Buying from Corporate - Demands too high or normal?

Shauna4991

Hi all, just wondering whether you guys have any advice at all about buying from a company - and their demands.

We're in a situation where we've seen a house we love, and have made an offer which has been accepted. We have given in proof of deposit, DIP, solicitors details. We have more than enough money in the bank, so there have been no issues there.

However, the house we want is being sold by a company not a private seller and I'm just wondering whether the things that they are doing are normal?

1. They have refused to take it off the market, despite us sending all of the proof for everything in now and them signing it off, for 7 days - to see if someone will bid higher. They've also put on the listing on RightMove the amount that we've bidded and invite people to bid higher. We understand this, though not ideal as we did assume that once they had all of the information that they had asked for they should be absolutely fine to take it off the market.

2. We had to give them the name of our specific solicitor before they would accept an offer - the firm would not do. We had not been assigned one yet, and had simply got some quotes, so we had to make the decision and call up for a solicitor's specific name. Our Mortgage Advisor told them we didn't need to do this, but we were happy to and this has been done.

3. Now we have reached another point - they want us to start searches on the day that the house is taken off the market, so in 7 days. We don't want to start this process, though, until we've sat with our mortgage advisor and had the mortgage meeting (as we've only had the DIP meeting and that was 3 months ago) . This is what our mortgage advisor has told us to do. Our lender cannot fit us in before the week after next, meaning that the house will have been off the market for 6 days before we start any searches.

They have said this is unacceptable and they will now not take the house off the market until the searches start. We have tried to negotiate and they have said that it needs to be done within 24-48 hours of the house being off the market as an absolute requirement and that if we don't agree to this they may withdraw the acceptance of our offer - but surely if we start the searches and pay the up front fee (around £300) they can at any point in the next 7 days just accept a higher offer (as the house is still on the market) at any point and we've lost that money completely? Also, what if something were to happen with the mortgage acceptance? I don't want to 'bluff' it although it should all be OK based on DIP chat...

I'm a little of the school of thought that we call their bluff and if someone else takes the house they'll have all the problems that we do with them, but then we do love the house and after 4 months of searching it's the only one we've really loved.

What we're really wanting to know is, is this all normal or are their demands a little high? Are we right to wait for our official mortgage acceptance before instructing searches to begin? How do you deal with things when there are, at this initial stage, already so many people telling us different things?

This might be entirely normal - we are FTB so sorry if we do sound naive here. We're getting conflicting info from Mortgage Advisor, EA and the company selling the house 0 so thought I'd ask on here.

marksoton

me? I'd be walking away from these bullies...

Kevie192

Yep, I'd walk away.

I'd be willing to put money on you completing searches and surveys then the company accepting a higher offer.

[Deleted User]

I agree walk away. What they are doing is most definitely NOT normal.

ciderboy2009

Is it a repossession? Sounds like it from your first point.

If so then bear in mind that, if they get a better offer at any point during the purchase process then you may end up losing it.

Shauna4991

Would they have to tell us if it was a repossession? No one's mentioned anything.

Our MA feels it's the EA messing us around as they will not give us the details of the selling company or let us speak with them directly... but obviously we have no way of knowing this further than what they tell us.

Derboy

Their demands are making this a very one-sided process.

If you love the house so much then I'd stay in the deal but start pushing back i.e. flat out tell them that you're not prepared to do what they're asking and be prepared to walk away if it falls through.

Even housebuilders aren't as one-sided as this outfit is. Your mortgage advisor and solicitor are experienced and giving you advice based on your best interests. Follow that advice and if the vendor doesn't like it be prepared to walk.

lewishardwick

I'd walk away. When property hunting I noticed YourMove had a habit of updating listings to show the offer amount that had been accepted. It put me off viewing properties they were listing.

Grenage

I would, as the other posters have already said, tell them to get stuffed.

davidmcn

Shauna4991 wrote: »

Would they have to tell us if it was a repossession? No one's mentioned anything.

Well, what company is it and why do they own it? Other common possibility is that it's a property which has been part-exchanged, though my experience is that it's a fairly "normal" process for those.

Or it's some sort of "we pay any house" company flipping it on, in which case beware as mortgage lenders don't like properties which have been owned for less than six months.

Prothet_of_Doom

Any company is OBLIGATED to get the best deal for it's shareholders. This means actually selling the house to the highest bidder in a reasonable timescale.

Personally I wouldn't walk away, I'd state very clearly the timeline I was working to, and in writing, and if that isn't good enough for them, I'd change my offer after seeing the mortgage advisor (oh sorry, we've done the sums again and we've changed our minds about what we want to pay) Instruct solicitor to do no work until the mortgage offer is made (ie after the survey)