At what point do we give up and pull out of the purchase?

Swash

Hi everyone, 

We are buying a house (offer accepted beginning of September 2020). Our solicitor sent initial enquiries on 16th December to vendor's solicitors. Further enquiries were sent beginning of January.

Last week we were told that our vendor is buying a new build and the developer wants progress by the end of Feb or they will pull out. (I'm aware that developers do this often so I'm trying not to worry too much about this). So we chased our solicitor as we have been week in week out and she says she is still waiting for replies to enquiries. 

Apparently the person dealing with the vendor's file changed so the new solicitor doesn't know what is outstanding and what has been answered. So our solicitor resent the outstanding enquiries a week ago. We are still waiting for the replies from the vendor's solicitor!

It is now 10 weeks since the initial enquiries were sent, 7 weeks since the further enquiries, and after being stressed out and pressured last week into moving things along (even though the fault was with the vendor's solicitor), the vendor's side have now gone silent again. If I can reply to emails and phone calls whilst working 12 hour days not in an office job, there's no reason why they can't while working at their desk. If I behaved in this manner in my industry with clients, I'd be unemployed.

We have to complete before the end of March anyway due to the SDLT deadline. We really want the house but our patience is truly thin at this point. At what point do we cut our losses and back out? 

pbartlett

unless you think.you can complete on another house by end march i would not pull out. leave it to tick along....

doesn't stop you looking for another place though, just in case stamp duty holiday is extended !

Tiglet2

Solicitors will not guarantee anyone to complete by 31st March, so if the conveyancing work is not complete by then, what will you do?  If you cannot afford this property without the stamp duty holiday, then maybe you shouldn't be moving.  I very much doubt you have enough time to complete in time on another property, so perhaps remain as you are and perhaps consider renegotiating the purchase price if the stamp duty deadline is missed.

greatcrested

You can

* pull out and find a cheaper house (to make up for missing the stamp duty holiday)

* chill out and let the process progress

* jump up and down, shout, and risk heart failure

* pull out and stay where you are

Mickey666

It sounds as if things might fall apart because of either your seller pulling out or the whole deal missing the end March SDLT deadline.  You can't do anything about your seller's decision, so not much point worrying about that.  You may have more control over the SDLT deadline, but there's also the possibility of an extension so perhaps end March won't be the final deadline in that respect.

So, unless you've actually changed your mind about moving I can't see what you gain by giving up and pulling out.

If it's just the stress you want to avoid, just chill out.  I know that's easier said than done but look at it this way; if you're really prepared to pull out because of all the stress then you've presumably already accepted losing the move - in which case, just 'pretend' in your own mind that you've pulled out and simply let things take their natural course.

You might find that the seller is just bluffing to increase pressure on you and won't pull out at the end of February.  But if he does, so what if you've already accepted you might lose the move?  As for SDLT, if it's really such a big issue then you can pull out when you know for sure that you'll miss the deadline, which might be extended anyway.  But again, if you've already accepted you might lose the move then so what?

If you're still prepared to do the deal then it's pointless to pull out.  But it is worth trying to chill out.

Swash

Thanks all. You're right I do need to chill out. It's just so hard when we have been trying to push this along for months now and I keep receiving phone calls saying we need to hurry things up, but it isn't even our side that is being slow.

I'm just going to try and not think about it. The past few weeks have been so stressful and this move means more to us than just a new house.

Oh and "If you cannot afford this property without the stamp duty holiday, then maybe you shouldn't be moving" is hardly a helpful comment. Some of us don't have 23k burning a hole in our pockets. This holiday was our only opportunity to move. And it was only half way through this process that my solicitor began adding a disclaimer to her email signature about the SDLT holiday deadline. 

If we miss the deadline then we will just have to stay put or renegotiate. 

Thanks again for all your advice.

Mickey666

Swash said:

Oh and "If you cannot afford this property without the stamp duty holiday, then maybe you shouldn't be moving" is hardly a helpful comment. Some of us don't have 23k burning a hole in our pockets. This holiday was our only opportunity to move.    . . . . . . 

If we miss the deadline then we will just have to stay put or renegotiate. 

I agree, not helpful, but it is a clue to answering your thread title question - you pull out of the purchase at the point when you know for certain that you cannot complete before the SDLT holiday ends.  In practice this will be at exchange of contracts, which defines the completion date.

Given that you're prepared to do that, I would suggest that instead of passively absorbing all the undoubted stress of the situation, you start dishing out a bit of stress of your own and inform the seller's EA and preferably the seller as well, that you WILL NOT be completing on this purchase if it misses the SDLT holiday unless the seller agrees to pay your SDLT costs.

blue_max_3

We are buying a house (offer accepted beginning of September 2020). Our solicitor sent initial enquiries on 16th December to vendor's solicitors. Further enquiries were sent beginning of January.

It took your solicitor over three months to send the initial enquiries? It's not unusual to have completed in that time!

Swash

Thanks @Mickey666 I will do just that.

Oh I know @blue_max_3 it's been slow from the outset. It even took the vendor 2 weeks to accept our offer. That should have been a red flag. 

Thanks again everyone.

Swash

Update!

My solicitor told us last week what the hold up is. There is a problem with the title. So the property cannot be registered in my name after completion with the current issue, therefore our mortgage company (or any other for that matter) will not be able to put a charge against it, and obviously even without a mortgage it's impossible.

The vendor bought the house new. So the vendor's solicitor has contacted the developers solicitor to remove whatever is wrong with the title. Who knows how long that will take. Looks like we may be moving in with family at this rate to secure our sale.

Swash

Guess what, we're still waiting 
Our first buyer, understandably, pulled out of the purchase because it was taking too long. We even offered to move out and break the chain but they had made up their minds. The house we are purchasing was ready 4 days later! We found a second buyer and are now waiting for them to catch up. So far it has been 8.5 months. 

Since our first buyer pulled out, I took a huge step back from the process and just let it tick along in the background. I now feel indifferent. I still want to move and still love the house, but the stress that solicitors and estate agents have caused us hardly seems worth it.

Hopefully it will all be forgotten when we complete. But it has been a huge learning curve and next time I will do anything I can to not be involved in a chain.