We've withdrawn our offer!

plumfin

Eejay wrote: »

I'd have happily left it at withdrawing the offer. I kind of wish I had the guts to go to the EA tomorrow, but sadly I'm no good with face-to-face confrontation

I wasn't going to post, but I have to after this and after reading all your threads. You DO have the confidence to do a face to face - you have dealt with the questioners on here well and calmly, no matter how harsh, fair or unfair they might have been.

Don't doubt yourself now, if you don't go to the meeting, it will possibly be the most costly cop-out you could ever make.

Stay strong and calm, but you need to get your answers or you will get swept along and have no one to blame but yourself. Good luck.

anselld

The third thread in the same tale of woe. You are flogging a dead horse. There is no way you are going to exchange contracts with tenants in place and by now you should have realised you are just wasting time and money.

Eejay

plumfin wrote: »

I wasn't going to post, but I have to after this and after reading all your threads. You DO have the confidence to do a face to face - you have dealt with the questioners on here well and calmly, no matter how harsh, fair or unfair they might have been.

Don't doubt yourself now, if you don't go to the meeting, it will possibly be the most costly cop-out you could ever make.

Stay strong and calm, but you need to get your answers or you will get swept along and have no one to blame but yourself. Good luck.

Thanks, that's encouraged me to just do it! There's no official meeting - I was just going to go in to discuss it as it's ridiculous having to wait for emails all the time. I don't think she'll be as terrifying in person as she comes across via email either.

My husband said we should just wait for a response from the solicitor and the woman at the bank but to be fair they've not got a good record so far and I don't fancy waiting a week to hear back from them... he's too patient :rotfl:

I'm going to write a list of things that need discussing so at least I'll know what I want to say rather than just sitting there muttering stuff! She never responded to the email my husband sent today so for all we know, she might have already passed on our withdrawal (despite asking him to confirm whether that's definitely what he wanted). Who knows. Need to go out that direction anyway for my viewing so won't be too far out of my way

DRP

anselld wrote: »

The third thread in the same tale of woe. You are flogging a dead horse. There is no way you are going to exchange contracts with tenants in place and by now you should have realised you are just wasting time and money.

^This.

There is no chance the bank (and therefore your solicitor) will allow you to proceed unless the tenants are gone.

All the other problems are just fluff.

Eejay

DRP wrote: »

^This.

There is no chance the bank (and therefore your solicitor) will allow you to proceed unless the tenants are gone.

All the other problems are just fluff.

It's one of the things that I will discuss tomorrow.

I know people on here have made it clear that it's a problem, but my husband hasn't properly read all of the responses (I have tried to make him - he's read all of this one though) and just took the attitude of "the solicitor is legally trained, surely she'd tell us if it was a problem" - which is understandable in a way. After all, the forum members here are a bunch of total strangers - I'm sure some are professionals and others are just 'normal' people, but you'd expect to be able to trust a solicitor that you're paying to deal with the legal aspect of things (it's a properly established firm, not just a random place he found on the Internet - and I've been to their offices so know it's not some sort of weird scam!). However, I've come to the conclusion that she doesn't really know what she's doing unless it's simple. It's thanks to people's responses (good and bad - I read them all!) that I've started to really dislike the property and all the issues with it, but he is still holding out a tiny bit of hope. I suspect I'll be asking for our deposit back tomorrow.

franklee

Eejay wrote: »

I know people on here have made it clear that it's a problem, but my husband hasn't properly read all of the responses (I have tried to make him - he's read all of this one though) and just took the attitude of "the solicitor is legally trained, surely she'd tell us if it was a problem" - which is understandable in a way. After all, the forum members here are a bunch of total strangers - I'm sure some are professionals and others are just 'normal' people, but you'd expect to be able to trust a solicitor that you're paying to deal with the legal aspect of things (it's a properly established firm, not just a random place he found on the Internet - and I've been to their offices so know it's not some sort of weird scam!). However, I've come to the conclusion that she doesn't really know what she's doing unless it's simple.

Depends on how much time she's giving to your case. In my experience solicitors raise issues causing delays leaving you thinking why the heck didn't they say that weeks ago and communication between receptionists and the various solicitors can be poor. It really does pay to be proactive keeping them informed and asking clear questions, perhaps by email if they typically communicate that way. At the end of the day to her you are just one of many clients. To you any purchase is life changing. So really it's you who needs to track the issues. If you sit back and wait to be spoon fed any purchase will all just drift.

OTOH if she says you can exchange before the tenant has left then I'd suggest making a complaint. That should get the attention of a senior person.

I wouldn't waste too much time on the EA, they will just say whatever gets them a sale.

Why not get a book on house buying, or find some online guides, have a good read and then take charge (when you find somewhere available to buy that is). You seem to have more time than your husband and that will leave him free to do the parts you can't.

[Deleted User]

If your husband hasn't read any of the other responses tell him that if you two exchange - unless you have a fixed completion date (firmly fixed) you are then tied into buying the property. It will be very difficult to back out. But with just an exchange.., with no set dates, the seller can keep you hanging around for months while they get the tenants to leave. If sufficient provision isn't made in the contact, they could even exchange with tenants still in place.That's why you need a solicitor that clearly understands the ramifications and why you two need to.

You are the buyer here, not the EA's minions. If you say you won't exchange or do surveys (which could mean wasting a huge amount of money if the vendor can't get tenants out in a decent period of time) without the tenants being out of the property, then that is you protecting a rather large investment and acting sensibly. It shouldn't be up for negotiation. Its your (or your husband's) money and you can choose where you put it. Stop letting an EA ride rough shod over you. Its not their money, their stress levels, their purchase.

The comments made above about this just being one case amongst many for your solicitor while its the only thing you are thinking about, and immensely important to you are very true.

Years ago, I had a supposedly good solicitor tie me into to giving a 10% deposit instead of a 5% deposit (probably because she did no more than glance at the contract her secretary typed up). For her it was just one case in many. For us, it was our future hopes and dreams and the largest sum of money we'd ever handed over. It was sorted but the whole thing went right to the nail. I never used her again.

Eejay

franklee wrote: »

Depends on how much time she's giving to your case.

I think this might be the issue to be honest; I'm sure he said it was a standard fee he was paying so she'll get the same amount of money regardless of how much or how little work she does.

Next time I reckon I will try to be the main one dealing with it (except the financial side) because he can usually only communicate via email which is fine for some of the people involved but not for others. I'll be going back to uni in September but even then I should have plenty of time free each week to deal with phone calls etc. It's just infuriating going around in circles trying to get answers from each person - we're now waiting for the woman at the bank to confirm whether the mortgage will be an issue with the tenants there (I hope she says yes!) and the solicitor to contact us about the Property Information Form and to ask her about the tenants too. I'm going to give her another try in a little while because I want to go to the EA prepared with facts rather than assumptions.

The EA can either start listening to us and do things in a way that suits us too, or give us our money back and wait several more months to try and sell the property to some other gullible idiot

traineepensioner

OP, from your comments, it sounds as if you don't really want the house but are going along with it to keep your husband happy. I think that you need to ignore the "noise" from the EA and decide whether you really want the house.:(
If you do, then get your mortgage offer in place and arrange for a survey. You may find you need to renegotiate the price based on the valuation and any defects found. Before arranging the survey confirm that the tenants have been given notice to quit and let the EA & vendor know that you will not be exchanging contracts until the property is vacant. Don't be bullied by the EA!

From the EA's point of view you have yet to arrange mortgage approval and survey and the house is currently off the market.

Eejay

traineepensioner wrote: »

OP, from your comments, it sounds as if you don't really want the house but are going along with it to keep your husband happy. I think that you need to ignore the "noise" from the EA and decide whether you really want the house.:(
If you do, then get your mortgage offer in place and arrange for a survey. You may find you need to renegotiate the price based on the valuation and any defects found. Before arranging the survey confirm that the tenants have been given notice to quit and let the EA & vendor know that you will not be exchanging contracts until the property is vacant. Don't be bullied by the EA!

From the EA's point of view you have yet to arrange mortgage approval and survey and the house is currently off the market.

I liked the house originally but I hate that it has been so much hassle. I also don't like seeing my husband disappointed, but he's starting to come around to the idea of looking elsewhere - he's seen a house this morning that he was quite interested in, for example.

I've tried to get in touch with the woman at the bank - I thought I'd see if I could get through to the branch to speak to her or one of her colleagues rather than ringing her mobile as my husband always has difficulty getting through to her on it. Unfortunately HSBC doesn't have individual branch numbers though, so I ended up speaking to a couple of different people and they are going to send her an email and leave a message to get in touch with either me or my husband as soon as she can. Seemed a bit of a hassle but hopefully I'll get somewhere with that one.

Also tried ringing the solicitor a few times - the receptionist finally answered the phone just now, but apparently the solicitor and her secretary are not available at the moment (although they are in the building). She asked if I wanted to leave a message but I said there was not really any point since she hadn't bothered responding to my husband's message yesterday, and that I'll try again in 20 minutes or so.

Will have to go to the EA this afternoon instead as I have an appointment at the hospital after my viewing so not going to have time this morning now. Still hopeful that we'll have decided what we're doing one way or the other by the end of the day!