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Can I claim this money back?

So I'm in a chain My buyer offered back in May and were adamant they wanted to move in the school holidays. They had also just accepted an offer on their house.
I was told by my solicitor I had to make arrangements with HCA to redeem my Help to Buy Loan. HCA told me I had to have an independent valuation done and the report sent to them before I would be in a position to redeem. Got this done (at cost of £225), sent the report off and was then to pay an admin fee of £200 (not paid it yet thankfully). As far as I was aware everything was in place to exchange at the end of this month.
I get a call from the EA only yesterday to inform me that the buyer at the end of the chain hasn't even paid for the searches to be done yet!
Apparently no-one can get in touch with this guy and he is not responding, so estate agent has advised my buyers house is back on the market, and so is mine.
My valuation is only valid for 3 months so looks like I'm going to have to pay for another one when I do get a buyer.
I can't understand why I wasn;'t informed of the position of the buyer at the end of the chain. Surely 3 months down the line someone has noticed he hasn't even done any searches yet??? Maybe I'm naive but had I been told this was going on I wouldn't have paid for the valuation.
Should I be pi*ed off at EA or is this just one of those things that happen in a chain and I'll have to suck up the cost?
I can't afford to keep paying for valuations for things to fall through again......

Comments

  • Slinky
    Slinky Posts: 11,211 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Short answer is no you can't claim any of it back.
    Make £2025 in 2025
    Prolific £617.02, Octopoints £5.20, TCB £398.58, Tesco Clubcard challenges £89.90, Misc Sales £321, Airtime £60, Shopmium £26.60, Everup £24.91 Zopa CB £30
    Total (4/9/25) £1573.21/£2025 77%

    Make £2024 in 2024
    Prolific £907.37, Chase Int £59.97, Chase roundup int £3.55, Chase CB £122.88, Roadkill £1.30, Octopus ref £50, Octopoints £70.46, TCB £112.03, Shopmium £3, Iceland £4, Ipsos £20, Misc Sales £55.44
    Total £1410/£2024 70%

    Make £2023 in 2023 Total: £2606.33/£2023  128.8%




  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Anon2017 wrote: »
    I get a call from the EA only yesterday to inform me that the buyer at the end of the chain hasn't even paid for the searches to be done yet!
    Apparently no-one can get in touch with this guy and he is not responding, so estate agent has advised my buyers house is back on the market, and so is mine.
    My valuation is only valid for 3 months so looks like I'm going to have to pay for another one when I do get a buyer.
    I can't understand why I wasn;'t informed of the position of the buyer at the end of the chain. Surely 3 months down the line someone has noticed he hasn't even done any searches yet???
    Yes, you should have been informed as soon as something significant occurred in the chain.

    Oh, wait. You WERE informed as soon as something significant - that property going back on the market - happened.

    Or are you really saying you want to be kept informed of every single step in every single link up and down the chain in real time? Even if there's a dozen links? Don't be daft. Solicitors all the way up and down would be too busy informing everybody to actually do the work.
  • Anon2017
    Anon2017 Posts: 37 Forumite
    Fair points. However, I did ask the EA if the buyers would consider delaying completion until October as my mortgage fees reduce. Both parties in the chain said NO, they wanted entry in August.
    Surely at this point someone should have pointed out this isn't actually going to be possible because you need to have done the searches first.....
    Going forward then, I have no clue at what stage I should get my next valuation done!
  • aneary
    aneary Posts: 921 Forumite
    Ask if searches have been completed before you get your next valuation.

    It only last three months so it's reasonable to find out if the searches at least have been done.
  • saajan_12
    saajan_12 Posts: 5,290 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Anon2017 wrote: »
    I can't understand why I wasn;'t informed of the position of the buyer at the end of the chain. Surely 3 months down the line someone has noticed he hasn't even done any searches yet??? Maybe I'm naive but had I been told this was going on I wouldn't have paid for the valuation.

    It can't work like that.. If you don't get the valuation started till everyone in the chain have started searches, and they don't start searches until you've done valuations.. no one does anything!

    Once the chain is complete (everyone has a buyer / seller in place with the person at the top not buying and person at bottom not selling a property) then everyone should start surveys / searches / valuations / mortgage applications.. it's not possible to ensure this is 100% simultaneous so someone has to be first.. and if someones circumstances change in the meantime, that's life.

    Besides, what would you claim against.. you haven't exchanged contracts to proceed with the sale, no one has an obligation to know / update you of the buyer's circumstances.
  • aneary
    aneary Posts: 921 Forumite
    I would say that you could request all searches are completed first as the valuation is only valid for 3 months I think searches are valid for 6 months?

    So it would be reasonable to say I won't get this done until this point in case it becomes invalid.
  • The H2B valuation can be extended by another 3 months. You will need to get a desktop copy from the original surveyor you got round to certify that his valuation is still valid. You need to send this to the H2B company and they should process this and extend the valuation. I think a small charge is applied to this however.
    This is what I had to do in April this year when my house sale and purchase was moving a bit too slow
  • Anon2017
    Anon2017 Posts: 37 Forumite
    Thank you that's very helpful. Obviously in hindsight I should have waited but had 'stupidly' assumed everything was in place. I will look into extending this valuation for the 6 months!!!
  • Go to myfirsthome.org.uk, download the customer info pack, and details of how to extend are in there.
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