Vendor threatening to pull out of house sale

kae6155

Hello,

I am currently in the process of selling and buying a property, the person buying my flat is a first time buyer and the property I am buying is chain free. so the overall chain is very small.

Since I put an offer in for the new property the vendor has done nothing but hassle me about my buyer wanting to know why he doesn't have his mortgage offer and why hasnt a valuation been done yet as we have had our offer back. His bank is not doing a valuation as they are happy to use the surveyors report as this was only recently done.

It has only been 4 weeks since we put an offer in on this property and we do not know when our buyer started his application. The vendors solicitor is now sending emails threatening to put the market back on for sale if our buyer does not hurry up. We dont want to lose this property is the vendor being unreasonable and what is a reasonable time frame to complete this process and advice will be appreciated ?
thanks

martindow

People sometimes tend to have unrealistic expectations and the solicitor is just sending emails at their request. This is where estate agents should be doing some work to keep everyone calm and keep the chain together. Have you contacted the agents to let them know what is happening?

hazyjo

I say it time and time again. The only thing that causes major stress, anxiety and tantrums is the constant bloody rush/chasing. It takes as long as it takes (presuming everyone is actually dealing with things straight away and not sitting on them for weeks at a time!).


Is he contacting you direct? I would be having strong words with my EA telling them to tell him to BACK OFF. Tell them to tell him the average process takes 12 weeks from offer to completion. You are dealing with stuff by return. Tell him to only contact you via your EA.


I would try to take yourself out of the equation - tell your solicitor to deal with your EA. How the bloody hell are you expected to know what your buyer is doing. If you are dealing direct with them, stop.

Grenage

Assume three months; hope for less, be ready for more.


After four weeks they are being a little optimistic. All you can do is ask your buyer where they are and their anticipated time-frame, and pass that up the chain. Don't get into too much of a dialogue.

eddddy

kae6155 wrote: »

...is the vendor being unreasonable and what is a reasonable time frame to complete this process and advice will be appreciated ?
thanks

The vendor probably is being unreasonable - but that doesn't really help you.

If the 'unreasonable vendor' decides to put the property back on the market, there's not much you can do to stop them.

Assuming there's an EA involved, speak to them. A good EA should be a good at handling difficult vendors - it's part of their job.


I guess the main thing is to avoid is it all escalating into a confrontation / argument - because that's when vendors (and buyers) are likely to do daft things.

jonboy321

The question is have you done anything apart from appoint a solicitor. If they have stopped viewings on their property they might want to see genuine commitment such as you booking a survey to see that you are serious.
Selling mine the lady who had a offer in didn't book a survey for two months and then pulled out- so much wasted time- I could see she wasn't serious but couldn't list it and take viewings in the meantime.

kae6155

Yes we have done everything, valuation, survey, searches, and have our mortgage approved. We are just waiting for our buyer who is still in the process of doing this. We are just fortunate that all of our stuff was completed amazingly quick

Tiglet2

Your buyer is likely to be the slowest link in the chain, simply because he is buying a leasehold property. Be prepared for a long list of enquiries of you and the landlord/freeholder and/or management company. Third party responses are notoriously slow even if you are quick to answer the enquiries directed towards you. If your vendor is creating a fuss 4 weeks in, it will get worse. The EA needs to ensure that your vendor's expectations are managed well. Yes, they are being unreasonable.

martin1959

The trouble is normally solicitors.

Is the FTB using a high street solicitor or an online outfit staffed by kids on £8 per hour! High St solicitors are bad, but Online are normally ridiculously slow.

I do not have a high opinion of solicitors. Unfortunately, it tends to be the louder you shout and turn up on their doorstep asking for updates, the quicker they will deal with your case to get rid of you.

I am currently trying to exchange on a property which I should have been able to exchange on in days, as I am selling the property as a POA to myself. I am both the vendor and purchaser, and I do not want ANY searches. So it is simply a case of the two solicitors (both in same firm) drawing up the two contracts. However, it has still been nearly four weeks which is ridiculous.

We are also selling another property currently, and will not take off the market until valuation has been carried out. I will then give one month to exchange, and then I will start further viewings.

Mr.Generous

I bought a repo last year where vendor demanded completion in 14 days - my property lawyer said he could do same day without searches so I went ahead. When it came to day 14 vendor wasn't ready to complete and it dragged on an extra 7 days. Very annoying when they set you deadlines you must stick to then don't meet them themselves. Still it shows how quickly it can be done.