Have you bought from Divorcing Couple?

beachbeth

We are in the process of buying a house from an older couple who are divorcing. Everything is in order and our buyers are ready to buy ours and we are ready to buy the house we want and our solicitor now wants to set a date. We get the feeling that the chap we are buying off is dragging his feet (he lives there alone but needs to sell because of the divorce). We have viewed the house twice and want to go back again but he has put us off twice now going for a 3rd viewing.

Obviously this is a stressful time for him going through a divorce as well as having to move and we do feel sorry for him. But that doesn't alter the fact that he agreed to sell the house to us and we are now all ready to exchange and complete. On the one hand we feel that we need to treat him with kid gloves but on the other we feel like knocking on his door and asking when he plans to set a date because it has dragged on long enough.

We sold our house and put an offer on his on May 21st. Perhaps this isn't that long but it really feels like ages now and I was driving past a house that was sold after ours the other day and the new people were moving in!!!:rolleyes: This just seemed to rub it in even more!

Is this par for the course when buying from a divorcing couple? I suppose you can get involved in worse scenarios if the couple involved can't agree on things and perhaps I shouldn't be moaning! I am just fed up with all the boxes hanging around our house and not even having a date yet. We are a family of four and have a lot of stuff to move. Sorry to rant on but I needed to get it off my chest!:o

eco-friendly_2

Quite sad when you think about it ! he might not wan't to sell, his life might be in tatters with the break up, he's probably forced to sell to split the proceeds. This of course doesen't help you ! but I know the sale will go through, strange thing is your dealing with a reluctant seller,most people deal with a reluctant buyer.

boy_3

We bought from a divorced old couple as well. In our case wife still lived in the house and in fact we never met the guy. She asked for the time right at the start and we gave her (through solicitor) 2 months to sort out and move. We kept in touch in the meantime and everything worked out fine for us.
So, keep the sympathy in direct talks but agree a reasonable date through the agent/solicitor and finish the deal. They understand that you have nothing t do with the breakup and in fact you are giving them a chance to move on by buying their house.

david29dpo

These sales can be slow. The last one my solicitor partner did took 12 months because of the fighting between the couple. Not a lot you can do except hint at pulling out.

Running_Horse

Our vendors were divorcing and there was the odd delay, with him being abroad when papers needed to be signed, and her not wanting to leave the marital home of 30 years. Apparently there is a legal way one partner can be forced to sell, but obviously better if you can work it through.

Whole process took 15 weeks from offer to completion, but was worth it.

djm1972

I recently bought from a divorcing couple. There were some hold-ups on the purchase because of a "Matrimonial Home Charge" that the vendors wife had placed on the property. This meant that there were 3 solicitor's involved - my solicitor, the vendor's solicitor (the husband of the couple) and the divorce solicitor acting for his wife.

Ultimately, it didn't cause an overall delay because I was selling my leasehold flat at the same time and the two transactions came together at pretty much the same time give or take a day or two. I had put my offer in on 12th Feb and we completed on 17th May.

brasso

It sounds like someone needs to take a grip on this situation. Normally a combination of the estate agent and solicitor. Your solicitor should be in touch with his solicitor, asking for a firm date for exchange. Trouble is, solicitors love to send those dull old letters by snail mail -- partly I'm sure becasue it helps to justify their fees. They seem happy to send a letter then wait weeks before doing anything else. You need to pressurise your solicitor to add a bit of urgency.

You could also try the estate agent. They are as keen as you are for the sale to succeed. They won't get paid otherwise. So you might want to call them and ask them if there any problems with the sale. They would then contact the vendor.

It's probably just inertia on the vendor's part. We're all sympathetic to his personal problems, but that shouldn't be used as an excuse. You have your own life and family to manage.

beachbeth

brasso wrote: »

It's probably just inertia on the vendor's part. We're all sympathetic to his personal problems, but that shouldn't be used as an excuse. You have your own life and family to manage.

This is what I think. I don't think we are going to have major problems with him, but he just isn't in a hurry. The estate agent said that he has got to sell and, if need be, the bailiffs will turf him out on the day and he can't really do anything about it. They really don't think it will come to that though. The EA are on the case though and are speaking to his solicitor as well as him so hopefully it won't be many more weeks. I just want to go now!!!

FBThree

If you haven't exchanged there's a very good chance he could be waiting for a higher offer leaving you high and dry! I guess he hasn't lodged a good-faith deposit anywhere either so you'll get no recompense if he does. Surely the EA or someone has to point out that he's holding the chain up and that isn't moral. Maybe your EA has to start to put the scarers on him (e.g. the purchasers need a date or their chain will collapse and they lose money)...

BTW I did buy off a couple that were divorcing. We only found out they were divorcing when the exchange date shifted for the third time....I'd lost so much weight due to the stress of buying my deparment head got a peer to find out if I had any health problems!

beachbeth

FBThree wrote: »

If you haven't exchanged there's a very good chance he could be waiting for a higher offer leaving you high and dry!

The house has been taken off the market and the chap in question doesn't seem canny enough to try to sell it to someone else. The house is no longer listed on the Right Move website and is listed as sold on the EA's website too and you can't click on "more details" any more for that property.

FBThree

That sounds a bit better then. It does sound like he's just finding it hard to move. Mind you, divorce and moving home are two of the major stressers in life so you can understand his point of you. I hope it goes ok for you.