Obstructive Seller

jan1973

My daughter agreed to purchase a flat over 5 weeks ago.  The house seller however has since continued to stop her valuer from getting into the property meaning her mortgage can not be progressed.  he is also stopping any further viewings.
She is now stuck in the situation that the valuer has been to the house twice with appointments and been turned away so he is not going to do this for free.  This is all costing extra money as she s scared if she pulls out she will be charged for breach of contract and left to pay all the fees.
Is there anything that she can do to force them to let the valuer in?  or force them to withdraw and pay her fees.  she has recently learnt they have done this before and dragged it out for months?  any ideas

davidmcn

No. She can threaten to walk away. Is the vendor actually expecting the transaction to progress, or are they just not responding to any communication? 

VintageHistorian

Is this England? What "breach of contract" does she think she will be breaking? 

walwyn1978

Your last line is key. If they’re in a pattern of doing this (they may have MH issues, they may be in a marriage that’s gone south and this is a way of getting at their partner, etc etc) thjs is going to happen again and again and again.

If you can, pull out now. If it’s England, definitely do so.  

MovingForwards

As she hasn't got a mortgage offer, there is no contract to breach as a solicitor would not exchange contracts / conclude missives when there's no guarantee of getting the mortgage; unless she purchased at an auction / modern auction method / cash buyer.

If none of the above three, tell her to find somewhere else as if the seller is like this now, what's he going to be like further down the line.

Marvel1

walwyn1978 said:

ou can, pull out now. If it’s England, definitely do so.  

And Wales, unless something I don't know about it.

steampowered

Ask the estate agent why this is happening. Unless the estate agent can come up with a good explanation and a solution quickly, pull out.

If you can't even get a survey done for the mortgage, there will be other problems along the way too. For example your buyer's solicitors will have trouble getting answers to their enquiries. Sellers do have to engage with the house buying process.

ElizabethRose

if this is England or Wales there is no breach of contract as she won't have exchanged. By the sounds of it the vendor doesn't want to sell so she needs to cut her losses and find a new property. 

davidmcn

Marvel1 said:

walwyn1978 said:

ou can, pull out now. If it’s England, definitely do so.  

And Wales, unless something I don't know about it.

And Scotland, and Northern Ireland, and every other jurisdiction where buyers don't end up contractually bound to buy a property before they know whether they can get a mortgage...

macman

On what grounds is access not being allowed? Presumably an appt was confirmed in advance, so what is preventing access?
I'd make a final appt and say that if access is not granted then, then the offer is withdrawn.
There is, as yet, no contract for your daughter to breach, all she has is an accepted offer, which either party can void without penalty.

Falafels

My advice to your daughter is to withdraw her offer and keep looking for a property to buy. For whatever reason, the vendor isn't allowing the sale to proceed at all - and doesn't seem likely to do so in the future.

Your daughter has got nowhere near exchanging contracts, let alone breaching one!