HELP Vendor Pulling Out After Exchange of Contract and Our Own solicitor Quit

Angi3_88

Hi,
I am new in this forum, we have a case similar with the thread made by Welshwoofs.
We are a first time buyer and our case is a home buyer TOP nightmare, we are selling my dad house for him to be able to help us having deposit to buy a house, the process selling and buying could not be done at the same time because the vendor solicitor taking too long and there is no EA involve. We start this process in July 2013. Dragging our buyers to 4 months process, we are afraid they going to pulling out of the buying and we wouldn't be to secure the funds to buy the house, everything will fall through.
So we manage to get help from a family that have 2 bedroom house, me my husband and our 2 young kids are sleeping in one double bedroom, we are hoping in 3 weeks the completion of our buying will be catching up and completed.
Two weeks latter we exchange the contract and the vendor asking longer period to complete and we accept. One day before completion the vendor telling us that he is pulling out for some internal family matter that they could not say for us, disclosed and this been suggested by their solicitor they could not tell us why.
We are so confused what to do so we turn our back to our solicitor they inform us that they are closing and in a week time would not operate anymore so they could not handle our case and told us to find a new solicitor, they saying the situation is vendor fault for not be able to complete but they are rejecting to refer us to other solicitor because they do not want to be held responsible of it.
we are currently negotiating with the vendor but they only want to pay us the cost that we have paid: solicitor, storage, insurance etc and suggest us to cancel some insurance. They are not willing to pay any compensation for us to be able to rent somewhere for 6 month because we couldn't stay in our family house start this weekend because the wife mother coming for Christmas and they want to change the room for they baby bedroom. On this weekend we will be homeless, we are focusing to rent somewhere but we get rejected because we want short let 6 month.So at we couldn't find solicitor that wants to handle us and we couldn't find rent at the moment, everything is completely a mess we are desperately need advise.
thank you for reading my thread, we welcome your opinion.

Dukesy

So proper exchange has taken place, with the deposit paid and everything?

agrinnall

I'm sorry but you're not homeless, you have a house that hasn't sold, move back in and you won't need to rent. I think an offer to pay expenses incurred to date is reasonable and you should accept it.

PasturesNew

agrinnall wrote: »

I think an offer to pay expenses incurred to date is reasonable and you should accept it.

No it's not reasonable. There will be other, future, costs that might be incurred. And, the seller has broken the contract. They are liable for the deposit amount at least.

The seller cannot just choose to not sell the house and pay a few expenses..... they had a contract. Contracts were exchanged. The seller has failed to complete.

Angi3_88

Dukesy wrote: »

So proper exchange has taken place, with the deposit paid and everything?

Yes the exchange has taken place one week before, the vendor sign the contract and the deposit has been paid to his solicitor.

Gwhiz

Angi3_88 wrote: »

Yes the exchange has taken place one week before, the vendor sign the contract and the deposit has been paid to his solicitor.

The vendor signing the contract does not necessarily mean exchange has occurred.

You have to be absolutely sure about this.

hazyjo

Are your solicitors closing down completely, or closing down for the Christmas period (as most do)? I am not sure if you're misunderstanding and they're telling you if you want to do anything in that week you'll have to find another solicitor... All very confusing, can't see why they'd tell you now that they're shutting completely forever.

It really will be a matter for solicitors - if you're saying you have actually exchanged contracts on your purchase (and not just signed them), and that the vendor is now pulling out, you will need to sue for costs, etc. They won't really have a choice in what they wish to contribute to or not.

Jx

loubel

Contact your local council or Shelter for help finding emergency accommodation while you look for something more permanent. As you have children you should be treated as a priority case. Where did your father move to after selling his house? Has he got a spare room you could move into temporarily?

If your solicitors are closing for good or do not have a litigation department then you may need to find a specialist property litigation solicitor to help you decide how to deal with the seller's breach of contract. Have your conveyancing solicitors served notice to complete on your seller in the meanwhile?

Angi3_88

agrinnall wrote: »

I'm sorry but you're not homeless, you have a house that hasn't sold, move back in and you won't need to rent. I think an offer to pay expenses incurred to date is reasonable and you should accept it.

I do not have a house, my father sell his house where we previously live together now he live abroad and he gift us a gift for deposit of a new house, while waiting for the completion we stay over temporarily at my sister house which only be available until the completion day because she is expecting her in laws for Christmas holiday and wants to prepare the room where we staying for their baby born, they only have a small 2 bedroom house.
We only have 3 days to find rent and vendors rejecting us because we could/want to rent only for 6 months. This Christmas we probably homeless unless we stay at hotels or find short let. I have 2 little kids and all decision we maid are very carefully we decide to stay over at my sister house because we have exchange the contract with the vendor and just waiting for the completion. 3 days before completion days the vendor told us he needs more time to move out to his son's house we gave them a week even if we complete we give them time 5 days to move out but then 1 day before we complete the vendor said he is now pulling out.
I felt that i do not need to rent if the completion done even if it gets delay for a week, but now it is too late for me to buy another house we need to start from beginning so we will need time around 4 months to find something else. Unfortunately renting is minimum 6 months and that rare to find shortlet.
i do understand if he pull out of the sell before the exchange we will not eligible for any cost compensation. But we also wont be not prepared to find rent specially closing to holiday period.
we have start the process buying this property since July the vendor has many times to decide cancellation but he insist us to pay and complete as soon as possible now that we are in that position on early December he decide to pull out and not giving reasons.

hoggums

The whole thing sounds really fishy to me. It just doesn't add up. A solicitor closing down and refusing to refer you on?

I think you need to get in touch with a reputable solicitor in the area with all the documentation and information you have so that they can take over this case and investigate what, perhaps, is a criminal matter here.

Angi3_88

Gwhiz wrote: »

The vendor signing the contract does not necessarily mean exchange has occurred.

You have to be absolutely sure about this.

yes the exchange has been confirmed on the day by my solicitor and his solicitors hence why his family try to negotiate to us for settling out of the court. I have the copy of the contract that the vendor signed and have the confirmation from my solicitor. the deposit still with the vendor's solicitor until now.