19 weeks into a purchase and deciding to pull out

saajan_12

Bolognese said:

The major issue being the deed of covenant between the upstairs and downstairs flats. Our solicitor believed the current deed was completely unfit, and the vendors solicitors wouldn't change it.

When a solution was found, another argument began about who would pay for the downstairs flat's independent legal advice over the new deed of covenant they would be required to sign. Much respect to the vendor though, they have agreed to foot this bill. It is fair, since we are having to purchase a few indemnity policies to cover other issues.

AdrianC said:

I'm not sure it's the vendor and their solicitors that are being "challenging".

You're insisting that the way the property's been apportioned before is not acceptable to you, then refusing to pay for the legals to accommodate your insistance.

You're insisting that paperwork be put in place for things that changed in the past, that nobody's ever had an issue with before.

Ultimately, though, you've walked away because you've changed your mind and decided to buy a different property instead.

Well depends on how reasonable the existing / agreements / deed was - if you would have reasonably believed a different, standard agreement then the offer would be based on that assumption. Theoretically I would expect the price to be renegotiated for the cost to remediate it - whether by amending agreements or cost of indemnity etc. That's the same as the vendor just paying for the costs. 

For a friend's flat purchase, the lease was missing certain clauses about enforcement etc, which the solicitors agreed were very standard, and lease was partially defective without it. The freeholder refused to amend the lease, and it was ultimately (partly) resolved by indemnity. The cost of the indemnity and associated additional legals were bourne by the vendor, as the offer was on the basis of a non-defective lease.