Ghosted by estate agent

WiseOwl00

Me and my partner are both first-time buyers. We had an offer accepted on a house about 11 weeks ago, we negotiated with the vendor on the price via the estate agents for over a week until it was accepted. They declined a higher offer for ours as they specifically wanted first-time buyers and took the house off the market. We applied for our mortgage straight away and instructed our solicitors on the advice of the estate agent. However, there has been no progress on the sellers' side since. They have not yet instructed their solicitors, so no conveyancing work has begun on either side. I have been asking for updates from the estate agent every 2/3 weeks and each time I have been given a different reason as to why they haven't instructed yet. For example, first was the sellers' didn't know how to fill out the contract forms, then they had a problem with the house they were buying which the estate agent didn't understand, and then the most recent was that they haven't got confirmation from the house they are buying?! About 3/4 weeks ago the estate agent actually said that the vendors' had finally instructed, which turned out not to be true. I last contacted the estate agents on Monday asking them to get a proper update from the vendor on where they were actually at with forming a chain as we needed to know a rough idea of how long it would take until conveyancing work started. I haven't heard back. 

I am now at a point where I am fed up of getting messed around and think there should be more communication at this point. Me and partner really like the house, and would ideally like to proceed with the sale, but at this moment in time we don't even have confirmation that the sale is still happening and we are being treated really unfairly. We would like to hang on for the time-being, but think it would be best to start looking at other houses on the side. We have so far only paid for the mortgage advisor fees. Our mortgage application is underway but there has been major delays with that as well, so at this point we wouldn't actually be losing out on much if we pulled from the sale. We plan to start booking some viewings and making an offer if a more suitable house comes up. However, our mortgage advisor only got us a mortgage in principle for the bottom end of our budget (2x our basic income) when we are likely now going to be looking at houses at the top end of our budget (2.5x our basic income). 

What is the best way for us to proceed at this point? We will likely need another mortgage in principle to make offers, but can we do this with a mortgage application in progress? We don't want to stop the mortgage application without knowing what is going on with this house, and won't want to fully pull out of the sale without having an offer accepted an another house. 

Carl2510

It’s a very frustrating process, I had a cash buyer was using the estate agents convenyacing team and for some reason no-one in that field communicate with one another. We thought our solicitor was holding it up saying we are still waiting for enquiries. Yet it was actually the buyers side as he didn’t have a clue what was going on so we had to start telling him to chase his solicitor every day as he wanted to be in the house ASAP! So chase up the seller and tell them to get a move on or your pulling put some pressure on! 

Thrugelmir

Start looking for other properties. Keep your option open, though be prepared for the fact that the current one may fall through. 

Salemicus

A few points:

• What do you want their solicitor to be doing at this stage? You haven't got a mortgage offer yet. No sensible vendor would incur fees to their solicitor until they get confirmation that you can move forwards with the process. Why do you care if they have instructed a solicitor? They are probably waiting on you.
• You may have annoyed the estate agent by repeatedly asking about whether they have instructed a solicitor. They may not be as communicative as you would like. You should try and be patient.
• You should keep looking at other properties regardless. The vendor could pull out on you at any time. It's just basic common sense.

MovingForwards

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6197012/is-this-normal#latest

Duplicate post.

WiseOwl00

Salemicus said:

A few points:

• What do you want their solicitor to be doing at this stage? You haven't got a mortgage offer yet. No sensible vendor would incur fees to their solicitor until they get confirmation that you can move forwards with the process. Why do you care if they have instructed a solicitor? They are probably waiting on you.
• You may have annoyed the estate agent by repeatedly asking about whether they have instructed a solicitor. They may not be as communicative as you would like. You should try and be patient.
• You should keep looking at other properties regardless. The vendor could pull out on you at any time. It's just basic common sense.

I care if they've instructed because conveyancing work cannot begin until they do. If they haven't instructed a solicitor, it either means the chain isn't complete or that they aren't serious about selling to us. Either way I need to know as I can't wait forever. They have also said multiple times that they were just about to instruct but haven't. They definitely aren't waiting on us as they haven't asked anything about our mortgage application so that assumption is wrong. 

I have probably rang/emailed the estate agents asking for updates about 4 times in the last 11 weeks, so unlikely that I have annoyed the estate agent. I have been very patient thus far, but the conflicting information I keep getting given by the estate agent is starting to make me feel like I'm waiting around for nothing. 

Marvel1

WiseOwl00 said:

Me and my partner are both first-time buyers. We had an offer accepted on a house about 11 weeks ago

However, there has been no progress on the sellers' side since. They have not yet instructed their solicitors, so no conveyancing work has begun on either side.

They are taking the mick, look elsewhere.

[Deleted User]

Wow @WiseOwl00 in my opinion you are being super patient! We just completed on ours in 11 weeks so I can't imagine how you feel with still being stuck on the starting blocks. I can absolutely see why you are waiting for them to instruct a conveyancer before continuing and there should be absolutely no reason why they haven't. At this rate it could easily take a year. I highly suspect they are stalling as they haven't found somewhere that they like yet? Personally I would tell them I'm pulling out because you've had no communication and nothing has progressed in 3 months. That's more than fair. You can always tell them if things change then you are happy to discuss but you will be looking at other properties in the meantime.

WiseOwl00

Just thought I'd add an update in case anyone finds themselves in a similar situation in the future

The sellers pulled out 4 days after this post, the same day our mortgage application finally went to the valuation stage! So apparently the estate agent never actually knew if the sellers had a house or not as they kept giving them different answers. Apparently the house they were buying pulled out and they couldn't find a house they liked so they pulled out as well. We've luckily managed to find a new one and had an offer accepted. First thing I asked about was their chain, which is luckily fully complete and only contains us, the sellers, and then another house. Fingers crossed! 

md258

It sounds like your instict was right.

Glad you've found somewhere that is actually for sale and hope everything goes well for you