Seller Stalling - will not confirm move date

beccaboopboop

I had my offer accepted on a house nearly 9 months ago. 15th January 2020. They are not buying and i am not selling. I'm a first time buyer so this has been a horrible experience. Covid happening when it did has not been great, but i personally think there still would have been this issue either way. The house is a state. It will need gutting as soon as we are in. It needs a lot of work and is not liveable, for this reason it is about 60 grand cheaper than every other house on the street. We were told this was going to be a quick sale. Every time we get close to securing a completion date the seller finds a reason to delay. She is living there with her 2 older children. How someone can live in that state is beyond me. However, she obviously does not want to move. She does not pay house insurance as she cannot afford it and lack of money explains how the house has become the state it is over the years. Originally she said she would need 3 weeks notice to move out. That then became 4 weeks, then 6 weeks. Then she said she was waiting for the council to rehome her and that would take 4 to 6 weeks. That was 9 weeks ago. She is now ignoring the estate agent and even hid in the house when they went round to see her. She says she knows this must be stressful for us as first time buyers and that she is doing all she can, but I'm sorry, it is obvious she is doing all she can to avoid moving. Yes we could walk away but we have invested nearly 9 months of our lives to this house. We have had 1 mortgage extended twice then lost it, now we are on another mortgage offer. All the checks we initially paid for are over 6 months old so need doing again. We have spent thousands extra on rent and storage. And to be honest it has got to the stage where i am not withdrawing no matter what. I'm not giving her the satisfaction of succeeding. Does anyone know if anything can be done? Can we take her to court. I do not know how someone can be so mean and selfish. I do not know what to do. Thank you for any advise. 

ElizabethRose

You need to walk away. The council are very unlikely to house her they'll probably offer her a hostel. By any chance is the house being sold as a result of a divorce or relationship breakdown? It sounds like she is being forced to move rather than wants to.

davidmcn

beccaboopboop said:

Does anyone know if anything can be done? Can we take her to court.

No. Until you exchange contracts, nothing is binding on either party. If you really think she's doing "all she can to avoid moving" then how long do you plan to wait for that to change?

2bFrank

Key question is, have you exchanged. It doesn't sound like you have to be fair but best to make sure. Also is this purchase in England?

If you havent exchanged and the house is in England, then I am afraid there is very little you can do. You cannot take her to court really as she will not be liable for your costs. Unfortunately this is the rubbish situation we have here in buying and selling a house in England

Your only option is to give an ultimatum, either agree to a completion date or you will walk, Ill be honest though id start looking now. Council will be very unlikely to rehouse her as she has a home, and she doesn't seem motivated to move if she is delaying all the time. I would contact the estate agent and ask to view other houses, this might get the message across, but unless you are prepared to walk, she has you over a barrel, and will continue to delay.

saajan_12

beccaboopboop said:

I had my offer accepted on a house nearly 9 months ago. 15th January 2020. They are not buying and i am not selling. I'm a first time buyer so this has been a horrible experience. Covid happening when it did has not been great, but i personally think there still would have been this issue either way. The house is a state. It will need gutting as soon as we are in. It needs a lot of work and is not liveable, for this reason it is about 60 grand cheaper than every other house on the street. We were told this was going to be a quick sale. Every time we get close to securing a completion date the seller finds a reason to delay. She is living there with her 2 older children. How someone can live in that state is beyond me. However, she obviously does not want to move. She does not pay house insurance as she cannot afford it and lack of money explains how the house has become the state it is over the years. Originally she said she would need 3 weeks notice to move out. That then became 4 weeks, then 6 weeks. Then she said she was waiting for the council to rehome her and that would take 4 to 6 weeks. That was 9 weeks ago. She is now ignoring the estate agent and even hid in the house when they went round to see her. She says she knows this must be stressful for us as first time buyers and that she is doing all she can, but I'm sorry, it is obvious she is doing all she can to avoid moving. Yes we could walk away but we have invested nearly 9 months of our lives to this house. We have had 1 mortgage extended twice then lost it, now we are on another mortgage offer. All the checks we initially paid for are over 6 months old so need doing again. We have spent thousands extra on rent and storage. And to be honest it has got to the stage where i am not withdrawing no matter what. I'm not giving her the satisfaction of succeeding. Does anyone know if anything can be done? Can we take her to court. I do not know how someone can be so mean and selfish. I do not know what to do. Thank you for any advise. 

Re the question in bold - no, you can't. You currently have no contract with her, so she is under no obligation to sell at all, ever. 

In terms of giving her the satisfaction, she already has it - she can pull out any time, and she still has you as a free option to sell if she feels like it. The harsh reality is its up to you, whether you keep throwing good rent / storage / mortgage fees / searches costs after bad, or move on. You can't force your preferred outcome because you have no legal right to it. 

eidand

I wouldn't have given this deal so much time, 9 months is ridiculous. I'm afraid you'll need to start looking again.

fiisch

House is gone I'm afraid.  Move on.

Clearly seller is being coerced/forced, and is actively looking to stall.  I'm afraid it's time to find another property.

mcpitman

Walk away, sounds like trouble in the long run.

SallyDucati

Agree you need to at least actively start looking for somewhere else and just write off what has been spent already.  She obviously needs to move but just doesn't want to for whatever reason.  When you find somewhere else you can pull out of this one, unless it exchanges before then which I think is highly unlikely.

JessJ23425

beccaboopboop said:

 And to be honest it has got to the stage where i am not withdrawing no matter what. I'm not giving her the satisfaction of succeeding. Does anyone know if anything can be done? Can we take her to court. 

A few points, firstly the ball is sadly not in your court, you withdrawing or continuing to be strung along will make no difference here. You have no contract, you have hung around for 9 months without one, shelling out as you say thousands in other costs.

Secondly, you probably have no idea of her circumstances, why she's in a place like that or whether she really is genuinely trying to be rehoused so there could well be no satisfaction at all on her part. What would be her gain? Obviously you're frustrated but you also chose to stick at this for so long.

No you can't take her to court, you have a verbal non binding agreement to buy the house.
You can also walk away and guess what she couldn't do anything about it either!

SpiderLegs

Christ knows what you are playing at here. You’re being mugged off by a nut case. I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s all your fault because presumably you didn’t know she was a nut case when you offered to buy her house.

you do know that now though, so why on earth would you continue this charade. It makes no sense.