FTB Scotland - Seller may pull out on sale

danniwood86

Hello,

After a little bit of advice/experiences if possible.

We are FTB and have had an offer accepted on a property. We have everything in place with regards to our mortgage and solicitor going through all his side of the legalities. The one thing that is holding is up is our Forces Help to Buy Application (lost the first one and then had to send another).
Anyway, our offer was accepted signing a week of the house going on the market by couple who are separating.

My solicitor calls me today for an update and also to tell me he has wind that one of the sellers (ex husband) has been approached with a cash offer that was also higher than ours (we offered what it was valued at) and by the sounds of things has also approached the estate agents; who kindly told him that as far as they were concerned the house is under offer.
We are desperately pushing to be in before Christmas and we love the houses.
Misifs are yet to conclude as the Forces help to buy paperwork has still to be sent to the solicitor (this week).

Has anyone had this happen to them?
How long does a cash buyer purchase take? We are literally weeks away.

It’s all a bit stressful now and I’m praying nothing comes of this and he just accepts what he has been offered by us.

Thank you for reading

missile

Gazumping or gazundering is not permitted under the Scottish system. If your offer has been accepted and missives exchanged then neither buyer nor seller can pull out. If they do there are financial penalties.

Your solicitor ought to have explained this to you, see here.

davidmcn

missile wrote: »

Gazumping or gazundering is not permitted under the Scottish system. If your offer has been accepted and missives exchanged then neither buyer nor seller can pull out. If they do there are financial penalties.

Your solicitor ought to have explained this to you, see here.

The OP has said that missives aren't concluded yet. So gazumping is still possible (though much more frowned upon than in England).

A "cash" buyer isn't necessarily any more trustworthy than one buying with a mortgage - they could get cold feet, find excuses to chip away at the price, or their cash might not in fact be readily available. So I wouldn't get overly worried about the buyers preferring them. And I doubt anybody else will be completing the whole thing before Christmas from scratch.

Pixie5740

Gazumping and gazundering isn't impossible in Scotland but it is much more rare. The solicitors acting for the purchaser and seller are bound by the rules of the Law Society of Scotland. Solicitors acting for prospective purchasers of residential property whose offer is accepted – either verbally or in writing – should withdraw from acting if the client subsequently wishes to re-negotiate the price downwards without having made the offer subject to a satisfactory valuation or survey or obtaining satisfactory finance. If there is a valid issue arising out of an unforeseen problem with the title that would not require the agents to withdraw. Therefore, should a seller wish to accept a higher "gazumping" offer then their solicitor should withdraw and the seller would have to get a new solicitor.

The seller’s solicitor should not accept subsequent instructions from the seller to accept this cash offer from another party unless and until negotiations with the original offer have fallen through for bona fide reasons unconnected with the possible offer from another party. You should be working towards a date of entry. How long has your purchase been delayed due to the Forces HTB lost paperwork?

danniwood86

Thank you for the replies.

Our application went in around 21st October we heard nothing neither did the solicitor, we then sent off another copy of it and were finally added to the database on 26th November. Our solicitor will hear this week from them we’ve been told.
Sellers wanted to complete on 30th November with no input into what we wanted and it was a little unrealistic given they were still sorting their own matrimonial issues out.

We are reluctant to up our offer as what we offered was the value.

Pixie5740

danniwood86 wrote: »

Thank you for the replies.

Our application went in around 21st October we heard nothing neither did the solicitor, we then sent off another copy of it and were finally added to the database on 26th November. Our solicitor will hear this week from them we’ve been told.
Sellers wanted to complete on 30th November with no input into what we wanted and it was a little unrealistic given they were still sorting their own matrimonial issues out.

We are reluctant to up our offer as what we offered was the value.

When buying property in Scotland there is not a completion date. There is conclusion of the missives and there is date of entry. What was it the vendor was expecting to have done by 30th November?

As explained earlier, you've made your offer and it has been accepted so the seller can't accept another offer from someone else without binning the current solicitor. Likewise you can't go changing your offer.

The last time I bought a property in Scotland the seller started getting antsy, egged on by his solicitor, because we hadn't concluded the missives because my mortgage offer hadn't come though even though we were weeks away from the agreed date of entry. It took 4 weeks from application to offer which was not an unusually long time by any means. The vendor's solicitor was saying that Halifax (not my lender) was turning around mortgages in 2 working days which my mortgage broker told me was a load of pish and besides my solicitor was waiting for the seller's solicitor to provide a heap of paperwork....!!!!!!. I suspect he thought that by threatening the sale that would somehow get my mortgage offer out quicker. In hindsight I wish I'd instructed my solicitor to withdraw from the purchase because I like my home but I don't love it. You do love this house though so just keep plugging away. I think it is incredibly unlikely that the seller will withdraw from the sale, get a new solicitor, and accept the cash offer (if it's even real).

DottieDam

Do the vendors know why you have the delay?

Our vendors are also getting antsy as we submitted an application around the same time as you and still waiting to hear from lender. Their solicitor was relaying this via our solicitor but our solicitor wasn't relaying any information back to them.

Eventually involved estate agent who updated the vendor and they seem happier. I'm losing complete patience with the process so I can only imagine how they felt on the other end and probably assumed we weren't serious or had issues (we have been waiting on transcript of home report and accepted subject to this).

I'd say there is no point, at this stage, in setting a date of entry before you have your mortgage offer. Our solicitor also said they need a couple of weeks with the paperwork after mortgage offer comes through (but they are also incredibly useless) so to be honest even concluding missives before Christmas (with the holidays) might be very optimistic!

danniwood86

Thank you!

We have been completely up front with the sellers. They know that all we are waiting on is the help to buy. We have our mortgage offer sorted.
It helps that we are with the same soliciting firm but different solicitors.

Fingers crossed things speed up soon.

missile

danniwood86 wrote: »

It helps that we are with the same soliciting firm but different solicitors..

I don't like that :eek:

agrinnall

missile wrote: »

I don't like that :eek:

Although it does happen and is within the rules, when I sold a property in Edinburgh the buyer had previously been with the same solicitor as me, and they told her she had to use a different solicitor for her side of the process.

davidmcn

agrinnall wrote: »

Although it does happen and is within the rules, when I sold a property in Edinburgh the buyer had previously been with the same solicitor as me, and they told her she had to use a different solicitor for her side of the process.

There are (very restricted) exceptions - much more limited potential for this to happen than in England. I wonder what justification the OP has been given?