Vendor still has property on the market

ash28

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

...and I am most unlikely to bother with a survey if I change my mind and swop this house for another one at some point. I wasted the money on surveys on both my starter house and this one. Had no option with the starter house (as I needed a mortgage).

Considering what the surveyor overlooked both times...hence why I wasted my money.

Right now....I'm trying to keep spirits up with whistling "Theres a hole in my bucket Dear Lisa" whilst watching a spreading stain on a room ceiling and hoping to goodness I'm not about to be told I need a new roof (a roof repair will be bad enough and totally unexpected):eek:

As regards selling my last house, my EA didn't even ask me whether to stop marketing the house. They just marked it as "sold to STC" and stopped showing viewers round literally the second I had accepted my buyers offer. I think that's probably their standard practice...as they market themselves as an "ethical estate agent" and not down to the fact that my EA told me the second my buyer had had her first viewing that he thought "she will be the one".

We didn't have a survey on our current house....it was 4 years old with 6 years NHBC left and we didn't need a mortgage.

When we sold our last house it was taken off the market (SSTC) when we accepted an offer. It came as no surprise as it was in the contract from the EA, which oddly enough I read. We were happy with that. Our purchase was the same - no marketing after acceptance of offer.

I would hate to have an offer on a house accepted and the house still be actively marketed....I would probably withdraw the offer. It's a stressful enough process without wondering if you're even going to get the house after you've had an offer accepted or lose it during the wait for the survey to be done.

mail2z

Book another viewing with the same EA for a diff property, tell him you are viewing to find a backup as the offered property is still not taken off the market, possibly just before the viewing date call the EA and let him know that you have another viewing with a different EA at the same time for a diff property and hence you would want to change the viewing time. This should convince the EA that you are busy with viewing and he is about to lose his commision and should get things moving your way.

moneyistooshorttomention

Well I HAD read some of the contract:o, as in the bit that stated that no money would be due from me unless Contracts were Exchanged and that they would then take their fee at Completion.

I had checked out that EA in the first place because of thinking "If that particular person is using them....then I figure they could be a goer for me too" and the contract didn't have sheaves of small print when I was given it. Errrm....and I liked the person running it when I met her.

Ahemm.......as you were....but I don't think the contract actually specified when the marketing would stop. It was a very short clear contract that didn't dot all i's and cross all t's.

macman

Inform the agent/vendor that your offer will be withdrawn if the property is not taken off the market within 24 hours?

Itismehonest

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

Fine.....although the last two houses we have purchased we didn't have a survey of any kind - where would that leave us?

No survey is a bit dodgy, isn't it, phoebe? Particularly on older places.
Surely it's more of a risk as to what may 'turn up' & the subsequent cost than losing the survey money?


Most vendors are also buyers so what comes around goes around. They can always lose money on their own survey if a sale falls through but they don't have to take a double hit.

Personally, I can't see a problem with a place being marked SSTC until it has actually been sold.:o

phoebe1989seb

Itismehonest wrote: »

No survey is a bit dodgy, isn't it, phoebe? Particularly on older places.
Surely it's more of a risk as to what may 'turn up' & the subsequent cost than losing the survey money?

Definitely Itisme However we did have an experienced builder friend look over our current (200+ year old) house before we offered

The house was being sold as a *half-finished project* - although I'd beg to differ.....more like *quarter-finished*, lol - as the vendor had re-thatched, replaced/treated rotten/infested timbers (except windows) and installed a new heating system, leaving the joys of replastering, new flooring, demolition of unstable addition, re landscaping, new kitchen & bathrooms etc etc ad infinitum. It was empty and pretty much stripped back to the bare bones (including bare stone walls throughout), so most of its issues were apparent even to us and therefore we were well aware of what we were letting ourselves in for......wouldn't recommend this approach to a novice though

Back on topic, and we once lost a house the day before exchange as it had continued to be marketed (by multiple EAs) unbeknown to us. This was before we had access to RM/internet (early 1990s) and the various EAs concerned were spread over a large-ish city so we were unaware of it being offered by more than one agent.......plus we were naive FTBs

Goldfish52

Thank you all for your responses.
We have decided to let our offer stand for now. We have instructed solicitors and are in the middle of mortgage application process. We will hopefully be able to instruct a survey early in the new year. We have told the agent that we will continue to view other properties after Xmas- obv not much new coming on now! We have also informed them in writing that we are not prepared to proceed with survey if the house remains on the market, but I suppose we will have totolerate it until we have the survey booked.

Did wonder about us informing the other agents - just didn't know whether it would make any difference. Think we will get a friend to act as 'mystery shopper' to see if they are informing people it's under offer. Guessing the vendor may not even have told the other agents that he has accepted our offer.

Phoebe our situation sounds like your situation as a ftb except that fortunately for us we have managed to find out it's still being marketed. Our agent is on our side as he is also selling our flat to ftb and knows we need to find something to move to! We will also start to view with other agents- I never told them we had found something as I had a funny feeling not to!

moneyistooshorttomention

Definitely agree with sending in a "mystery shopper" to enquire on your behalf. I'd do that immediately AND after they'd all been told by me that the house had had my offer accepted.

I mystery shopped the EA I was selling my last house through certainly and they got the "seal of approval" from the friend of mine that had made the enquiry.

They started it....

These rival EAs might well have done their own mystery shopping and know very well your house is no longer for sale (as they often keep tabs on each other)....but, until they have provably been told, they are likely to plead that they didn't know and, without them having had Recorded Delivery letters/been mystery shopped/etc you wont be able to prove to them that they DO know whilst they are busily acting all "innocent".

Vintageryan

Perelandra wrote: »

Why should the potential buyer risk losing his survey fee to a seller who hasn't demonstrated that they're willing to take the house off the market?


If the buyer is faffing around with delaying instructing a solicitor/survey then by all means put the house back on the market. But if the buyer is going through the right motions then, imo, he should be given the benefit of the doubt and treated fairly.

A buyer shouldn't but why should a seller risk out on losing until a survey is booked?


I took my house off as seen as the survey was booked I didn't wait for it to be done this seems fair enough to me. If your not having a survey all well and good but you must of told the sellers EA that?


The OP has said he put an offer in two weeks ago and is not instructing a survey until the new year so the seller will be waiting a month before he sees any progress. Look at that from the sellers point of view and if that was me I would be thinking its taking them a month to sort a survey out how long will everything else take?

Goldfish52

In fairness, the reason it is taking a month to sort a survey is because Christmas and New Years are getting in the way and surveyors are not booking valuations over that period!