Seller won't take the property off the market

anselld

The mechanism for any extra money is via your solicitor on completion. Don't trust an EA with anything, especially money!

However you must know by now you are being played so Option (1) has got to be the right answer.

stator

I'd stick to your original offer. The whole thing sounds dubious.

Doozergirl

This guy has no scruples. What is to say that this little game doesn't continue?

I understand quietly marketing after a few burnt fingers, but not holding open houses etc. asking you to up your offer several weeks down the line also stinks. The other suggestion of paying the EA is just disgusting and beyond the realm of reason. Does he not understand the new Stamp Duty rules? It sounds like an old fashioned avoidance tactic of cash in an envelope.

I'd find it very hard not to walk away from people who behave like this. When it starts like this, it doesn't end pretty either.

Very poor.

anselld

Marktheshark wrote: »

A lot of "first time" buyers have problems with what "FOR SALE" means.
Those who have sold a few soon learn, you keep the sign in the window until someone puts some money down.
It is normally referred to as "the deposit"

Normally, "the deposit" is the amount agreed up-front and normally it doesn't travel under the table in a brown envelope!

m0bov

Just walk away your being played.

Justcoll

So now you would be paying 7.5k over the original asking price. In all this it has been EA and vendor making you dance to their tune and now what you have been asked to do is decidedly dodgy.

I know you said initially that you need to find a house 'urgently' but please make sure that you want this property for the right reasons and that that urgency is not blinkering you. ISTM both parties are taking advantage of your situation to milk you to the max and to participate in what looks to me illegal as far as the latest request goes.

Are there alternative options you could explore? You didn't say why the purchase is urgent and I'm not suggesting you tell us on an open forum. Just remember that the added costs - stamp duty being one - make buying a house something you don't do more often than you have to. This isn't just a building you're buying - and I do think you've been caught up in the negotiation so that it's hard to see other important factors - it will be your home too.

My opinion, like others here, would also be cut your losses and walk away - but I'm not the one who will live with the consequences.

Hoploz

The seller is a prat. Try your best to find another house. This will be a nightmare to the end, total stress for you.

Hoploz

While you've been waiting for your mortgage offer, has the seller's solicitor sent yours the details for the contract? Find out frim your solicitor what the seller has done so far. Has the seller got all the forms done and sent off ... In other words, are they actually intending selling this to you, or not?

sk123_3

I spoke to my solicitor to see if the vendor's suggestion to pay his hush deposit (through Estate Agent) was feasible.

... instead of me going back to my lender to renew the mortgage offer for higher value (which could mean more time wasted), the vendor suggested that I could just pay the "additional" amount to the Estate Agent as deposit which will be settled after the contract is exchanged.

My solicitor informed me that this was illegal on two counts. Firstly, it results in Mortgage Fraud as the actual sale price (inclusive of deposit) is higher than the price on which mortgage offer is issued by the lender. Secondly, it leads to under-payment of stamp duty which is a tax offence.


I asked my solicitor if he could create a lock-out agreement to ensure that the seller is kept honest during the sale process (and the property is taken off the market). Unfortunately the solicitor/conveyancer refused saying that his company doesn't arrange lock-out agreement given its potential pitfalls.

Justcoll wrote: »

Are there alternative options you could explore? You didn't say why the purchase is urgent and I'm not suggesting you tell us on an open forum.

My problem is that I currently live in a rental property and my landlord needs to move back urgently. I have already been served 2 months notice (I might be able to over-stay by another 2-3 weeks grace period, but that is it). Plus I need to remain in the school catchment for my daughter's upcoming 11+ exams. I have already sunk in 6 weeks of effort into this, hence walking away leaves me with little back up options.

I have looked at temporary option to rent, but that's so very difficult to find in my area. Ordinarily, I would have loved to teach the seller and the EA a lesson to remember, but time is not in my favour.

Justcoll

Honestly, in your position I would put my stuff in storage and find lodgings for the two of you. Forget about revenge on seller and agent and concentrate on what is best for the two of you. Don't let panic push you into the wrong decision. You will then have time to find the right home for the pair of you. The very fact that the vendor wants you to do something illegal would make me walk very quickly away.