Property Information Form missing a LOT of info.

thequant

Eejay wrote: »

I'm really grateful for the suggestion of contacting the vendor directly I wasn't even sure it was allowed (then I saw the other thread about a buyer wanting to meet the vendor and lots of people saying it was quite normal), and I'm sure the EA will be furious when they find out, but they are being totally ridiculous. Is it possible to ignore the EA altogether and have them deal with our solicitor only? I honestly can't work out what they are hoping to achieve - it feels like they are trying to bully us out of the purchase more than anything. As I said before, the house was on the market for five months with very little interest, so I don't know why that would be a good idea - unless someone has shown an interest since we've put our offer in.

I did this for a rental, EA's were useless so I spoke direct to the prospective LL. We both agreed the cut the LA out of the picture, mutually agree things ourselves and then order EA to do as they were told.


Obviously a house sale is more involved and they do need to be involved. However the key thing is you have a line of communication open to the vendor.


However the next time the EA starts saying the vendor is getting frustrated, feel free to tell them "let me check that with the vendor"


don't worry about what the EA's say, you should now feel empowered to put them in their place

Eejay

The EA has sent another snotty email about us contacting the vendor. Apparently because he is abroad it's okay to not fill the paperwork in properly and our solicitor needs to contact him for further information, despite the fact it was the EA that filled the paperwork in and they keep telling us the vendor knows nothing. Seems they are keen to leave as much information as possible blank.

(ETA: "The property information form was not filled in as my client lives abroad and in those circumstances its quite common for the form not to be filled in correctly." - Do you think they are trying to deny that it was them that filled it in? I don't think they expected the email to be included that stated it was their own property inspector who completed it!).

Apparently "The tenancy agreements are not required though as you are buying this with vacant possession." Yet they don't seem keen to provide any information on when they will be leaving...

They want to know "...is the survey going to be instructed this week?" Er, probably not. They say we need to speak to them if we have any queries, not the vendor, but they are refusing to answer anything so why would we spend £1,000 pushing ahead with surveys?!

thequant

Eejay wrote: »

The EA has sent another snotty email about us contacting the vendor. Apparently because he is abroad it's okay to not fill the paperwork in properly and our solicitor needs to contact him for further information, despite the fact it was the EA that filled the paperwork in and they keep telling us the vendor knows nothing. Seems they are keen to leave as much information as possible blank.

(ETA: "The property information form was not filled in as my client lives abroad and in those circumstances its quite common for the form not to be filled in correctly." - Do you think they are trying to deny that it was them that filled it in? I don't think they expected the email to be included that stated it was their own property inspector who completed it!).

Apparently "The tenancy agreements are not required though as you are buying this with vacant possession." Yet they don't seem keen to provide any information on when they will be leaving...

They want to know "...is the survey going to be instructed this week?" Er, probably not. They say we need to speak to them if we have any queries, not the vendor, but they are refusing to answer anything so why would we spend £1,000 pushing ahead with surveys?!

There is never an excuse for someone not fill in legal paperwork to the best of their ability.


Yes tenancy agreements are relevant to you, after all how long is left on them ? What happens if you instruct survey and then discover you cant have the tenants out for the next 9 months.


You are obviously keen on this place, my plan would be.


1) you are willing to do survey on condition of


2) being given knowledge of the tenancy


3) once survey is done, and sale goes ahead the required notices are served.

Bantex_2

Eejay wrote: »

The EA has sent another snotty email about us contacting the vendor. Apparently because he is abroad it's okay to not fill the paperwork in properly and our solicitor needs to contact him for further information, despite the fact it was the EA that filled the paperwork in and they keep telling us the vendor knows nothing. Seems they are keen to leave as much information as possible blank.

(ETA: "The property information form was not filled in as my client lives abroad and in those circumstances its quite common for the form not to be filled in correctly." - Do you think they are trying to deny that it was them that filled it in? I don't think they expected the email to be included that stated it was their own property inspector who completed it!).

Apparently "The tenancy agreements are not required though as you are buying this with vacant possession." Yet they don't seem keen to provide any information on when they will be leaving...

They want to know "...is the survey going to be instructed this week?" Er, probably not. They say we need to speak to them if we have any queries, not the vendor, but they are refusing to answer anything so why would we spend £1,000 pushing ahead with surveys?!

Do you know if there are any others interested in the place (possibly BTL who will buy with tenants)?

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I bought my house in a probate sale, and the vendor (a distant relative) couldn't realistically answer many of the questions, and I didn't expect them to. This was clearly stated on the paperwork though, and it was signed and returned promptly.

It sounds like your sale hinges on how motivated the vendor is because it can only proceed when he bites the bullet and serves the tenants notice. Everything else is a waste of your time and money until then. I would email him a polite but firm note stating that you are keen to buy, but that ANY buyer is going to need vacant possession. It would be worth mentioning that the EAs are being unhelpful and are putting you off the sale. A properly motivated seller would have been on the phone giving them a proper b0ll0cking five minutes after receiving your initial message.

Eejay

I think the EA must have a degree in BS. I'm so sick of the rude emails we're getting (my husband forwards them on to me so I can see what nonsense they've come up with now)!

They reckon our solicitor has had the tenancy agreements but just hasn't forwarded them on to us. My husband emailed on Thursday evening and said the solicitor was off until Tuesday, and now it seems the EA are trying to get us to agree to things quickly whilst she's not around to advise us (they've barely spoken to us until these past few days)! I feel they are really trying to drive a wedge between us and her (constantly telling us our solicitor has made mistakes), which is weird because we haven't had any problems with her so far and she's dealt with our other property pretty well.

They also seem incapable of reading properly. For example (some of these are from same emails but I've copied them in a way so you can follow the 'conversation' without having the whole email each time; also, I apologise for the typos - my husband replies from his phone/tablet and sometimes misses them or the autocorrect suggests weird alternatives):

---

Husband: "Also the Gas Cert has the landlord listed as a different name to proprietor (who is this?)."

EA: "They [solicitor] have the gas cert and tenancy agreements as we sent then and so did the vendors solicitors."

Husband: (No mention of gas certificate in reply to them.)

EA: "Your solicitor does have the gas certificate and tenancy agreements and did in fact acknowledge receipt of these to the vendors solicitors."

So no answer to that question.

---

Husband: "I received the information sent for sellers solicitors today, barely any of the questions are answered Including many important ones (not even if the landlord lives there). No tenancy agreement has been provided or details of the tenants and whether they will leave on completion. It also not signed."

EA: "Your solicitors have had the replies since the 2nd of June and are only looking at them now?" ... "I suggest you ask your solicitors to check their files very carefully as I already stated that these details were sent to them."

Goodness knows what they are answering there. He said we'd received the information and half of it was not filled in, not that the solicitor was 'only looking at them now'.

---

Husband: "It would be good to give notice to tenants earlier with us going through with the sale. We are at point of signing contracts on my current sale do should have £92k shortly."

EA: "I cannot suggest to my clients to put their tenants on notice when we are 4 weeks down the line and the survey has not even taken place."

And yet many people here are advising they should be out ASAP and we should not progress any further until they are gone.

---

EA: "You really should use the same solicitor for your sale and purchase- this is the normal way of dealing with the conveyance."

But they are always complaining about how awful our solicitor is?

---

The house is nice - it's not our dream house, but it's the only house we have any interest in at the moment, and we've been looking for months now. There's very little available in our price range which is convenient for my husband getting to work and has enough space and a garden. We both want it, but my husband is again tempted to pull out. If we do end up staying in our rental property for longer it's not the end of the world, but it just depends if anything interesting will turn up in the next year or so and whether we'll be able to afford it.

Annie1960

Eejay wrote: »

If the EA is also the LA (I am sure they said at one point that they were, but I could be mistaken) then I suppose it's in their interests to keep the tenants there for as long as possible so that they can continue to take their share of the rent each month. I definitely don't think we should agree to exchange contracts before they are out, which I think is what the EA wanted us to do initially (we trusted them since they are supposedly professionals!) - they could completely trash the place!

Your solicitor should not let you exchange with tenants in the property. Also, your mortgage company will want evidence of vacant possession before they will let you exchange. If it all goes wrong, YOU are the ones who will have the problem. It is not really about trashing the place, it is the fact that, if the tenants choose to stay, YOU will need to issue court proceedings to evict them, and it could take up to nine months.


I can't believe that EAs can get away with twisting the truth and telling outright lies like this. It's absolutely disgraceful :mad:

That is why the Ombudsman is there.

Annie1960

Eejay wrote: »

I think the EA must have a degree in BS. I'm so sick of the rude emails we're getting (my husband forwards them on to me so I can see what nonsense they've come up with now)!

I don't understand why the EA is dealing with this stuff. The EA's job is get an offer. It is your solicitor's job to deal with the detail of the gas certs etc. It is also your solicitor's job to ensure vacant possession. Your vendor/EA have a direct conflict of interest with you as they want the tenant there as long as possible, and you want them out before you will spend any money on this.

In your position, and in view of the rubbish the EA is sending you, I would tell the EA to stop communicating with you. They should be communicating with your solicitor.

Your solicitor should deal with the vendor's solicitor about things such as vacant possession, so don't engage in any discussion about this with the EA.

Eejay

Bantex wrote: »

Do you know if there are any others interested in the place (possibly BTL who will buy with tenants)?

When I initially called they'd had a steady flow of viewers (one or two a week) but no offers. It'd been on the market for five months at that point, so I don't know why someone would suddenly be interested now but I suppose they could be. The tenant told us that they were moving elsewhere anyway because they could do with the extra space, and that they were in the process of sorting that out.

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

I bought my house in a probate sale, and the vendor (a distant relative) couldn't realistically answer many of the questions, and I didn't expect them to. This was clearly stated on the paperwork though, and it was signed and returned promptly.

It sounds like your sale hinges on how motivated the vendor is because it can only proceed when he bites the bullet and serves the tenants notice. Everything else is a waste of your time and money until then. I would email him a polite but firm note stating that you are keen to buy, but that ANY buyer is going to need vacant possession. It would be worth mentioning that the EAs are being unhelpful and are putting you off the sale. A properly motivated seller would have been on the phone giving them a proper b0ll0cking five minutes after receiving your initial message.

If the paperwork was signed and the questions had mostly been acknowledged at least, I'd understand - but entire pages were just left blank, there were a few ticks elsewhere and no signature/date. I don't want to hassle him any more as he said he'd rather deal with the EA but he would get onto them today, which he has.

I don't want to post the full emails, but if anyone who has been following this is curious to see what I said to the vendor, what he replied with, and how the EA has reacted so you can see the difference in attitude, I could PM you.

My husband has just sent me a message to say he's spoken to the solicitor's colleague and that they said "it's awful" and that the solicitor will likely send it straight back to them (I assume the documents), and that if the EA is dealing with it they should be included in the contract. They also told us not to take any pressure from the EA, and that they do searches after the survey in case anything major comes up. They pointed out, "It's not like you're buying a pair of shoes" lol :rotfl:

thequant

Eejay wrote: »

My husband has just sent me a message to say he's spoken to the solicitor's colleague and that they said "it's awful" and that the solicitor will likely send it straight back to them (I assume the documents), and that if the EA is dealing with it they should be included in the contract. They also told us not to take any pressure from the EA, and that they do searches after the survey in case anything major comes up. They pointed out, "It's not like you're buying a pair of shoes" lol :rotfl:

Spot on from your sols, that paperwork really just isn't acceptable.


In my own purchase, the information form was full of don't know. But at least I could see there was a genuine attempt to fill it in honestly.


For them to justify what they have sent is just insulting you.


Whenever I have any kind of dealings with anyone, nothing makes my blood boil more than someone who is not legally trained telling you that your legally trained sols is wrong.


Again this is just insulting, it's the very reason why you employ a solicitor so you don't allow people like this get away with such crap.


Next time they attempt to feed you any BS, just start referring them to your solicitor.