House purchase stalled, no ones talking !

wazza99

Asking to see if i can help my son and his girlfriend.

They are living in rented accommodation on a monthly contract .

They have found a house, offered £115000 (was offers over 110000) seller accepted, survey came back at max value of 110,000, renegotiated with seller new price agreed 110000.(early May)

He has got mortgage, solicitor, signed a none dated contract(5th June) and mortgage deed and is ready to move, paid all surveys etc. Solicitor has his deposit.

Assumed all was chugging along, a suggested completion date of 26th of June was proposed, we believe by sellers solicitor ? Anyway seller said no, not ready.

Seller is buying a new build, so chain is very short.

Sons solicitor has applied seller hasn't completed their searches ! this worries us as surely this is early work ?

To make matters worse, seller refuses to liaise with my son, she simply will not return calls or texts.

He's chasing his solicitor and estate agent but just getting no where , trouble is he is about £800 in to his costs and really can't afford to pull out (he has insurance but only if seller cancels)

They have really scrimped and saved for all the costs and deposit so are quite desperate for it to proceed, i feel awful for them but can't help feeling somethings wrong and they should pull out. To me not having some sort of relationship with the seller is bad news !

I have a feeling perhaps the seller also has insurance for a failed sale ? does that exist and perhaps she is waiting for him to get fed up, apparently she wasn't overly impressed at the survey valuation !

So point is no-one seems to know what the issue is, who should he be pressuring ?

Ps. other issue is his landlord is putting the rental up for sale !

I could cover his lost costs as a gift, thats an option but is it too soon to throw in the towel ?

How long does he wait ? he can't just wait for ever but if the seller wont talk what can we/he do ?

davidmcn

wazza99 wrote: »

Seller is buying a new build

Which is...already built? Been delayed?

wazza99

Built and empty as far we know (she mentioned it right at the start), though ofc nothings fact as the seller wont reply or communicate.

G_M

all seems fairly normal. Seller delay. Unclear reason. Panic buyer.


What's new?

wazza99

Ok nothing new but they are a young couple, 1st time buyers, with a landlord who may at any time give them 8 weeks to leave, so yes they are panicking.

scholesfan88

Quite normal to not have a relationship with the seller and to liaise via EA or solicitors.

If the sellers solicitor hasn't completed searches yet, then get his solicitor to put some pressure on.

However, your only around half way through the 'average' time it takes to complete. It takes time.

hb2

wazza99 wrote: »

Ok nothing new but they are a young couple, 1st time buyers, with a landlord who may at any time give them 8 weeks to leave, so yes they are panicking.

That's as may be, but the tenant doesn't have to move out until a court has ended the tenancy. That can take a lot more than 8 weeks. Yes, the tenant would be be responsible for costs, but at least they would not be immediately homeless.

When we were buying our current property, the vendors didn't want any direct contact and everything was done via the EA.

Bossypants

wazza99 wrote: »

Ok nothing new but they are a young couple, 1st time buyers, with a landlord who may at any time give them 8 weeks to leave, so yes they are panicking.

These things take time, they've only just hit the very earliest point when they might have been able to exchange, if everything had gone 100% according to plan (which it hardly ever does).

In terms of what to do, they need to keep pushing their solicitor to ask their counterpart for an acceptable completion date, and ringing the EA to ask what the hold-up is (though don't exaggerate, they need both parties on side). They can even express to the EA (gently!) their nerves as first time buyers with a seller who has suddenly gone quiet. That may spook the EA just enough to put a little pressure on their client (the seller) to stop messing about.

Ultimately, though, it's a waiting game. There's nothing in anything you've said to suggest that it's time to throw in the towel. As for their impending homelessness, don't worry about that until they *actually* get their 8 weeks notice before they have exchanged. If that does happen, come back and post for advice specific to whatever the situation looks like at that point, but in the meantime, try to relax. My last purchase looked rather complicated from the outset, and I was desperate for it to go through for personal reasons, so I planned for every possible contingency in great detail. In the event, none of the scenarios I had been worried about ever came to pass, so in the end I wasted my own time and energy, as well as a few other people's, for no reason. Remember that 8 weeks is plenty of time to find storage and beg a sofa to sleep on while they wait for their purchase to go through. Good luck!

G_M

wazza99 wrote: »

...with a landlord who may at any time give them 8 weeks to leave, so yes they are panicking.

Unless they live with their landlord, he can't.


He can serve a S21 Notice which


* must give 2 calender months notice
* but this is not notice to leave, it is notice that he might (or might not) then apply to court, which takes weeks or months