Seller failing to complete on sale of flat - Help!

Dan-Dan

good luck !!!!

mrs_mi5tery

G_M wrote: »

Ideally, you give a list of losses to your solicitor. She passes it to seller's solicitor, who passes it to seller.

He agrees to pay. Or negotiates, and you agree some other figure.

a) If the sale is going ahead, then the amount you pay is amended to account for the losses (and since you've already passed the funds to your solicitor, you get back the appropriate amount)

b) if the the sale has collapsed, the seller pays his solicitor that amount, and you receive it plus what you've paid for the property

Worst case? He refuses to pay anything and you go to court.

Thanks for spelling that out, G_M, exactly what I was looking for. Hopefully, completion will go ahead on Tuesday and we can go through option a without the need to instruct another solicitor and just get things over with.

phoebe1989seb

Just wanted to send you my support and sympathy.....I can't add anything further, but having in the past purchased a house that had been divided into four flats and that was tenanted when we viewed - private sale - I appreciate to a certain extent what you're going through.

After we had completed on our sale we had to wait several months (staying with parents) whilst the vendor went through the court process to have the two remaining tenants evicted. We even attended court ourselves to ensure he wasn't tricking us - the vendor was a very slippery character who spent most of his time at his home in the US so he was quite hard to pin down.

Fortunately our solicitor was amazing and wouldn't have allowed us to exchange till vacant possession was guaranteed, but it was a total *roller coaster* insofar as the tenants agreed to leave early, then changed their minds and eventually had to be bribed to go.

My parents agreed to go halves with the vendor in paying them off - not the best solution, but it was an amazing property and literally the only house we would have been happy in! It all worked out fine in the end and I can honestly say the whole process didn't dampen our enthusiasm for the house and it was the happiest, loveliest place we've ever lived......

I do truly hope this all works out for you both and you eventually get to spend many happy years in your new home

jamesd

An owner is also able to just not move out. That is perhaps most common if a chain is involved and the place they are buying doesn't become vacant for them to move into it. They might then choose to have you live in a hotel at their expense instead of them. They would look to recover their costs from the people they were doing their own buying from.

rrtt

jamesd wrote: »

An owner is also able to just not move out. That is perhaps most common if a chain is involved and the place they are buying doesn't become vacant for them to move into it. They might then choose to have you live in a hotel at their expense instead of them. They would look to recover their costs from the people they were doing their own buying from.

Wouldn't a completion date be written into the contract they sign tho? So if they didn't move out by that date they'd be in breach of that contract? (ETA I'm a newbie in the house-buying market, so pls be gentle!)

kmmr

rrtt wrote: »

Wouldn't a completion date be written into the contract they sign tho? So if they didn't move out by that date they'd be in breach of that contract? (ETA I'm a newbie in the house-buying market, so pls be gentle!)

Yes - it is a breach. As is it is in the situation here. Mi5tery's vendor has breached the contract by not providing vacant possession.

But now they need to work out how to move forward.

You can shout 'you have breached the contract' til you are blue in the face, and they can say 'so sue me. I'm staying in my house'. And then you are stuck with a costly legal minefield. And nowhere to live!

I think in Welshwoofs case it was the vendors who refused to move out. They decided they didn't want to move anymore.

At least in the case of a vendor not moving out there are still only two parties involved. Poor my5stery has a third (and fourth and fifth) party who need to be included in the negotiation.

mi5tery

UPDATE:

Having spoken with my solicitor, she is really confused as to why the seller is behaving the way he is. Wondering if he is just silly or has money to burn. I suggested maybe both!

She received an email from the vendors solicitor stating that the seller has agreed a fee with the tenant to vacate the property by Tuesday. Now I'm sure the seller's solicitor has sent that email in good faith, however after the earlier 'Sopranos' (as Guest101 put it) moment, I'm not sure I completely believe the communication the seller has asked his solicitor to send!

I've informed my solicitor that I need proof of vacant possession, ideally in the form of a document of some kind which the tenant and sub tenants sign. This document should surrender their rights over the property and show agreement to terminate the lease in exchange for a fee which they should have received.

As it's now the weekend I guess the seller will continue to be penalised by 4% (which I believe works out less than £40) to leave us on edge over it!

In other news, M called the EA and has said he hopes to get this all sorted be Tue/Wed, but worst come to worst by Friday (28th).

All sorts of dates being thrown around here!

bitsandpieces

mi5tery wrote: »

Well if I'm going to a hotel... Hilton probably will be considered unreasonable right?

Speak to your solicitor. If I were in a similar situation, I'd argue that my flat is a similar level of comfort to a decent 3/4* 'business' hotel in a good location...though I don't know whether I'd be granted compensation to cover this. Depends a bit on where you're buying, I guess - but see what your sol says. If the flat is in poor condition in a rough suburb, staying in a 5* city centre hotel might be seen as taking the p***, though you may have more luck if you're buying a luxury penthouse loft.

One thing to highlight is that - if the vendor is in financial trouble - you may struggle to get money off them. If they go bankrupt, you may not get the money. If spending on hotels etc. would leave you in financial difficulties if you don't get paid back (promptly) then be very careful. Do you know how much equity the seller has in the property?

mi5tery

bitsandpieces wrote: »

Speak to your solicitor. If I were in a similar situation, I'd argue that my flat is a similar level of comfort to a decent 3/4* 'business' hotel in a good location...though I don't know whether I'd be granted compensation to cover this. Depends a bit on where you're buying, I guess - but see what your sol says. If the flat is in poor condition in a rough suburb, staying in a 5* city centre hotel might be seen as taking the p***, though you may have more luck if you're buying a luxury penthouse loft.

One thing to highlight is that - if the vendor is in financial trouble - you may struggle to get money off them. If they go bankrupt, you may not get the money. If spending on hotels etc. would leave you in financial difficulties if you don't get paid back (promptly) then be very careful. Do you know how much equity the seller has in the property?

I do know that there are in total two charges on the property:

1. Bank
2. His wife (I guess from the name), though that was only put on last year. Immediately following which is the below.

"The proprietor of the Charge dated 2 January 2012 referred to above is under an obligation to make further advances. These advances will have priority to the extent afforded by section 49(3) Land Registration Act 2002." (Any idea what this means?)

I don't know how much equity he has in the house no. Though we have no intention on splashing cash just to try and sue him for it later. No, despite how unfair he is treating us, we will not be taking liberties on our end.

Hmmm... googling his name has me believe he's recently had a company he was director for wind down!

Guest101

bitsandpieces wrote: »

Speak to your solicitor. If I were in a similar situation, I'd argue that my flat is a similar level of comfort to a decent 3/4* 'business' hotel in a good location...though I don't know whether I'd be granted compensation to cover this. Depends a bit on where you're buying, I guess - but see what your sol says. If the flat is in poor condition in a rough suburb, staying in a 5* city centre hotel might be seen as taking the p***, though you may have more luck if you're buying a luxury penthouse loft.

One thing to highlight is that - if the vendor is in financial trouble - you may struggle to get money off them. If they go bankrupt, you may not get the money. If spending on hotels etc. would leave you in financial difficulties if you don't get paid back (promptly) then be very careful. Do you know how much equity the seller has in the property?

the op would claim losses from the agrred price