Pulling out of sale...

Fay

As some of you may have read we are having alot of trouble with the house we are purchasing and the solicitors keep telling us different things every day. They are now pushing us to to move out of our house next friday and let our sale go through, even though they admit they have no idea how long it will take for our purchase-or even if they will still sell the house.

We really feel like they are pushing us to sell because then our solicitor will only have us to deal with-not our buyers solicitor, and our vendors solicitor doesn't care either. Our solicitor is insisting we move out and she keeps saying 'just move in with your mom or rent somewhere'. Only 2 problems here a) my mom has a 3 bed house-so do we, my mom has a cat-so do we, my parents have 2 cars-so do we...how do we all fit into a 3 bed house with no idea of how long we will be there! b) we can;t affor to rent because we have already paid for a structural survey, searches, mortgage arrangement fee and have no money left now!

So my boyfriend has called them today and told them that if we don't have something sorted for next week we won't be moving. It impractical for us to move out with no idea of how long we will be at my folks/in rented (which we can;t afford!) and we can't afford to buy another property as we don't have money for searchers etc.

What is out position in all of this...I think we will have to pay solicitors fees if we do pull out huh? Even though it isn't really our fault. Also, do we have any legal come back re the fact that they only told us last week the house was in probate but we started buying it in february?

I am really stressed out by all of this-I am in the writing up phase of my PhD, I start a new job on the 1st June (yay) and I am trying to sort all of this out...its not on any more!

ITtim

Check your solicitors deal, some offer a no sale no fee. if you have that there shouldnt be any problem. i wouldnt move unless your purchase goes through.

Fay

Yeah we do have a no sale no fee-but what if its us who decides that due to the hastle we won't sell...are we liable for fees then?

lush_walrus

I can't imagine why your solicitor would get involved on that level, it really isnt their place to instruct you to move out! Sounds like they just want to get hold of a fee for selling your house, and are a bit dubious as to whether the fact it si a probate sale may mean that a long wait is ahead or you may end up pulling out later on, ie they loose their fee!

If I were you I would ignore them, and if you are set on wanting to move, I would first talk to your estate agent and see if any pressure is coming from your buyer or lower down the chain. Also get them to check if your buyers are happy to wait or how long your buyers are willing to wait. It could be they are in a rush to move, or it could be they are quite happy to it back and wait for your sale to take place.

Presumably if it is a probate sale, the house you are buying is the end of the chain?

If after looking into the things above, you are happy and your buyer is happy and your solicitor still continues to pressurise you I would get in touch with the Law Society and report them for misconduct.

deemy2004

Fay wrote:

Yeah we do have a no sale no fee-but what if its us who decides that due to the hastle we won't sell...are we liable for fees then?

Maybe your solicitor thinks the sale is going to take a very long time. If yuor still in your own house then your more likely to pull out of it and thus he loses his fee. So he wants you to be more committed to the sale by moving out of your house so its harder for you to pull out !

Don't move out ! Stay put - and do pull out if they are wasting your time !

Fay

The house we are buying is the end of the chain, and our buyers are pushing to move in. They have moved in with parents as their buyers were FTB and they didn't want to loose them so they pulled out. But the way we feel we aren't going to move into parents and risk being there for months with no money to buy another property.

I just feel like the soliticor isn't helping us.

We have told the agent our position today and they are going to call the vendors and their solicitor-haven't heard back yet and we aren't going in to sign to sell our house tomorrwo like we should be!

Fay

Ok,. further update today. We have called our estate agents again today and they gave the vendors on the house we want to purchase 'the' ultimatum yesterday! They told them to get back to them with whether they are actually selling and whether they are going to get it sorted as we are about to pull out...they haven't got back to them, their solicitor is ignoring them and ours is now ignoring us.

So looks like it has all gone rather Pete Tong for us We are in such a tricky position now as we have lost the money on searches, surveys etc and we have no idea of knowing how long it would take to buy another house if we could find the funds to do it. we are viewing a property tonight but its above our budget.

I feel totally lost by all of this...I still don't understand why the lawyers didn't pick up this caveat on the power of attorney more than 3 weeks before we were due to move!

Bun

So sorry your move is going so badly. I hope you are able to get it sorted. Our last move was a nightmare, with the vendor we were purchasing from deciding out of the blue five weeks before completion that they were going to pull the place off the market. We were only saved by a very keen and understanding purchaser on our part who didn't have time for more flat hunting (daughter starting uni) and the fact we were with Countrywide Estate agents and legal services. You only pay the legal fees for that part of the transaction if it goes ahead and they give you another basic valuation free if the other party messes you about or pulls out. If you are thinking of trying for something else that may help. Palmer Snell are with them - if you look on rightmove.co.uk it will probably give you more details too.

Fay

Thanks Bun, we had countrywide lawyers for our first purchase...and we had nothing but trouble with them! They lost 3 of our searches and lied to us about it, they said that they had never had them, until I pointed out that they had sent me copies! It ended up taking 6 months for our purchase to go through. We were FTB and were buying an already empty house as the vendor had already moved into their new accomodation!

We went and saw another house last night and that was nice, but not as nice as the house we 'are' purchasing. So please keep your fingers crossed for us

theGrinch

you should advise your solicitor that you do not intent to make yourselves homeless and that the solicitor and vendor your are buying from are holding the chain up

Fay

To be fair, our solicitor did call me twice yesterday and apologised that she couldn't get hold of the vendor's solicitor. Our solicitor is fully in the know about whats going on now.

Apparently the vendors are applying for a conditional plea or something? which they will know whether they have been granted by next friday, so we will at least be in the know information wise then.

A new development is that our buyers mortage was rejected for transfer on friday, so the solicitor said they won't be ready to move in next friday like they wanted, so thats at least bought us another week