When would you consider pulling out from a purchase?

bigstevex

My 10 pence worth...


Friends of ours had to pull out of a similar purchase in a FTB situation and were the second couple to do so. The elderly couple had lived there for 50 years since the house was built, all family had grown up there etc and they found it hard/upsetting to have to move (Required a bungalow due to mobility).


And at present we're 3 months into buying a pretty much vacant house and it's going to be another month easy before we complete so there's 16+ weeks for a simple chain and our chain has been on the ball with everything (Land registry/solicitor issues).


So yes, in short you're expecting a bit much sorry, just be mindful of your mortgage offer deadline.

FTBlalala

Unfortunately house buying varies so much that it's hard to say how long it will take. Like others have said it all depends on the parties involved, if everyone is on top of things it can be quick (ish) but if one person takes a couple days to reply to their solicitor every time.... well then... months can go by.


We were really lucky I think, especially as FTB's. We had our offer accepted end of March and had the keys 18th June! We were a chain of 3, us FTB's, our vendor and our vendor's vendor. We kept on top of any and all queries and we were lucky that everyone else did too.



Maybe start looking at other properties ... but I wouldn't pull out unless you have a better house to go to. House buying does test ones patience.

bertiewhite

Well we made our offer on a chain free house in mid Sept and a completion date of 18-24 Nov is being discussed, so 9 weeks isn't beyond the realms of possibility. Our vendor IS buying another property but she has said she would stay with family and put her stuff into storage so it depends on individual circumstances really.

joanars

It's been a while since I last posted in this thread and to nobody's surprise, we are still here and still waiting to exchange.

Following my last post the husband's name was removed from the deeds early December.
However, due to the fact that the house used to be council property, the Land Registry have been unable to release the covenants on the title required using the 2009 Deed.

The vendor solicitors finally supplied the local Council with the necessary information for the outstanding Deed of Release in mid December, reassuring us that we will be moving in the end of January 2019.

Yet again, this did not materialise and we are now looking at ''potential'' moving date in the end of February. Last week we have received confirmation from the vendor solicitors that the Council is currently working on our documents (I highly doubt it and don't trust them at all). It is now week 8 since the documents were supplied to the Council.

As mentioned previously, the estate agency suddenly closed down back in 2018 and we now don't have any contact with the vendor. As far as I'm aware we should be allowed to organise house viewing to take some measurements and to speak with the vendor to see what is her current position - we want to make sure that she is ready to move out in the end of February as planned. We also want to make sure that the vendor is regularly chasing her solicitors and that she is fully aware of the whole situation.

Whilst we are still waiting for the outstanding Deed of Release to be provided by the Council, do you know who we should be asking for contact details and house viewing?

firebubble

You can ask your solicitor to request contact details, make it clear that you only want them to be able to arrange another viewing and to take measurements etc.

If that fails, you could always just turn up at the house and have a chat with the vendor on the doorstep and see what she says, or even put a letter directly through the door with your details and ask her to contact you.

One thing to note is that you should not ask her questions about the house itself, do not circumvent the legal process, which is designed to protect everybody.

Regarding the council documents, you can chase these up yourself, which may save you some money if it saves your solicitor a job.

babyblade41

The estate agent apart from chasing everyone is not necessary.. your conveyancer will be in touch with vendors conveyancer.
Maybe try chasing yours to get things going

joanars

Thank you very much, we are chasing our solicitors regularly. I will ask them today to chase the Council on our behalf.

I was not sure if it's acceptable to request vendor contact details but we will try and get these from her solicitors, I didn't know we are allowed to do so! For some reason I always thought we can't communicate directly with vendor's solicitors.

AnotherJoe

As I posted back in October, look for another place. Maybe you'll find a better one, and you can then decide whether to pull out of this one Until you have somewhere else to buy, theres no point pulling out of this purchase.

joanars

Thank you, forgot to mention we are back on the market looking at houses since beginning of January. We had a few viewings already but none compare to what we have got at the moment.

Another question: What is happening on completion day now that we don't have estate agency anymore? Who is will give us the keys, when, and where?

TBagpuss

You are not supposed to contact the vendor's soliicitor yourself, but you can ask your solicitor to do so, and could also contact the vendor direct. THere's no reason you can't ask her questions, just be aware that things are not binding unless they are dealt with in writing by your solicitor.

In terms of keys, if your vendor has a local solicitor then probably you would be able to collect the keys from them, but again, you'd need to get your solicitor to check (and I'd suggest that you aim to complete on a Thursday rather than a Friday, as that way, if there are any last minute issues, you aren't hanging around for a weekend!