First Time Buyer - Serious Issues

Sean_J_M

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and joined to ask for some help/your opinions on the situation I am in. I hope you can help.

My fianc!e and I have been house hunting for almost 2 years. We had our offer accepted in December 2014 and we were happy to wait a while for the vendor to find a house. After a months of waiting we were told that the had found somewhere, thieir offer was pending repair work to the property (collapsed drain and subsiding chimney breast). Their estate agents contacted me early last month to let me know that our vendors vendor is progressing with the repair work as the contractors had collected keys and the work was due to be completed yesterday.

Having chased it up with the estate agents on Wednesday last week, I initially had no response from them. They called on Thursday with some news, I've been told that the work will be complete by the end of the month (so not the three weeks they originally said). Just before I could say anything, the estate agent said they had some bad news. Our vendors vendor has passed away and as a result, their estate goes into probate. They've said that there is only one beneficiary to his will and they expect the delay to take several weeks.

I can't see this being a quick process and from what others have said to me it could take several more months before it is sorted.

I don't think they've exchanged on their purchase so I'm worried that it'll fall through and cause more delays for us!

My question is, where do we stand with our vendors? I'll be asking my solicitor to chase this with the vendors solicitor and estate agent to get some answers.

I am at the end of my tether. If we hadn't invested so much time and money (a few £K's by now) then we'd pull out, but then we'd be back to square one!

Any suggestions on how we can get our purchase to move quicker without the effects of their purchase impacting on us?

Apologies for the essay, I think it has helped me vent a little bit of frustration just writing this down :mad:

Cheers,

Sean

Malmo

If we hadn't invested so much time and money (a few £K's by now) then we'd pull out, but then we'd be back to square one!

Curious to understand why you would have incurred costs in the 000's up to now, before any of the repair work had been completed on the property at the top of the chain?

Sean_J_M

We've already had all of our surveys completed plus the cost of conveyancing so far (easy a couple of £K already?). We thought it'd be better to get it done asap, in hindsight we probably should have waited until our vendor had exchanged but being first time buyers and having waited months already we were impatient.

eddddy

Sean_J_M wrote: »

I don't think they've exchanged on their purchase so I'm worried that it'll fall through and cause more delays for us!

It's very, very unlikely that they have exchanged contracts. The whole chain would almost certainly exchange at the same time.

Sean_J_M wrote: »

My question is, where do we stand with our vendors? I'll be asking my solicitor to chase this with the vendors solicitor and estate agent to get some answers.

Chasing via solicitors isn't very efficient. The chain of communication will mean that 6 letters/emails probably have to be written/sent and read before you get a response.

If you ask the EA, they will probably call the vendor, and get back to you much sooner. (But EAs can sometimes add a 'spin' when passing on messages.)

It might also be worthwhile meeting your vendors for a chat, so you can determine whether they are still serious about selling. Psychologically, it may be harder for them to disappoint you by backing out, if they've been meeting you face to face.

mrginge

if i put my 'sticking-up-for-the-vendors' hat on....

You told them you were happy to wait.
Now it appears you're not.

Its not the vendors fault that you cant be bothered hanging on til things get resolved, so now because you're getting twitchy you want to risk two purchases falling through.
Hardly fair is it.

With my 'sticking-up-for-the-OP' hat....

You've waited long enough and the vendors are messing you about.
Give them a deadline for exchange and start looking at other properties. Tbh you should have been doing this anyway.
Do not use the expenses you've incurred as a reason for continuing. These costs are gone and should be written off.

kingstreet

The old mantra holds good again.

Do not embark on expenditure on mortgage, surveyor or legal work until the chain is fully formed and everyone is proceeding together.

Legging it off in front like Linford running the 100m is pointless as everyone else is running a matharon.

Sean_J_M

Thanks for the input guys. It's all new to us as this is our first purchase, so a bit of a learning curve. I know we seem a bit impatient but we were happy to wait, we just never thought it would take at least 8 months!

I've taken your points on board and will do what you've recommended. Cheers for the help

Angie_B

Sean_J_M wrote: »

We've already had all of our surveys completed plus the cost of conveyancing so far (easy a couple of £K already?). We thought it'd be better to get it done asap, in hindsight we probably should have waited until our vendor had exchanged but being first time buyers and having waited months already we were impatient.

In a chain, everyone has to be ready and exchange together on the same day. Your vendor could not exchange without you being ready to exchange, as they need the guarantee of your money to be able to afford their onward move (I assume - if they can afford both houses then this is a moot point).

Assuming they need to sell their property to fund the next one, if they exchanged and then you pulled out (for whatever reason) they would be contractually obliged to buy the top of the chain's property but would not have the funds to do so - cue major legal battles and your vendors being out a lot of money.

Could your vendors sell to you, bank the money and then go into rented?

You also mention that there is one beneficiary to the will. Is this correct? Or is it one executor? Executors and beneficiaries are two different things.

Sean_J_M

Angie_B wrote: »

Could your vendors sell to you, bank the money and then go into rented?

You also mention that there is one beneficiary to the will. Is this correct? Or is it one executor? Executors and beneficiaries are two different things.

I think that is at least something I can discuss with the vendors if they don't have much info on the probate issue. From what I've been told, the vendor who died has one daughter who is the sole beneficiary and executor of his will. It could mean that will speed the process up but I'm not sure how it all works, hence my uncertainty with it all.

Hoploz

I can't believe they've taken this long to get the required repairs done. This is what has caused the problem. They should have sorted it months ago, should have been a month tops to get organised, you should all have been in months ago. Suspicious but I don't know what they can possibly gain tbh