Vendor impersonated me.... help!

Beenie

Don't people think that due to our insecure house purchasing process, trust is a vital aspect? Right until the last minute, either party can do the dirty.

I feel that in all our house purchase transactions we have acted honourably, and the purchasers/vendors have acted in a similar way. If we had even a sniff of skulduggery, then I am afraid our interest would have shrivelled and we would have (and did in one instance) look elsewhere.

AdrianC

Beenie wrote: »

Don't people think that due to our insecure house purchasing process, trust is a vital aspect?

No, not really. Not least because you have absolutely no way of knowing if the other person can be trusted or not.

Cakeguts

AdrianC wrote: »

No, not really. Not least because you have absolutely no way of knowing if the other person can be trusted or not.

Agreed but in this case they know that the vendor can't be trusted so if they do something else like take all the kitchen appliances with them and replace them with second hand ones the risk is already known about.

Doozergirl

Cakeguts wrote: »

Agreed but in this case they know that the vendor can't be trusted so if they do something else like take all the kitchen appliances with them and replace them with second hand ones the risk is already known about.

You don't actually know that's a risk with this woman any more than you know what another vendor will do. People are completely unpredictable and cannot be controlled.

You cannot know. It's all a risk. The solicitors do what they do for a reason. Take photos to support.

AdrianC

Cakeguts wrote: »

Agreed but in this case they know that the vendor can't be trusted so if they do something else like take all the kitchen appliances with them and replace them with second hand ones the risk is already known about.

You don't know they're at risk of going to the massive ballache to swap appliances over. You only know they did something very stupid to try to hurry exchange along.

Albala

Doozergirl, personally, I would differentiate between sellers who are not 'perfect' and a seller who actually thought it was okay to impersonate me to my solicitors. In a real life scenario I bet you would as well.

The reason I suspect other posters, not me incidentally, suggested extra diligence was, or my understanding of the reason was, that things may have been 'cleared' by the imposter which the actual buyer would not have cleared. Hence needing to do things again to be sure.

I agree you need to keep emotion and speculation out of property transactions. And that speculation about motives, or anything else someone might do because they did something else, though tempting, is pointless, because you can never know for sure why anyone does anything or what they may do next. But when red flags pop up, you do need to reassess whether a transaction is worth going on with. We've got so many red flags on our current transaction the bulls have given up and gone home, but a dispassionate assessment means it is still worth the risk of continuing. But if I caught our vendors up to what the OP's vendor has been up to, I'd definitely do a fresh risk assessment.

Wyndham

I'm not sure of the details of the rules, but there is at least a code of conduct that says that your solicitor should not talk directly to the other party (and vice versa). Your solicitor is in breach here, and if it were me, I'd be looking into that and would not want them to act for me, as they have been negligent.

OP - just don't. Move on. There are too many things here, it's a big purchase, and I think you'll end up regretting the purchase for a long time to come. Find another property, and another solicitor. Also consider action against your current one and reporting the whole thing to the police.

Doozergirl

Albala wrote: »

Doozergirl, personally, I would differentiate between sellers who are not 'perfect' and a seller who actually thought it was okay to impersonate me to my solicitors. In a real life scenario I bet you would as well.

The reason I suspect other posters, not me incidentally, suggested extra diligence was, or my understanding of the reason was, that things may have been 'cleared' by the imposter which the actual buyer would not have cleared. Hence needing to do things again to be sure.

I agree you need to keep emotion and speculation out of property transactions. And that speculation about motives, or anything else someone might do because they did something else, though tempting, is pointless, because you can never know for sure why anyone does anything or what they may do next. But when red flags pop up, you do need to reassess whether a transaction is worth going on with. We've got so many red flags on our current transaction the bulls have given up and gone home, but a dispassionate assessment means it is still worth the risk of continuing. But if I caught our vendors up to what the OP's vendor has been up to, I'd definitely do a fresh risk assessment.

I totally agree.

And I totally understand that emotional judgement would still take place in my head too, it's just trying to be pragmatic and taking a thought past the initial reactions, something that many people here can't seem to do. And I am playing devil's advocate where people are making swift judgement that something untoward won't happen next time. People are utterly selfish in these situations and they will hide anything they can get away with.

But where I started on this thread was just suggesting that the OP try to take a more dispassionate view. I would be angry with the vendor, but I genuinely think my own concern would be about the solicitor letting this happen. That said, the computer tracking alerted the OP to the problem, so that is something to be said for these internet set-ups. I still have to wait for proper letters from my solicitor, which frustrates me but perhaps it is for good reason!

I have had people behave despicably towards us, but no one who behaves in that way has a peaceful existence or relationship with themselves. They're punished every day by that.

tlc678910

Hi OP,
As we all obviously know the behaviour of your seller is utterly bizarre. Because of this I am wracking my brain for a motive - otherwise if she had no motive but was simply mad as a box of frogs then I still can't see why she would bother with this. I could be under immense pressure to sell a property but for me, like most others I'm sure, impersonating someone isn't something that would even occur to me as a possibility. It's not normal.

If you choose to continue I think you should do so on the basis that the seller might be a scammer/fraudulent and go over everything like you are buying from a master criminal. Starting with wanting to see the proof that she is who she says she is and that she owns the property and has the right to sell it (no joint owner that objects, no charges or restrictions against the property). For some reason she is acting like she is on borrowed time.

I think it is of the upmost importance that your own solicitor/mortgage company etc know that there is a risk of someone impersonating you and of this transaction being open to fraud. If you are due any money from your solicitor it is vital that any bank details that are required from you are given face to face (with your ID) and then must not be subject to change due to emails/letters or phone calls. If this person is due monies then I would suggest a test amount e.g. £1 is sent to the account details provided and only when the seller has confirmed receipt to send the balance (the person could say they never received the monies /wasn't their bank account etc)

Sophisticated scams with house purchases do happen and you only found out she was manipulating the process due to the app updates which many people would not have done.

Personally I think I would be done with this person not simply because I thought she was super strange and totally out of order but because I would be worried that there is something fundamentally fishy about the whole sale.

If you go ahead I do hope it works out for you - keep us updated!

Albala

Agree 100% with Doozergirl above. In the end, for the OP, the question is, do you want the house enough, something we all have to re-evaluate during any purchase when any circumstances change. And this isn't a revelation about the actual, house, say, that the house was underpinned, or that it has the neighbours from hell. The seller will, by definition, not be there once the house is bought.



If they do want to continue, it's also clear that they need to be especially sure every 'i' is dotted and every 't' is crossed, as tlc... above says, and not cut any corners or leave anything unchecked.