Seller has gone AWOL

Brilism

Hi there everyone,

I am a first time buyer currently going through the process of buying a leasehold flat. The flat is absolutely everything I am after down to the location and I do not want to pull out of the process.

The problem is that I put an offer at asking price in around August time. This was accepted days later. Since then, from the impression I get from speaking with my solicitor and estate agent is that the seller was taking some time to fill out her paperwork. I had no problem with a short delay as I am living with family and every month longer I stay is extra money I'd have available when I moved out.

The problem is now is that everything is done, the survey has come back no problems. All paperwork has been submitted to my solicitor who has looked through it all and sent some additional enquiries back to the seller's solicitor. I have seen a list of these and through my limited knowledge and research it does not appear anything will be a problem, it is just a few small things my solicitor wants to satisfy herself with.

These additional enquiries went over on the 11th of January. Since then, the seller hasn't responded to these to her solicitor. Since the 11th of January I have been chasing up the Estate Agent and my solicitor to chase the sellers solicitor. It appears that for the best part of this month the seller has gone AWOL and is not responding to emails or phone calls from the Estate Agent.

My mortgage offer expires on the 12th of April, and I am very conscious of time, especially considering we haven't exchanged contracts as yet. I have seen on a similar thread on here from last year someone recommended the buyers asking the Estate Agent to go and knock on the door, which I think I will do this week. However, failing that would it be seen as poor etiquette for me to go and knock on the door myself? Not just to ask whats going on but also to actually make sure the seller is safe and well?

I'm honestly at a loss of what to do now, I have been chasing the agent almost daily for the last few weeks and I feel utterly powerless to do anything. Also how long does it take from Exchange to competition?

If you've made it this far thanks for reading!

Ms_Chocaholic

Are you local? Could you pop round.

[Deleted User]

No wonder you're stressed - I think I would be too. It does make me wonder whether the seller is serious or not going AWOL. Of course they could be in hospital or worse, but from your viewpoint you need to know.

Bad etiquette for you to knock on the door? - I have mixed feelings on this, but at the end of the day it's your money (a lot of it) and the offer was accepted six months ago .... maybe ask the estate Agent first and if nothing within a week or so, knock on the door yourself? If I was a genuine seller with nothing to hide or run away from, I wouldn't personally be offended.

Presumably you want the property a lot and it's a good price, otherwise you could just threaten to walk away if things don't move. Best wishes

SmlSave

Also how long does it take from Exchange to competition?

It can happen on the same day but a week or more allows you to get removals organised

Brilism

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

Are you local? Could you pop round.

I'm less than a 5 minutes drive.

Sleazy wrote: »

No wonder you're stressed - I think I would be too. It does make me wonder whether the seller is serious or not going AWOL. Of course they could be in hospital or worse, but from your viewpoint you need to know.

Bad etiquette for you to knock on the door? - I have mixed feelings on this, but at the end of the day it's your money (a lot of it) and the offer was accepted six months ago .... maybe ask the estate Agent first and if nothing within a week or so, knock on the door yourself? If I was a genuine seller with nothing to hide or run away from, I wouldn't personally be offended.

Presumably you want the property a lot and it's a good price, otherwise you could just threaten to walk away if things don't move. Best wishes

I honestly didn't want to knock on the door myself but as you say, I am down a fair amount of money if it does fall through.

I don't want to walk mainly because the property is pretty much perfect for me, and due to circumstances this opportunity won't come up again any time soon, and next time it does due to rising property costs will probably be out of my price range.

marksoton

Brilism wrote: »

I'm less than a 5 minutes drive.



I honestly didn't want to knock on the door myself but as you say, I am down a fair amount of money if it does fall through.

I don't want to walk mainly because the property is pretty much perfect for me, and due to circumstances this opportunity won't come up again any time soon, and next time it does due to rising property costs will probably be out of my price range.

Then be proactive, cut out the middle people and find out what the hell is going on....

dc197

We cut out the middle people when the agents said that the vendor was AWOL. We popped round, and they were still there just fine, and were miffed that the EA had told us they they had already gone away.
Defo pop round.

penguingirl

In our previous house our vendor went awol- potential exchange/ completion dates seemed to come and go and the excuses varied. Eventually we started to look for other houses and found one- we figured there was no point pulling out of the sale until we had an alternative. Once we had another offer accepted we wrote to the EA saying we were withdrawing. At that point they contacted us and asked if we would reconsider so after umm-ing and ahh-ing over which property we preferred we imposed a 24 hour deadline on exchange (everything was ready to go!), and despite taking 48 hrs it happened. We obviously then withdrew from the second offer, apologised a lot and were relieved to find out afterwards that they accepted an offer for 5k more than we had offered so that alleviated our guilt.

My advice if you're going to do that is don't try to bluff your vendor- only offer on a property you would genuinely like to live in as it seems like there is a lot of indications your vendor isn't going to move.

Melaniep101

We had this situation with a property we were trying to buy a few months back. Vendor dragged his feet at every opportunity, disappeared for weeks on end, didn't respond to calls/emails/their EA knocking on their door. Turned out to be a total time waster - We pulled out after giving him 6 weeks to find a rental (he'd promised to chain break). Waste of time and money (spent £600 on a full survey +solicitor costs).