You know why he's divorcing her, at least!

bbbunny

******UPDATE******

Thanks everyone for the replies I thought that I would give you all an update.

For those of you that are following this saga it will come as no surprise that we are still not in yet.

The first thing that happend is that the other day I got a call from the EA to say that all paperwork was returned but that there was a new problem. The sellers had fitted the new windows themselves and so there was no certificate for them. She said that she had spoken to the Mrs (seller) and she had said that as the husband had fitted them she did not want to pay for the cert and the Mr(seller) had said that he was not willing to pay anything if she wasnt. :mad: The EA said that the only way to move forward was for us to pay. We felt a little held to ransome over it but agreed in the hopes that it would move things forward as the EA assured us that it was the only thing holding it up. I called my solicitor and spoke to his assistant. She said that it was fine and that it was easily sorted and that it would cost about £37.
I was really shoked that they were quibbling over such a paltry sum but the biggest shock was yet to come.

The EA had said that when we called the sol to sort out the policy for the windows, that we should make an appointment to go in and sign the contract at the same time. When I asked the assistant if we could do this she seemed puzzled and said didnt you get the letter? I said about what? She then proceeded to tell me that our solicitor had left the practice and there wouldnt be a locum coming in for another week.

I am going to post this in two parts because I keep losing the posts.

bbbunny

******UPDATE PART ******

Right so where were we? Oh yes I had just found out that we had no solicitor. I called the EA bak and told them the news and they didnt seem pleased but we all had no choice but to wait the week. When the new solicitor came in on the Tuesday I called straight away and was told that they would call me back after the locum had had chance to review the case.

A few hours later I got the call and was surprised to find that it was the solicitor herself who called me. She said that not only was there still two pieces of paperwork outstanding that the Mr had signed but the Mrs hadn't but there was also two more problems. Firstly the Mr has got some kind of debt thing with a company called black horse. and it needs to be removed from the property before we can sign anything. Also the matrimonial solicitor says that they need to go to mediation before we can progress.

A few days later I got a call out of the blue from the solicitors to say that they would like us to go in to sign the contract. They said that they were just waiting for a fax from black horse. We were so happy and went straight there only to be told that we hadnt really progressed any further and the stuff they got us to sign was mainly from the land registry etc.

We had a good chat to the solicitor while we were there and she explained that the Black horse company have been quite slow in responding but that it was basically sorted it was just a matter of a few forms. The matrimonial side of things had been sorted and a 50/50 split had been decided. The Mrs had got to sign the particulars and another piece of paperwork (the name of which escapes me and my frazzled brian at this time). They were due for mediation any day now and that was all that is really outstanding. She commented on how slow the sellers solicitors are in responding to things and that that combined with the sellers lack of speed was why we are so delayed.

We explained how frustrated we were and it was at this point that the sol said that we really needed to do something to get them moving so between us we decided that we must give them a deadline for completion. The magical date will be the 2nd of September. We decided on that date because we are due to go on holiday on the 14th for a week and the mortgage agreement is up at the end of September (This will have been going on for just over SIX MONTHS at that point). It felt a bit scary making that decision but we are hoping that it is for the best. We came out of the sol's office on a real downer and feeling a bit lost so we decided to head for the place where we thought that we might get a few answers, the estate agents.


And I will tell you about that adventure in my third post. I am sorry that this is so long but I thank you so much for reading this far and I promise that the third installment of this epic tale will leave you even more gob smacked at our bad luck.

bbbunny

****Update part three*****

So off we went to the EA. When I got there she could tell I was annoyed and so explained that she hadnt been able to contact the Mrs for a while but she would try again then and there. She had got 6 telephone numbers for her and tried them all with no answer.

She called the Mr and he answered straight away. She told him that we had decide on a cut off date and he seemd quite shocked he said that he had not realised that this had been going on for so long and that the Mrs hadnt signed everything. He said that he hadnt been able to contact her but he would try again.

The EA asked him how the mediation had gone as they were supposed to have had it the day before. He said that neither of them had made it to the appointment and that they had phoned today and tried to make another appointment only to be told that there had been a FIRE in the buildings where it was supposed to be held and that they would be unable to make an appointment until the 13th. I was sooo shocked and more than a little sceptical but I checked it out and he was telling the truth.

By the time we got home my shock had turned to anger and I was very, very wound up and barely slept. When I woke up the next day I was so wound up that I had an anxiety attack and felt quite ill all day. I was so stressed that I actually vomited several times and couldnt even get out of bed.

I called the EA and she said that she had managed to get through on one of the Mrs phone numbers after we had left. She had left a message with the Mrs daughter to get her to call back and stressed that it was very urgent. She had called back the next day but the EA handling our case had been on another call and whoever had answered the call from the Mrs had just asked her to call back which of course she did not. The EA tried calling her again but it just kept ringing with no answer.

That was yesterday (Friday) and as you can probably tell from the time of these posts I still cannot sleep properly. The EA's plan is to get the sellers solicitor to send the paperwork to the EA's office and they will get the Mrs to come in there and sign it so they know it is done. They will then send it back straight away. They are also going to keep calling the Mr to get him to make the appoinment with the mediator for as soon as possible. I forgot to ask how long the mediation process is so if anyone can break the news to me gently it would be much appreciated. Our sol is going to keep on to this Black Horse company to get that side of things sorted and she is also going to send letters out to all involved explaining that we have been more than patient and that the deadline for completion will be 2nd September.


My hubby and I are so stressed and this is all we can think about. We have about three weeks until we not only lose all the money we have paid out so far but also the house that we really wanted, unless we can get the worlds two most uncooperative people to actually do what they are supposed to as quickly as possible. This whole thing is making me ill now and I didnt think that something basic as a sale with no chain either side would do this to me.


So thank you for reading this whole thing.

I know that people told us months ago to give up on it and in a way I wish we had listened but being so close to completion and throwing it all away doesnt seem right at this point.

If anyone has time I wondered if you could answer a few questions.

How long does mediation take?

If we are the ones that have set the deadline there is nothing that the sellers can do to us is there for failing to complete?

We would still have to pay our solicitors wouldnt we?

What is the process if we get to the deadline and its still not complete. Who do we have to inform that we are no longer going through with it etc?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Vickicb

Hi Bbunny,

I haven't been on for a while as been busy/on hols, etc but I remember your post from a while back, and I know from experience how incredibly stressful moving can be, although with no chain I, as you, would have expected it to be relatively straightforward.

To your questions:
How long does mediation take?
No idea, but how long is a piece of string? If selling is a priority financially then I would imagine the signing on the dotted line would be done, unless one partner is still "hanging on" for the reconciliation.

If we are the ones that have set the deadline there is nothing that the sellers can do to us is there for failing to complete?
No, you have not exchanged contracts and you can still walk away whenever you want.

We would still have to pay our solicitors wouldnt we?
Depends on the contract terms. After our first aborted sale, which included identity theft (of my OH) and fraud, our solicitor never billed us. We went back to them a few times, and were only billed on the final sale/purchase. I never did find out if it was (a) because they felt sorry for out situation, which was pretty extreme, (b) because it was no sale/no fee or (c) they were incompetent and our sol left and was replaced (although our prob was not his fault). I think you should ask the sols.

What is the process if we get to the deadline and its still not complete. Who do we have to inform that we are no longer going through with it etc?
The EA, and your Sol. If you are close to exchange and want to stretch the deadline, that's OK, it's not legally binding until exchange. If you find somewhere else and wish to pull out before your deadline that's OK too, you can do it at any time.

Good Luck!

BrandNewDay

I don't think you are MEANT to have this house.