Vendor/EA threatening to pull out of sale

holidayinn

Hi All,

Could do with a bit of advice please.

Memorandum of Sale mid September, I am FTB and no chain involved. Survey and mortgage offer beginning of October, fixtures and fittings list end of October.

Draft contract received mid last week, with notes that the document will be discussed in more detail.

Today, I received an email and call of the estate agent to be informed that the vendor of the property has stated they will not be selling if the deal cannot be completed by the end of December as they have been waiting since Sept.

I then called my solicitors who have advised that they are waiting for the vendors solicitors to come back on queries. These were initially sent out on 29th November and chased on 6th December.

I called the EA who advised that my solicitors are still waiting for searches to come back and that they only sent the queries on 6th December.

Who is telling the truth? I don’t know…but anything I can do to move this whole process along quicker?

Many thanks!

ACG

Ask your solicitor for a copy of what was sent to their solicitors?
This can be handed to the agents to back up your solicitors version of events.

ValHaller

Don't be rushed. Something is not right here. If the draft contract was only received last week, your solicitor has done well to get queries out on 6th December.

I suggest you get your solicitor to provide a copy of the covering letter with the draft contract and show it to the EA, assuming that it supports the story from your solicitor. Don't take 'no' for an answer when you ask for this.

Assuming the vendor's solicitor has delayed things, tell the agent that you expect to be given a reasonable time to exchange and that he should pull his client into line over this.

And above all beware - it is not unknown for a vendor to let things slide and then put on a tight deadline in which things get missed. Better to drop out now if it is going to go pear shaped.

mgtr

Possibly selfish EA staff wanting commissions to be known prior to their credit card bills in Jan.


We see it all the time in Dec. Already today I have spoken to someone in a similar position, only when I spoke to their purchaser she knew nothing about it!


My advice ; facebook / twitter etc - find your vendor - email them directly and explain things.


All too often motive and ego on the part of those involved conspire to mess things up.

kingstreet

I'm with VH. There was no way this was going anywhere fast if the draft contract hadn't been sent to the purchaser's solicitor by the vendor's solicitor.

Ask why this was the case.

holidayinn

Hi All,

Many thanks for the advice, have emailed the solicitors and will follow up with a call. Will update this thread with response.

It clicked last night that the tenant was supposed to have been evicted/left the property on 8th December (according to EA who manage the property for the vendor also). The EA mentioned this in our call yesterday, but it was a colleague of his who had previously mentioned it was the 8th.

I have a feeling that this could be the vendor + agent now trying to move things along the day after the tenant was evicted. Any thoughts? Seems a bit sneaky to start sending threats.

rpc

They may just want to crack on, but don't do anything until you are 100% that the tenant has left.

Inspect the house to see it is unoccupied and get the selling solicitor to declare the tenant has vacated - don't use the EA, they will say anything to progress a sale. A solicitor is a bit more reliable.

AdrianC

holidayinn wrote: »

I then called my solicitors who have advised that they are waiting for the vendors solicitors to come back on queries. These were initially sent out on 29th November and chased on 6th December.

I called the EA who advised that my solicitors are still waiting for searches to come back and that they only sent the queries on 6th December.

Who is telling the truth?

I'm not sure the two are contradictory.

Both EA & your sol agree that the ball is currently with the vendor's solicitor.
Both your sol and the EA agree that the vendor's sol was sent the queries on the 6th.
The only disagreement is that the EA doesn't seem to know about the original sending on the 27th, and think that the 6th was when they were first sent, rather than chased. Since the EA have probably got that from the vendor's sol, it's entirely possible that they either didn't receive the queries on the 27th or they didn't enter the system for whatever reason.

Either way, there's nothing YOU can do. The vendor needs to stick a poker up his solicitor's chuff if he wants things to get wiggling.

eddddy

Hi holidayinn

I think mgtr could well be right...

The EA may want to get this deal on their books before their quarter end or year end on 31st Dec. (Possibly to increase an annual bonus payment etc.)

It may be worth trying to informally contact the vendor directly. Firstly, you can reassure them that your solicitor is working away diligently, and secondly, you can gauge whether there really is some urgency on the vendor's part.

AndyGuil

They are just tactics used to put pressure on you to go quicker. They are not real. What are they going to do in December? They will have to wait another 3 months again and probably incur a load more fees.