Contract Race, not informed by estate agents

[Deleted User]

Rather than assuming, get the vendor/your solicitor to confirm what stage probate is at. Good idea to get this verified.., not just a casual question answered (anyone can say anything).

matttye

HouseBuyer77 wrote: »

I believe the responsibility for informing you of a contract race lies with your solicitor.

So if you've jumped the gun and paid out for everything early you may not have much comeback. However it does sounds like the EA hasn't behaved well (especially getting you to use their recommend broker and solicitor, this gives them more money via referal fees).

You should call your EA and solicitor and asks for a definite yes/no on whether there's still another offer in the running.

The responsibility of informing buyers of a contract race lies with the seller's solicitor:

O(11.3) where you act for a seller of land, you inform all buyers immediately of the seller's intention to deal with more than one buyer;

http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handbook/code/part5/content.page

This is a mandatory "Outcome" in the SRA Code of Conduct which means it must be adhered to. The only exception would be if the seller did not allow their solicitor to disclose this information, in which case the solicitor would have to stop acting for the seller. Duty of confidentiality trumps all other duties but if that comes into conflict with other responsibilities they must stop acting.

AdrianC

deannatrois wrote: »

Rather than assuming, get the vendor/your solicitor to confirm what stage probate is at.

There really are only two stages.

Granted.
Not granted.

UntilIAmInGlory wrote: »

They were ready to exchange with a previous buyer before he pulled out due to the sale not completing before the stamp duty hike. So I'm sure all the probate stuff had been sorted.

If that's so, then it's a total non-issue, and didn't need to be mentioned by anybody to you at all ever.

Of course, the reason it may not have completed before the stamp duty hike may have been that probate hadn't been granted...

UntilIAmInGlory

Thanks all for your feedback.

Probate has now been granted, and i received the sale memorandum today which states my offer has been accepted. But my EA says he cannot confirm anything about if the vendor accepted another offer with another estate agents but says everything has been cleared up and I shouldn't be talking directly to their solicitor (but the chain should be followed I.e. my solicitor to their solicitor via estate agents and i shouldnt contact vendor at all)

There's also an error! The sale price written was 3k above what I assumed I had offered (there seems to have been some more confusion again. I offered 3k more if they would take my offer but they said the issue wasn't money so I withdrew the 3k extra offer).

Don't know what to do now

eddddy

UntilIAmInGlory wrote: »

But my EA says he cannot confirm anything about if the vendor accepted another offer with another estate agents but says everything has been cleared up

So ask you solicitor to get confirmation that the vendor is not proceeding with any other buyer.

UntilIAmInGlory wrote: »

...and I shouldn't be talking directly to their solicitor (but the chain should be followed I.e. my solicitor to their solicitor via estate agents and i shouldnt contact vendor at all)

This sounds a bit confused. This is the situation:

- The vendor's solicitor will not be allowed to talk to you
- If you want, you can talk to the vendor via the EA
- In theory, you can talk to the vendor directly - but it sounds like the EA doesn't want you to.
- Obviously you can contact your own solicitor.

UntilIAmInGlory wrote: »

There's also an error! The sale price written was 3k above what I assumed I had offered (there seems to have been some more confusion again. I offered 3k more if they would take my offer but they said the issue wasn't money so I withdrew the 3k extra offer).

Don't know what to do now

Maybe take a course in negotiating skills!

It's difficult to see a good outcome from that type of negotiation.

Hoploz

Oh dear, did you then explicitly say, "in that case I withdraw my offer of the extra £3k?"
Unless you did I'd say they assumed it had remained. This was verbally, directly to the vendor, without the EA, wasn't it, so nothing confirmed in writing.
I think you're going to end up paying the extra £3k. The issues are confused enough already without this as well. But look at it this way, it must be worth it to you, as you did say before that you'd pay it if they accepted you, and indeed they have. Consider whether, having come this far, you want to lose the house all over again for the sake of the £3k.

UntilIAmInGlory

Yes I did officially withdraw the offer. But two agents were working on the case and didn't seam to have passed the information on. They've apologised but apparently I'm now locked into paying the 3k because They've already told the vendor.

My solicitor says they haven't been informed of any contact race and now that I made Loads of calls, they have received a copy of the contract.

I'll still proceed but not happy at all with EA.

UntilIAmInGlory

Apart from the memorandum of sale- is there any other document I can request? I asked for lease details and they said "over 100 years" - I would like to see this in an official document but I've requested it so many times and they've all not gotten back to me.


What document should I request? Please anyone

Dan-Dan

UntilIAmInGlory wrote: »

Apart from the memorandum of sale- is there any other document I can request? I asked for lease details and they said "over 100 years" - I would like to see this in an official document but I've requested it so many times and they've all not gotten back to me.


What document should I request? Please anyone

Surely your going to have to ask your solicitor?

Hoploz

This will all come via solicitors getting the info from the freeholder in due course. But this is some way down the line - so you can ask the EA to ask the vendor to show you any relevant documents, eg copy of their lease, so you can check the facts and go in with eyes wide open. Do not rely on EA regarding leases, they actually have no idea and just make stuff up.