Estate agent - pressure to start searches

pisco

Hi all,

I wonder if I could ask for some advice. We viewed a house in the autumn, put in an offer and had it accepted. After supplying our DIP, ID etc to the estate agent to finalise removal from the market, we were told a higher offer from another party had been accepted instead. We chose not to raise our offer and assumed we had lost the house.

After a month or two, the estate agent let us know that the chosen purchasers had pulled out as the result of survey findings. She told us that the vendor was rectifying everything over Christmas and said that, if we met the higher offer the other parties originally made, the house would not need to return to market. We agreed to this, had our offer accepted and waited for all works on the house to be completed and signed off.

Last Monday the work was finally completed and we sent in our mortgage valuer and instructed our surveyor that we wanted a full buildings survey arranged (should be done early next week). The estate agent has been pushing us to start the searches with our solicitor for the past 3-4 weeks but we've held fire, reasoning that we want to be sure the survey results are OK this time before spending more money.

Yesterday the estate agent contacted us to let us know that the vendor's solicitor will be contacting ours to 'express concern' about the fact that we haven't started work on the searches. We spoke to the estate agent on the phone, who argued that the vendor is still having to pay council tax and bills etc and that we're dragging our feet. I appreciate the vendor's position but I'm cautious given that the previous purchasers pulled out due to survey findings.

I guess I have two questions, really: I understand we're within our rights to hold fire on starting searches until we know the survey results, but I just want to get a sense of whether we're being reasonable or not by doing so. I'd also appreciate any feedback on the possible consequences of not doing the searches now. (We're assuming the solicitor's letter is little more than an attempt to rattle us into moving more quickly but if we're wrong on this it would be good to be forewarned!)

PS - in case you hadn't guessed, we're first time buyers with no experience of this!

pyueck

In my opinion you're doing absolutely the right thing. If the property failed one survey don't spend your money on it until it's right. Also don't feel pressured into doing something you are not sure about, the agent just wants their fees.

Also you say you upped your offer, be sure what you are paying is reasonable.

Of course your best chance of securing the place is to do everything te seller wants, but you need to protect your interests. Try not to get too attached to this place, if your not sure or are feeling under pressure you can always walk away.

richy999

The vendor is probably nervous as they have already had one sale fall through and so the estate agent is trying to assert control of the proceedings in order to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

I think you are right to hold fire until you have had the results of the survey back. It’s your money and your right to dictate how fast or slow you want to proceed.
The vendor could get the hump and decide to put the property back on the market until you have had your searches done… or if they are really stupid, decide that they no longer want to sell to you.

I would stick with your current plan and ignore or politely remind the estate agent that you will not proceed until the results of the survey are in.

harrys_dad

I would ignore the pressure too. I am also uncertain why you increased your previous offer to match a higher offer that didn't actually progress, especially after your initial offer was accepted. Your seller sounds greedy to me. Make them wait and protect your own interests.

arbrighton

Perfectly reasonable. I would be instructing my solicitor to reply stating that you will not be doing searches until survey has returned and been scrutinised and any necessary renegotiations or reconsideration completed.
Your solicitor works for you, it will not be in your best interests to proceed with searches until the survey comes back.

G_M

As above.



:beer:

AdrianC

Another vote for "perfectly reasonable", with a side-order of "Why are they trying to rush you...?"

Reassure the agent that, once you've had the survey back and are happy with it, you'll be pulling all the stops out.

LateStarter

There are no legal repercussions to anything their solicitor sends you. The seller is responsible for all bills to maintain their home until a sale is completed - that is not really any of your concern.

The only recourse the seller has is to drop out, and put the property back on the market - which could cause much more than a few weeks delay.

You're doing the right thing.

BJV

Spot on. I do not know an lot about the housing market but I think it is normal, safe and wise to hold off. Why would you want to spend a lot of money on searches etc if the survey comes back and says that there is something seriously wrong.


If it was me I would ignore them. Carry on doing what you are doing. They may want to start to put pressure on you well so what! It is only pressure if you let is affect you. So don't. They can shout all they want so really they are not willing to wait another week. They are paying council tax so what not your problem. Also lets be honest the last thing that they would want is for you to pull out as then it would delay everything even further putting the house back on the market.


No 100 % ignore them and carry on as normal. Ps good luck in your new home.

pisco

Wow! Thank you so much, folks - just the reassurance I was hoping to get.

To be honest, I think we SCREAM 'first time buyers, potential mugs', despite our attempts to appear suave and like we have any idea what we're doing. I agree that it was a questionable decision to up our offer to match that our the sale that fell through and I suspect we shouldn't have done so but it was 'only' (!) £3k more, so we did it for the sake of securing the house without getting into another bidding war. It does still seem a reasonable value for the property based on previous sale prices in the area.

We also conceded to the vendor's demands that we not use an online solicitor or the one supplied at a discount by our lender, so we've taken a financial hit there too. Again, we were toying with the idea of using a firm we'd had particularly highly recommended to us anyway, so it seemed worth it for the sake of an easy life.

I did naively expect that these concessions would be seen as gestures of goodwill by the vendor, but he seems exceptionally pushy and demanding. I guess we've finally discovered where our line in the sand is drawn

pyueck

As I said before you should not be afraid to walk away, it doesn't to me sound as if you are comfortable with the seller or their attitude to you.

Also should have added before, why is the seller chasing you! You should make it clear that what you are waiting for is for all the problems in the failed survey to be resolved, and you should say it must be completed by x date or I walk away.

Sounds like you are being chased to complete on something before the seller has done what they said they would.

Also letting your seller tell you which solicitor to use is crazy. Sorry if this sounds tough but stand up for yourself more, and in fear of repeating myself, don't be afraid to walk away if you are not comfortable.