Misled by buyer

mishkanorman

We have accepted an offer from a buyer who wrote a message saying "Moving date is negotiable, we are flexible as chain free"

We are 3 weeks in almost and I've just noticed his details now say, property to sell - not on the market. I've asked for clarification and he has responded to say his property goes on the market this week.

We've had an offer accepted on a property over other buyers as we told them our buyer wasnt in a chain, obviously that's not the case,

Fuming right now, we've paid out around £800 on fees and surveys in the last week for a property we're most likely going to miss out on :mad:

Any ideas what will happen next ? I'm just waiting for a response from either the buyer or our estate agents over how this has happened !

macman

Withdraw your acceptance of his offer and say that the lowest price you will now accept is £1000 higher. If he has also incurred costs, this might focus his mind.
You haven't exchanged, so you can do what you want.

hounsehunterftb

Oh that must be so frustrating for you. Unfortunately there isn't much you can do.

Perhaps you would have to convey to your buyers that you are not happy and would have to pull out as you accepted the offer in the first place on them being chain free. Find out as much about their plan of action going forward.

Two options really
- you wait for the chain to complete now if you decide to stick with your buyer. (He seems very untrustworthy though. I would stick with him only if he has some POA which abides by his initial commitment)
or
- you pull out. and look for chain free buyer. Most preferably a FTB.

However in both cases you need have some sort of an agreement with your vendor. Is your vendor chain free?

Before accepting their offer, were there any more viewings set? That way if you have to pull out

iammumtoone

Someone can still be chain free even if they have a house to sell.

They might have the funds or means to buy yours without/before they sell theirs, unusual but not impossible.

ComicGeek

I would put it straight back on the market tomorrow as the buyer isn't ready to proceed, and would have a blunt conversation with the EA about it. Who knows how long it would take for the buyer to sell their own house.

Putting an offer forward without selling first and lying about their position would get an instant rejection from me - who knows what they would also do close to exchange.

mishkanorman

Thanks everyone,

Our vendor is an estate sale so no further chain, however they've been on the market since November and at the time of accepting our offer had an influx of interest and an offer higher than ours.

We had only been on the market a week when we accepted the offer and went to sold stc,

I have asked if the purchase of ours is dependent on theirs, no response as of yet.

Cakeguts

Withdraw the acceptance of the offer unless they can proceed without selling the other house. You don't really want to spend a lot of time trying to sell a house to someone who has lied to you from the beginning. You don't know what other lies might make this sale fall through. Find a buyer who is honest.

mishkanorman

Still no response and the initial viewing details say no property to sell, its not looking good, how annoying !

Looks like we'll be back on the market in the morning !

mishkanorman

Well we heard from our buyer late last night, inbetween the offer being made and entering their solicitors details they were advised they needed to sell his property first and updated the website accordingly.

He seemed quite genuine in his email but that's not really much help to us

Will see what the estate agent comes up with I guess !

anselld

mishkanorman wrote: »

He seemed quite genuine in his email but that's not really much help to us

Doesnt seem genuine at all. Nobody can suddenly realise they need to sell a property on the basis of "advice".

mishkanorman

They had a mortgage agreed in principal, found our house and put offer in, then had independent mortgage advice who told them it would be better to sell their property first.

From what was said I think they didnt expect to find anything they liked so weren't in any hurry