Sale agreed (for the third time) but vendor won't budge

marcofoo

To answer a few of the questions...

No, I did not know that the vendor was unwilling to move into rented accommodation. I was told that they were not living there at present and the property being nearly empty supported this. I do now however think that perhaps they simply live a minimal lifestyle. I await the agents confirmation regarding their situation.

As I have explained, there is no need to offer more money as the vendor will only receive £X from the proceeds. Our offer exceeds £X.

marcofoo

I had to have both properties valued to ensure the deal was affordable in terms of mortgages. The money available for the new purchase relied on the valuation of the current. The fees spent on the new purchase to date were a combined valuation and survey. The estate agent was putting a lot of pressure for me to get this done early.

giddypenguin

How much have you spent on this property already? We had a sale fall through at the last minute (well, 10 minutes before exchange), the mortage company did not make us pay another booking/valuation fee when the purchase of another house went through (still lost about £1200 though).

You can wait in hope, or you can give them a deadline and be prepaired to walk away. It depends on how you feel about the property. Remember a 6 month wait might be annoying now, but in the grand scheme of things it's not that long - it does sound like you have limited options though if nothing else on the market takes your fancy (unless it's costing you to wait).

You could try complaining about the EA if you feel they've misled you, but I would assume you need written proof that they've told you the house was empty and that they in fact knew this wasn't true...

harrup

Would it be worth to grab the bull by the horns and request to have a candid face-to-face conversation with the vendors?

You put your cards openly on the table, they put their cards openly on the table, no poker faces, no strategic BS....just an honest exchange of where both parties are at and how they envisage how and when things will and should proceed. And then you can both re-assess as to whether it is worth to continue.

IMO, it is worth a try. For all you know the EA was clearly told from the outset that the vendors were looking for a very distant completion time and to make this plain to potential buyers.

Nothing is worse than being in a perpetual fog of confusion, uncertainty, and second-guessing the other party's motives and aims.

So if it was me......I'd insist talking to the vendor. In private.

marcofoo

Giddy, I've spent over £1000 to date. We are yet to pay the search fees.

Harrup, I think speaking to the vendor in private is a very good idea. They seem nice enough so hopefully a good relationship can be built up whereby they feel more inclined to help us. I would even go out of my way to help them in their search and I think it is help they could do with. Not writing them off but I don't expect they have a very good grasp of technology or the search methods available online these days.

Would you suggest a letter to begin with?

suebfg

I would just put everything on hold, searches etc until either they find a property or you find another one. You just need to make sure you're not shelling out additional money.

I don't think speaking to the vendor is a good idea. Even if they are nice people, they're not going to move out until they are good and ready to do so.

maninthestreet

I suspect you may have to write-off the £1000 you have already spent. Hopefully, word is now getting around the local agents that the vendor in question is complete time-waster and their requests to market the property with yet another EA will be politely, but firmly, refused.

Ivana_Tinkle

I don't really see the point in speaking to the vendor. You both understand the situation, and you know that they'd rather lose you as a buyer than go into rented accommodation, because that's what they've done before.

As others have said, just put everything on hold and start looking again. If you find something you like, put in an offer and see what happens, but there's no point in formally pulling out of this one until you get that that point.

You should really have checked out the situation a bit more thoroughly before spending any money, but then hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it? It's not unreasonable to assume that someone with their house on the market is actually going to move!

harrup

marcofoo wrote: »

Giddy, I've spent over £1000 to date. We are yet to pay the search fees.

Harrup, I think speaking to the vendor in private is a very good idea. They seem nice enough so hopefully a good relationship can be built up whereby they feel more inclined to help us. I would even go out of my way to help them in their search and I think it is help they could do with. Not writing them off but I don't expect they have a very good grasp of technology or the search methods available online these days.

Would you suggest a letter to begin with?

A letter wouldn't be my preferred option, simply because there is so much "additional information" from a face-to-face conversation that a letter, or any written exchange, just can't adequately convey. Be that tone of voice, or general demenour, facial expressions, etc.

IMO, written communication, depending on the author's skills, is far more prone to misinterpretation than a direct personal exchange. It's MUCH easier, not to mention quicker, to immediately clarify a certain issue during a conversation instead of pondering at length whether a given senctence accurately reflects the author's true intent.

JMO and preference.

Which is why I would just call them and say "I would greatly welcome if we could talk, when would that suit you?". " Or even "There are some aspects I really need to discuss, is this a good time for a call?". And take it from there......

If the vendor blocks this, or gives you a long-winded, convoluted explanation why they would like to but for reasons xyz unfortunately just can't.....well, that also tells you what you need to know. Which is to cut your losses, chalk it up to experience and move forward.

And if you do talk to them - be sure to write yourself a list of questions! - and get the feeling that they are nice n'genuine enough but desperately unrealistic regarding their intended relocation plans in a myriad of ways.....again, at least you won't waste any more time and can walk away.

But UNTIL you talk to the vendor, you never know what is really going on behind the scenes. For sure, even in a conversation, the vendor could intentionally mislead you in order to string you along. Still, at this point you might as well give them the benefit of the doubt and hopefully gain valuable insight in what exactly is going on.

Listen...if you felt merely lukewarm about their property....it isn't worth the hassle. But you clearly want not just to purchase A house but THAT house. So make sure that you explored every avenue to make this happen.

There is merit to the strategy others have proposed: leave the current seller in the dark and surreptiously start viewing other properties. But according to sod's law, the very moment you have seen and offered on another property, the current vendors will have found somewhere and you will be even more stressed and confused. Not really a desirable path, is it?

Which is why I would always opt for the straight, clear line in politely asking "ARE you going to sell your house to me, and if so,WHEN, or not?"

Good luck!

harrup

Ivana_Tinkle wrote: »

I don't really see the point in speaking to the vendor. You both understand the situation, and you know that they'd rather lose you as a buyer than go into rented accommodation, because that's what they've done before.

It's not unreasonable to assume that someone with their house on the market is actually going to move!

Not to disagree with you...I fully respect your different stance...but I would like to point out that there CAN be a HUGE difference between what the vendor says to the EA to what the EA then conveys to the potential buyer.

Example: years ago we intended to move. Wasn't a vague plan, we REALLY wanted to buy another house and sell ours. Very different market, BTW.

We didn't HAVE to move for any particular reason, we just wanted a bigger house. In a certain area. With certain specifics ( large-ish garden, south facing, not on a main road).

Nothing outrageous in terms of demands for where we live. Plus we had a generous budget. Or so we thought.....

Anyhow, we put our house on the market. I made it VERY clear to the EA that, due to our pets, renting was NOT an option. I made it equally clear to them that the sale of this house was contingent upon us finding another one we liked. I asked, verbatim:" Is it worth putting the house on the market BEFORE we have found another one - I don't want to mess people about". I didn't even allow them to put a "For Sale" sign up. The instructions were to market it discreetly to PB NOT in an imminent hurry.

We hadn't even signed the contract with them before they started to send potential buyers round. Heaps of them. All ready and eager to move in ASAP. Offering above and beyond the AP ( somewhat indicating that the AP wasn't high enough!)

I didn't know what to do. So I reiterated and stressed it to the EA yet AGAIN: we wouldn't and couldn't accept an offer until we found somewhere to move to. We were looking frantically, but there was nothing that we preferred to the house we already had.

MORE wannabe buyers arrived. It became obvious that they were clueless about the instructions and info given to the EA. Some of them still had their property to sell, some didn't but ALL were under the impression that we would be thrilled to complete as soon as it was possible for THEM. Our own needs and explicit restrictions for the sale were never conveyed to them.

I got so cheesed off with the EA that I withdrew the house from the market.

Which is why my advice to the OP was to talk to the vendors to clarify their position. Since they, like myself, may not have acted with any ill intent and told the EA EXACTLY what their sale criteria was. Which the EA likely happily ignored....