Should I tell the vendors that we lost our buyer but found new buyer?

ElsieMonkey

I would really appreciate your advice about how open and honest I should be about this with the vendors of the house we are buying.

We had an offer accepted on a house 6 weeks ago. We have our mortgage offer and enquiries and searches are well under way. Our building survey was carried out last week and we should have the report by the end of this week. If this is all good, there's only some enquiries to tie up as far as I'm aware.

The property we are selling is more complicated! We accepted an offer from someone 9 weeks ago. Last Tuesday they pulled out because suddenly the property wasn't in the catchment area of the school they wanted. They were also messing us about regarding their deposit anyway, saying they won't have it for another few months (!!!!). Anyway, next day we already had another offer from someone else and accepted it Thursday. I accepted slightly lower offer on the condition that our new buyer works with us to complete asap - 4-6 weeks - knowing the situation we now find ourselves in. Memo of Sale went out first thing this morning, and she said she will have her mortgage application in this week.

Today the estate agent of the people we are buying from has emailed to ask if we have our building survey report back yet, as all sides are wanting to agree an exchange date asap. Before I get back to him, I'm unsure of how open and honest I should be? I have to admit, I was hoping this new buyer could slot in and everyone else could stay non-the-wiser. I'm scared of losing the house we are buying by scaring the vendors. But on the other hand I don't want them to think we're dragging our heels, because we're not, we're just waiting now for things to pick up speed with our new buyer.

What do you think I should say to the estate agent?

marksoton

Nothing. Go straight to the vendor and be honest.

They either accept your situation or they don't. Personally i'd appreciate the honesty and the fact it was beyond your control.

HouseBuyer77

Honesty is probably the best policy.

If you've genuinely got new buyers who are progressing the sale then I'd doubt your vendor would drop you. If they go back and remarket now they'll just end up waiting longer to sell (plus maybe loosing their own onward purchase).

If you keep this a secret, and try and slow things down a bit so your buyer can catch up with the rest of the chain then if the vendor finds out they may not be happy.

Delays in chains are annoying but pretty much inevitable, you just have to go with it.

Deception is not required and your vendor's might choose to drop you as they'd think that no matter what you say you're not giving them the straight story.

Remember EAs talk, especially between EAs involved in a chain. Changes are your vendors will hear one way or another.

Hoploz

The EA has asked if you've had the survey report yet. You haven't, so just say that. No need to give chapter and verse with all your woes.

In a week's time hopefully you hold be in a position to update them and say you have received that, and your buyer will have their mortgage offer and you can be a bit more certain it'll be ok.

You do need to be truthful, but tbh as a seller I'd be happier to hear that the buyer had been lost but you've already got progression from a new one, rather than be unsettled with you having lost the other one and the offer being too new to be secure as yet. It'd just be something else for them to worry about, hopefully unnecessarily.

ElsieMonkey

Thanks all. We have been honest with the EA. He said he's glad we found a new buyer so quickly and didn't seem concerned (I guess because we have a buyer)! We're always in contact with him too, always keeping him up to date and returning calls straight away, so I don't think he has any reason to think we are unreliable or messing about. It has taken the pressure off us by being honest, as if we hadn't been they were expecting us to be able to agree an exchange date in a couple of weeks and this would have put us in an awkward situation. And yes not worth the vendors finding other buyers. They lost their previous buyers to us, and we are still in a proceedable position luckily with our new buyer, our mortgage is approved etc...

Aghhhhh! Fingers crossed AGAIN! :-P

jonathanrolande

Over the years I have seen a lot of sellers keep quiet and get away with it. However, it is dishonest to mislead them, so I wouldn’t.

ellie27

Have you instructed a solicitor yet?

If so, then it is likely your solicitor has already told your vendor what has happened.