How much pushing is appropriate

Bossypants

I can be quite a pushy person and try to hold off to avoid annoying people, so I'm having a hard time judging what is the right amount here. Any thoughts?

Scenario as follows:

- Offer accepted last week of February.
- No chain on either side, mortgage-free.
- Lease being extended alongside sale.
- Draft contracts still not received from vendor's solicitor, this past Monday got the following response to my solicitor's chasing: "We are still waiting on paperwork including ID from our client. My client is conscious of the delay and is confident in being able to put us in a position whereby we can proceed shortly."
- Vendor is overseas and has just started a new business.
- Vendor has been very responsive (through estate agent) to queries and EA says they want things done as quickly as possible as they are paying a mortgage on the empty property (although the fact that they haven't even provided ID yet makes me wonder), but as of yet nothing seems to be actually happening.

So far I have been getting in touch with the EA about once a week on some pretext, just to remind them that I'm still here and still waiting. Question is, do I need to be following up more aggressively? More specifically? I don't need to move by any specific time, but still, I'd like to get it done as quickly as possible.

Part of me worries that I'm being strung along and the vendor isn't really committed to the sale. I'm probably too invested here, but it's not practical for me to keep looking as the area I am looking in moves very fast on good places, and is too far away for me to be going over there every time something promising comes up.

Kynthia

It's hard to say. The fact the vendor is in regular contact and is paying a mortgage on an empty property both seem to suggest a keen and committed seller. The main problem obviously is the fact they are overseas. Do they need to provide ID in person, if so then I'd want to know that they'd booked flights to return and what date. If they don't need to provide in person then I'd be very concerned that so much time had elapsed and I'd hold of on spending any more money until the seller had done something to progress the sale.

Bossypants

Thanks for your reply Kynthia. I don't know whether they need to provide ID in person or not, but typically either the original or a certified copy need to be provided. The vendor is very far overseas and does not seem to have much spare cash at all, so flying back may not be an option, and getting an acceptable copy made can also be costly.

I've emailed the EA to get an idea of what the vendor is planning to do.

Hoploz

I would start looking elsewhere if it's been this long and the solicitor has not done anything towards a contract. If they get sorted fine but there might be something else you could go for instead.

Atomix

What about ups worldwide

http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/shipping/time/service/shipping/

http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/shipping/time/service/express_plus.html

They can sign /return everything. Not cheap though, but their service is the gold standard...

Alter_ego

Book a viewing of another property with the same EA. That should liven them up.

Bossypants

Thank you guys for your insights. I think money is a really serious concern. A couple of weeks ago, I posted about how her solicitor was refusing to do any more work for her at all until she paid around £400 in fees, which according to the EA she eventually managed to borrow from a friend or something, but it sounds like it was difficult.

I've asked for a timeline to be provided next week and will decide what to do based on the response. The silly thing is, I am willing and able to be patient here. I would prefer to wait for six months and get the flat at the end of it than have to start looking again, and if I could find a way of guaranteeing that, I would be happy to wait. What I don't want is to be strung along for months on end, only for the seller to drop out in the end, after prices have risen around us, and sadly it doesn't seem that there is a legal way of preventing that in this country.

Hoploz

You're absolutely doing the right thing.

ethank

Put the property back on the market.

Annie1960

Bossypants wrote: »

Thank you guys for your insights. I think money is a really serious concern. A couple of weeks ago, I posted about how her solicitor was refusing to do any more work for her at all until she paid around £400 in fees, which according to the EA she eventually managed to borrow from a friend or something, but it sounds like it was difficult.

I've asked for a timeline to be provided next week and will decide what to do based on the response. The silly thing is, I am willing and able to be patient here. I would prefer to wait for six months and get the flat at the end of it than have to start looking again, and if I could find a way of guaranteeing that, I would be happy to wait. What I don't want is to be strung along for months on end, only for the seller to drop out in the end, after prices have risen around us, and sadly it doesn't seem that there is a legal way of preventing that in this country.

You have absolutely no way to control anyone else's behaviour. You can control your own.

You can decide to wait (as long as it takes), but it sounds like you're an impatient person. You can walk away and find something else. You can set a deadline by which you expect the vendor to have sorted out their ID, and walk away if they don't meet it.

What you cannot do is push anyone else to do something just because you want it.

Bossypants

Annie1960 wrote: »

You have absolutely no way to control anyone else's behaviour. You can control your own.

You can decide to wait (as long as it takes), but it sounds like you're an impatient person. You can walk away and find something else. You can set a deadline by which you expect the vendor to have sorted out their ID, and walk away if they don't meet it.

What you cannot do is push anyone else to do something just because you want it.

I'm aware of that, that's why I'm posting here asking for advice on what is appropriate behaviour under these circumstances, as I have not encountered them before and am uncertain as to how to proceed. I've been given good advice, which I will be following next week.

I would agree that in general I am an impatient person, but to be honest I don't think it's impatience to wonder where I stand when after two months the seller hasn't even provided her solicitor with ID.