2nd house fallen through- really poor form from the seller

firsttimeforeverything_2

Hi all,

We've just found out our house sale has fallen through - we're FTBs and this is the second time is happened now.

To make things worse, it looks like the seller has screwed us over intentionally, he must have had a second buyer all along. We haven't heard from the seller's solicitors for some time, and the only thing we were waiting on were responses to enquiries from our solicitor. The seller must have instructed them to hold back on dealing with us to proceed on the other buyer, but keep us on the back burner just in case. Multiple East will never do that again.

I'm really disillusioned with the buying process, and people's capacity for being dishonorable.

I don't really have any questions, just wanted to vent a little, maybe make people think a bit more about how they treat others in the process - we're now down a few thousand pounds, still living in temporary accommodation and have to start the whole thing again.

Rant over. Once more into the breach!

Richard_Webster

If the seller's solicitor issued a draft contract to another buyer's solicitor without telling OP's solicitor then that is professional misconduct and OP's solicitor should report them tot he SRA.

kingstreet

Yup. Vendor's solicitor should have called contract back from your solicitor.

What makes you think there's another buyer?

firsttimeforeverything_2

Interesting...

My first post was a tad emotional, so here are the facts as we know them:
- We get all our ducks in a row apart from one of the searches and some outstanding enquiries on the contract, as well as a correction on the contract (someone else's name was on it...)
- Last week the EA tells us he's having trouble getting in touch with the seller or the seller's solicitors, asks us to ask our solicitor when the last time they heard from them was
- We check, they last heard from them when they sent some docs through on 27th Sept
- The EA calls us, tells us he got through to the seller and he told him a cash buyer has matched our offer (not exceeded, matched) and was prepared to exchange that same week
- We told the EA that we were ready to go and had been for a few days (meanwhile the final search had come back fine)
- The EA contacted the seller again, telling him that we were ready and had been chasing his solicitor for a week
- The seller told him he was going with the cash buyer, and they were about to exchange today(!) and complete tomorrow

So, my questions:
- Even if the other buyer was a cash buyer- they still need to go through the legal side, right? I doubt that this mystery person would simply hand over £315k
- Are there any other explanations you can think of?

The EA even offered to reduce his fee in order to keep us in the running (he has lost out on his commission, of course), but the buyer was adamant he was going with this other buyer.

Frustrating to say the least!

Better_Days

Really feel for you having it all fall apart at such a late stage. :(:( We are just coming up to exchange and it is making me very twitchy knowing it could all still go wrong.

Sounds like the seller chose the other buyer to save on EA fees although it does depend on the contract seller signed with the EA. Was the property for sale through another EA as well or was the cash buyer a 'private' sale?

firsttimeforeverything_2

Better_Days wrote: »

Really feel for you having it all fall apart at such a late stage. :(:( We are just coming up to exchange and it is making me very twitchy knowing it could all still go wrong.

Sounds like the seller chose the other buyer to save on EA fees although it does depend on the contract seller signed with the EA. Was the property for sale through another EA as well or was the cash buyer a 'private' sale?

I think it's exactly this.

To be in this position is horrible, my heart goes out to everyone in a similar position.

3rd time lucky I hope!