Estate agent keeps asking me questions...

Eejay

Not trolling - but believe what you want. I've better things to do with my time than make up a situation like this.

The solicitor is off until Tuesday so we can't ask her for advice right now, and the EA has said that once things start moving they will "ask if they are willing to serve notice earlier than discussed". The solicitor knew that the tenants were there and hadn't raised any concerns, so we didn't realise it was a major problem until now.

Three weeks may be a 'long time' to some (selling our old place has dragged on for quite a while but we didn't mind too much, even though we're having to pay £200ish a month for service charge and council tax - at least in this place the tenants are paying the bills!), but when we made the offer and told the EA when the appointment was, they didn't complain. Three weeks is three weeks - we didn't postpone it so it's not like they weren't aware! If they were so bothered, why didn't they say, "Three weeks is a long time, can you try to arrange one sooner?"

If my husband would prefer to take half a day off to spend with his daughter, that's what he'll do - it's his life and he can do as he pleases! When he went to Santander, the next appointment was 2 months away - so he didn't bother. It's not like he was being totally unreasonable. He also told them he had the money either way - if he couldn't get the mortgage then his family was going to pay for it. As far as I'm concerned, the searches at least could have gone ahead because we could guarantee that we could pay for it one way or another. We didn't ask for those to be held up and didn't realise that they had been until yesterday.

The property was on the market for five months before our offer - nobody else could see beyond the tenants belongings. However, if the landlord wants to remarket it he can go for it.

As for speaking to the EA - I didn't want to be discussing my husband's mortgage when I couldn't guarantee I was giving the correct information. I actually think that's quite sensible, rather than risking giving the wrong answers and confusing things further. I may be married to him but I'm not his secretary! He specifically requested that they discuss it with him - not exactly difficult. I'm certainly not 'thick' but I don't want to be discussing the mortgage at great length just in case they decide to call me instead of him. If he was going to be unavailable for a few days then I would happily discuss it with him and then pass messages in either direction, but since he can always be contacted within a few hours, I'm not going to waste my time.

jjlandlord

Eejay wrote: »

I've better things to do with my time than make up a situation like this.

You do seem to have time, while you tell us that your husband does not.
Yet, he is the one dealing with everything and you are not happy to receive even just a few calls from the EA (that's why you started a thread).

Hmm, there must be a solution here, but what could it be?

Eejay

jjlandlord wrote: »

You do seem to have time, while you tell us that your husband does not.
Yet, he is the one dealing with everything and you are not happy to receive even just a few calls from the EA (that's why you start a thread).

Hmm, there must be a solution here, but what could it be?

Yes, I have time because I've finished uni for the year. I'm also up and down to the toilet all night which is why I've replied at some odd times.

If the EA wanted frequent updates then I'm sure I could arrange speaking to them, but ringing me randomly and expecting me to be able to answer all their questions is just stupid. I had no idea there was any problem so to suddenly start lecturing me on the length of time we've taken was a surprise and I didn't quite know what to say to him. I didn't think we'd taken that long - but I guess that's because we've been fairly 'laid back' about our own sale. That's why I'd rather my husband deal with it. He's 7.5 years older than me and has had much more experience in this type of thing than I have, and it's all in his name so if I start giving out the wrong information it reflects badly on him. If in the future I am in a position to be able to buy a house with him then of course I'll be more involved, but currently I'd rather concentrate on other things, like ensuring I am prepared for the arrival of our baby.

ETA: I didn't start the thread to complain about the EA calling me (I could have picked a better title I suppose) - I wanted to know whether he was right when he said we were taking too long. As I've explained along the way, there were a few misunderstandings on both our parts but we felt we'd done all we could and then suddenly we were told we were holding everything up, which was never our intention.

Tigsteroonie

Eviesmummy wrote: »

OP, I just wanted to say to that your situation isn't so unusual, I'm buying our new house in my name only. My husband and daughter will be living there too and we're a happy family!

Eejay wrote: »

Thanks - glad we're not the only ones I didn't think it was that 'weird' until I posted on here and got accused of deceiving the bank etc! :rotfl:

And us - though we're not married The house we're buying (hoping to buy, still at the fingers crossed stage) will be in my name only, but Marley & littl'un will be living there too. I plan on having suffiicent insurance to pay off the mortgage if I snuff it. If Marley had come in on the mortgage, we would have got a far smaller offer based on the different multiple used, his only income is CTC and CA. What was annoying was that the mortgage company couldn't take the CTC into account as income because it goes into his account rather than mine.

Woe betide the EA or Solicitor if they tried to ask questions about the house purchase to Marley, he wouldn't be able to answer any of the detail!

Thrugelmir

Eejay wrote: »

If the EA wanted frequent updates then I'm sure I could arrange speaking to them, but ringing me randomly and expecting me to be able to answer all their questions is just stupid.

If you can't be bothered to be involved personally then quit the transaction. You're happy to post on here about something which is none of your business according (to you). So I wonder why you are ? Seems equally if not more stupid.........

EmmEve

No I don't think he's being a drama queen. You don't seem to have progressed very much since making the offer? We offered on a house last thursday and found a conveyancer the same day. This week we have chosen our mortgage and our broker put in the application and supporting documentation, we have booked our surveyor (who is going in next friday) and today visited our conveyancer to drop off necessary paperwork. Our mortgage has all been arranged via phone/emails.

I wouldn't wait for someone from the bank to call me back about what interest rate I was going for, I would decide then call them to let them know.

Annie1960

kmmr wrote: »

I am the named owner of our home, but when buying it the EA would call my husband from time to time. He was aware enough of what was going on to either answer, or take a message and help to make sure I was aware. I think telling them to just 'go away' is only going to antagonise things!

And regardless of the reason, if I was a seller and the buyer hadn't even decided on a lender after 4 weeks I would have completely lost patience. If the appointment wasn't available for 4 weeks, then that isn't the mortgage for you! You have to be proactive, or take a long lunchbreak and sort it out. Or ask your wife to go and do the meeting and take all the documents for signing to you... or basically... find a way!!

You are missing the point here. The vendor still has a tenant in the property, so the buyers should do NOTHING AT ALL until the tenant has left.

Annie1960

time2deal wrote: »

As I said, as a seller I wouldn't be interested in why you are being delayed, just that you are. Why should it be the sellers problem that you can't take a half day to sort out a mortgage? Why is it their concern that your prioritise half a day with a sleeping baby over getting a roof over its head?

It's not their concern! Its your problem, and no reason they should make it theirs. As I said, I'd have moved on long ago. You are being unreasonable.

It is the vendor who is being unreasonable, have you not understood they still have a tenant in the property!!!

Thrugelmir

Annie1960 wrote: »

It is the vendor who is being unreasonable, have you not understood they still have a tenant in the property!!!

Are you suggesting that the tenant should leave before a mortgage is applied for? Takes 2 to tango. People with a genuine interest in buying a property normally are proactive. Certainly don't expend their energy moaning to total strangers on an internet forum.

Eejay

I'm 'happy' to discuss it on here because if I make a mistake I can come back and correct myself. You're all strangers on here - it's not going to affect the sale if I make a slight error in what I'm telling you. If I make an error with the EA then it's different - it can have consequences.

I can see now that we are being a bit slow, but they could have nudged us along the way rather than leave it all until now. I think the vendor is complaining at them and they are passing it along - the emails came across as quite snotty but apparently the EA was fine when my husband spoke on the phone.

My husband was told to email some paperwork to the woman at the bank, which he did quite soon after the appointment. He also sent a couple of other updates to her, didn't get a response to anything, and when he tried to call the bank he discovered she's off until Monday. We might not be perfect but it seems there are obstacles cropping up all over the place.

As for the tenants still being present - the EA doesn't want to discuss this at the moment until we're a bit further on. However, my husband has received the paperwork from the solicitors and now we have some serious concerns. There's an email included from the EA to the vendor's solicitor which includes "The client asked us to complete the Property Information Form for him as he has no knowledge of the property." Great.

The Property Information Form has been only half filled in - loads of answers are missing. Numerous things that could be answered with "not known" (e.g. re: Japanese knotweed) have been left blank, and then some really, really basic stuff that we could answer ourselves has been skipped too, including, "Does the seller live at the property?" (!!!!!!?!) and "Is the property connected to mains: foul water drainage?/surface water drainage?"

I don't care how 'slow' we've been - surely the vendor is totally taking the p*ss here?