House Buying Nightmare

giddypenguin

DRP wrote: »

could you convey the information in a tweet sized summary?

my concentration isn't what it used to be...

The vendors of house OP offered on, tried to buy house with tenants who didn't want to leave. Took 6 months to sort out.

Em11

Sound's like you went through hell to get your dream house. I hope it was worth it!?

emmalouise1777

Thanks to everyone who's posted replies, it's good to get feedback!

dimbo61 - the council did indeed refuse to rehome the tenants as they made themselves homeless. They moved into another privately rented house as far as I know...

Em11 - it was worth it, the stress is becoming a distant memory now!

grifferz - you're right and in hindsight I shouldn't have looked so negatively on the tenants - I have no idea of their situation

CluelessFTB - I NEVER want to move again, luckily the house was worth the wait so we'll be happy here until we're brave enough to consider it again! Good luck with your purchase, I know most aren't as troublesome as this!

I also agree with richardw that something should be done to ensure things like this don't happen!

emmalouise1777

pops5588 - it's hard to judge as every situation is different, but we wanted the house enough to persevere as long as it didn't affect us financially. Had it done, I think we would have had no choice but to walk. In that sense we were very lucky.

Good luck and I hope it all works out for you!

pops5588

Yeah i think it would be spending an additional bucket of money would be the "a lot" to make me walk, but fingers crossed...

Full_of_angst

What a nightmare; I'm so glad it turned out well in the end and that you had a solicitor who was willing to show their teeth!

The buying/selling process in this country positively stinks. People are expected and have no choice but to endure and risk the unthinkable (ie spend heaps of money on an endeavour that due to whims and fancies of all involved might NEVER happen, without any penalty towards the perpetrators of those whims and fancies).

pinkshoes

Very patient! I would've walked away when I found out the house had a tenant.

Propertyfan

So eleven months from the first viewing, we moved into our lovely new house. I can almost laugh at the hellish experience now but it was, without doubt the most stressful experience of my life (beating a premature baby and a divorce by a mile). It's the lack of control that I struggled with the most.

Anyway, I'm glad we persevered as we're very happy in our new home, and if nothing else I have learnt A LOT about the house buying process in this country and how flawed it is.

I can fully understand how you feel. I admire your tenacity to stick with it and move into your new home. I personally feel the government should introduce laws to effectively punish prospective buyers that wait to the last minute before withdrawing from a sale. Some form of 'time wasting' tax that is enforced by The UK Law Society. All prospective buyers should be aware of financial penalties if they deliberately time waste, and/or have no compelling reason (evidence has to be provided to prove to the contrary) to pull out of a deal at the very last moment.

Regarding your nightmarish experience with tenants, at least there are laws in place to get people out of properties. It can take so long and be costly (both financially and emotionally) but justice prevailed at the end. :T

phoebe1989seb

Thanks for sharing your story and glad to hear it all worked out eventually I can sympathise with both yourself and your vendors, having previously bought a house that comprised four separately tenanted flats, two of which had tenants that refused to leave and that had to be both bribed financially and evicted........

Our house sale completed, we had to put everything into storage and stay with my parents for a few months till the bailiffs had done their job - it sucks, but was worth it to get our dream home! At the time we thought we'd never put ourselves through the process again, but you learn to get over it and do just that

Duskylady

Great (if slightly terrifying) story.

We are in the process of buying our first home and its all going pretty smoothly at the moment. Touch wood