Can the seller hound us and threaten to pull out days before exchange?

marksoton

Jcm1989 wrote: »

Help!,

We've had what's turned into a awful experience buying our first property (be forwarned it's a looooooooooong story)

Story goes like this,

We are ftb and found our house at the end of July, we already had a mortgage in principle so we put out offer in on August 1st and it was accepted, so we got all of our documents to our chosen solicitor within the next week. It was then a case of waiting , we were assured it would be quick, with neither us or the seller being in a chain (the house we are buying is a ex rental and currently empty).

Then It took the seller 3 and a half MONTHS! (1st big problem)To get their draft contract in, so the searches didn't actually start until November (they all came back no problem :T ) and the seller solicitors answered all the enquiries quite quickly etc, however at this point our mortgage in principle has since expired (it's mid to late November at this point) and the bank had to check our credit rating again before they would issue a mortgage offer.

This is where our 2nd big problem happened, (we originally went in with a 10% deposit, but Halifax advised we could go in with 5% on a 2 year fixed rate and review after 2 years, it seemed like a good deal and meant we still had a sizeable buffer just in case) but when we went to pay the fee for the offer to be issued Halifax all of a sudden turned around and said your credit rating has changed, we want a 15% deposit, which was way more than we had, We checked both of our ratings with several different agencies, and on every single one we had a good credit rating with no risks or missed payments, and it showed we haven't taken any finance out etc, all the reports were passed on to Halifax as proof to challenge their decision, (we also requested they send us copies of the information they hold on our credit rating but they refused to let us see it), Halifax responded with "we can't always see what has negatively affected a credit rating, however we feel it is a true reflection and we will not issue the mort offer with less than a 15% deposit " . At this point my husband and I not wanting to pay so much money on a banks say so, contacted the FOS who were unable to take on our complaint , but offer to submit a. complaint to the bank on our behalf, low and behold and a few short days after the FOS contact the Halifax, they suddenly issue our mortgage offer for the 10% deposit we originally approached them with (with no explanation as to why they were suddenly able to issue it)

We luckily work round the corner from our solicitor and ran and got the offer to them the next day (they already have everything else), and now we're currently waiting to hear back from the valuer regarding a Flying Freehold, but our solicitor expects to exchange on Friday, and complete in the new year as soon as their office is open again,

But now we're onto our 3rd big problem!, the seller is now kicking off, ever since problem with Halifax (which delayed us 16 days in total ) he's been accusing us of messing him about and threatening to put the house on the market to rent, as he can drawn up a lease and a tennant in by the next day, he then wanted us to rent the house until completion, but he wanted us to pay for 2 months rent upfront in cash!, and today he has contacted his estate agent and basically said the main reason he has been hounding her and by extension us several times a day is because he wants to use the money from the sale to buy flights to Australia!!!!!!

It's so frustrating as yes our problem with the bank cause a slight delay, but this would have been finished by now if he'd not taken more than 3 months to get a draft contract in!

I'm really sorry for the long story/rant, but I'm wondering if anyone has any advice or been through anything similar with a seller? could he actually pull out and put it back on the market at this point?

We're first time buyers, andthe first of our friends/family to move from renting to buying, so we don't have anyone to ask advice of

Thank you!

Dear lord. It's like war and peace.

No you won't rent, your initial offer stands.

Stick or twist Mr Vendor.

Thrugelmir

Jcm1989 wrote: »

But now we're onto our 3rd big problem!, the seller is now kicking off, ever since problem with Halifax (which delayed us 16 days in total ) he's been accusing us of messing him about and threatening to put the house on the market to rent, as he can drawn up a lease and a tennant in by the next day, he then wanted us to rent the house until completion, but he wanted us to pay for 2 months rent upfront in cash!, and today he has contacted his estate agent and basically said the main reason he has been hounding her and by extension us several times a day is because he wants to use the money from the sale to buy flights to Australia!!!!!!

Educated guess is that it comes down to financial distress. If the property you are buying was an empty ex rental. Then the vendor has had to subsidise the impact of having no rental income to pay the mortgage and other outgoings. The long delay at their end in even getting proceedings under way. Suggests that the vendor may have had existing financial issues with their lender that needed resolving in order to effect the sale. Now that the blockages have been resolved it's full steam ahead as far as they are concerned.

Call their bluff. Calmly let the EA and solicitors handle matters on your behalf. While expediting matters as much as you can. Suggest you take up yoga to help relieve the stress. Every time I've moved house in my lifetime. I vowed it would be my last!

Sooetie

I had a similar situation in reverse.

I had a buy to let buyer approach me as he heard from a neighbour I was getting ready to sell. They offered a good price - then 4 weeks later dropped it 15k. I pulled out and started to get ready to sell. After seeing a similar property sell for what I had asked they came back - I dropped 2k. Nearly 2 months later they had a survey and went back to their original offer at which point I pulled out completely.

I then put it on the market through Emoov and sold for 3k less cos I needed to move but not the 15k less they wanted.

I spoke to an estate agent friend who said Buy to Let buyers/sellers can be ruthless about getting what they want.

If it's not your dream home I'd pull out and have a look around .

Good Luck

Hoploz

If the EA keeps calling with niggles then stop answering their calls?

As I said before, keep your head down, let the EA listen to the bull.

moneyistooshorttomention

Hoploz wrote: »

If the EA keeps calling with niggles then stop answering their calls?

As I said before, keep your head down, let the EA listen to the bull.

I'd still answer EA's calls personally - but the response would be to "Smile sweetly and let it go in one ear and out the other". That EA wants their commission. That EA is due to get their commission (whether that house is sold or no) - as they've found the "ready, willing and able" buyer the vendor wants. Sounds like that EA may not be being quite firm enough with the vendor in telling them they will have to pay their commission anyway (regardless of whether they sell the house or no).

I agree with the poster that pointed out that the vendor is probably feeling under financial pressure - courtesy of not having had rental income for the last few months on that house. That comment about going to Australia was probably designed to put you off the scent of realising that fact. Vendor doesnt want you to realise they are desperate to sell the house asap (now they've got through the obstacles that caused them to deliberately delay getting to this stage).

Conclusion = don't believe vendor. Stay strong.

rtho782

I'm surprised you waited for draft contracts before doing searches.

AnotherJoe

Dont be bullied into this house, there will be others if this one falls through.
Make sure everything you need such as assurance over the flying freehold is in place before committing yourselves to this massive financial outlay.
Maybe the vendor will pull out of the sale and let the house out but if he does that and is trying to sell it from Australia with a sitting tenant that's going to be a nightmare so will he really do that?

Regards the phone calls from the EA, no need to feel harassed, if there's no news you can just tell them "no news since we last spoke", just get yourself in the right frame of mind, which is that the EA are only doing their job, they seem pleasant enough from what you said, and remember that until the legal issues are sorted you'd be taking a huge risk to commit so there's no need to feel you should be signing. . It's up to you if you get harassed from these calls, once you realise that you have no need to feel harassed.

BTW the vendor won't get his money until you complete, exchange won't give him money, so if he pulled out got a tenant and then tried to sell that pushes getting the money back even further so again it's very unlikely he will pull out (but not all people act rationally when it comes to house selling)

cloo

Stick to your guns, vendor is just trying it on most likely. In fact as I'd presume you're hearing from the EA, it's possible there's no problem at all and the EA is making up some nonsense to push on the chain.


EAs are *always* telling you that the other party is 'furious' or 'losing their patience' or 'on the verge of pulling out' when it may not be the case at all, they always want to stress you into hurrying things, even when it is totally beyond your control. The EA at the top of our last chain made out that nobody would be able to complete for 3 months if we didn't exchange that day because after that day the vendors wouldn't have another opportunity before then to clear the probate house at the top of the chain, which sounded like manifest nonsense and it was. A call to the solicitor cleared up that there was no such issue and it may be worth getting your solicitor to ask theirs about it. I'd assume if there was this magic tenant suddenly in the offing, the vendor's solicitor would have been informed.

Jcm1989

rtho782 wrote: »

I'm surprised you waited for draft contracts before doing searches.

Our solicitors said they couldn't do the searches until they received the draft contract

Surrey_EA

rtho782 wrote: »

I'm surprised you waited for draft contracts before doing searches.

Whilst it is of course possible to download a copy of the title and plan from the Land Registry, which will enable searches to be applied for, in my experience most solicitors prefer to wait for the documents to arrive from the sellers solicitor, as this means everyone is working from the same set of documents, and limits the possibility for errors.