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Seller purposely delaying house sale
Marisa0892
Posts: 1 Newbie
Hi All,
I'm just after a bit of advice really.
Myself and my partner are first time buyers and are currently in the process of purchasing our first home together. We are currently renting and are eager to move into our own home.
Here's the timeline -
4.12.21 - viewed the house and put an offer in
7.12.21 - offer accepted
31.12.21 - mortgage application accepted
08.02.22 - searches started
08.03.22 - searches completed and returned
Since then, we've had no news whatsoever about exchange of contracts and a completion date, even after contacting the estate agents and solicitors.
Just a little back story on the vendor - the lady is elderly and will be moving back to her home town (other side of the UK) to be closer to family. She will be moving into retirement apartments, the apartment she has purchased is currently empty so I wouldn't say it is a chain. Her daughter is assisting with this house move, and the estate agents have been advised by the daughter not to contact the vendor, but to go through her instead.
When we viewed the property and also when our offer was accepted we were told that if the sale of this house is quicker than the sale of the other house, the vendor will move in with the daughter, however, this has not happened.
We feel the daughter is purposely delaying the sale of the house, for what reason I do not know! From when we had our mortgage accepted, it took the vendor and daughter over a month to sign some paperwork to start the searches. When we got the searches back, they had not completed some parts of the searches (simple things such as the location of the electricity box) so that delayed the searches being completed. When we got the searches back, we were told we would exchange and get a completion date within the next few weeks, but 9 weeks later we still have no update!
Its got to the point where the daughter is no longer returning calls or emails from the estate agent whenever I ask for an update! When I finally got an update I was told that the vendor was given some paperwork from the house manager of the retirement apartment, to then find out 2 weeks later it was the wrong paperwork. The house manager was on holiday for 2 weeks and apparently no one else could give her the correct paperwork, so we wait 2 weeks to then be told the house manager has left the company and a new house manager will be starting in a weeks time! So a week passes and finally the paperwork is signed, and all is good to go.
I still don't hear of any update so I contact the estate agents and solicitors to be told she has raised an enquiry, which is solved within a few days. Still, a week and a half later I still have no update so I check in again, and no one can reach out to the daughter! The vendors solicitor finally reaches out to her, to then be told she has raised another enquiry!
Our mortgage offer expires June 29th, and i know if we have to re-apply we won't get the same deal we are on now. I just find this whole situation very frustrating as this delay is not our fault at all, yet we are the ones that will be at a financial disadvantage if we have to re-apply.
I would just like to add that originally, we had a sales progressor assisting with this from the estate agents, however, she left the company end of February. So now we have a property advisor assisting with this, and as good as he is, we feel because he is in and out of the office doing house viewings we can never really get hold of him, which I find I delaying it as well.
We really do feel like the daughter is purposely delaying the process, for what reason I do not know! We have noticed that there are similar houses nearby which have sold at higher prices (however, the house we are buying does need modernisation) so is she hoping someone puts in a higher offer? When I spoke to my solicitor, she did say both solicitors and both estate agents have all said everything is good to go, so they are worried why nothing is progressing!
Is there anything I can do to speed things up? We are both so stressed at the moment!
Any advice would be appreciated!
I'm just after a bit of advice really.
Myself and my partner are first time buyers and are currently in the process of purchasing our first home together. We are currently renting and are eager to move into our own home.
Here's the timeline -
4.12.21 - viewed the house and put an offer in
7.12.21 - offer accepted
31.12.21 - mortgage application accepted
08.02.22 - searches started
08.03.22 - searches completed and returned
Since then, we've had no news whatsoever about exchange of contracts and a completion date, even after contacting the estate agents and solicitors.
Just a little back story on the vendor - the lady is elderly and will be moving back to her home town (other side of the UK) to be closer to family. She will be moving into retirement apartments, the apartment she has purchased is currently empty so I wouldn't say it is a chain. Her daughter is assisting with this house move, and the estate agents have been advised by the daughter not to contact the vendor, but to go through her instead.
When we viewed the property and also when our offer was accepted we were told that if the sale of this house is quicker than the sale of the other house, the vendor will move in with the daughter, however, this has not happened.
We feel the daughter is purposely delaying the sale of the house, for what reason I do not know! From when we had our mortgage accepted, it took the vendor and daughter over a month to sign some paperwork to start the searches. When we got the searches back, they had not completed some parts of the searches (simple things such as the location of the electricity box) so that delayed the searches being completed. When we got the searches back, we were told we would exchange and get a completion date within the next few weeks, but 9 weeks later we still have no update!
Its got to the point where the daughter is no longer returning calls or emails from the estate agent whenever I ask for an update! When I finally got an update I was told that the vendor was given some paperwork from the house manager of the retirement apartment, to then find out 2 weeks later it was the wrong paperwork. The house manager was on holiday for 2 weeks and apparently no one else could give her the correct paperwork, so we wait 2 weeks to then be told the house manager has left the company and a new house manager will be starting in a weeks time! So a week passes and finally the paperwork is signed, and all is good to go.
I still don't hear of any update so I contact the estate agents and solicitors to be told she has raised an enquiry, which is solved within a few days. Still, a week and a half later I still have no update so I check in again, and no one can reach out to the daughter! The vendors solicitor finally reaches out to her, to then be told she has raised another enquiry!
Our mortgage offer expires June 29th, and i know if we have to re-apply we won't get the same deal we are on now. I just find this whole situation very frustrating as this delay is not our fault at all, yet we are the ones that will be at a financial disadvantage if we have to re-apply.
I would just like to add that originally, we had a sales progressor assisting with this from the estate agents, however, she left the company end of February. So now we have a property advisor assisting with this, and as good as he is, we feel because he is in and out of the office doing house viewings we can never really get hold of him, which I find I delaying it as well.
We really do feel like the daughter is purposely delaying the process, for what reason I do not know! We have noticed that there are similar houses nearby which have sold at higher prices (however, the house we are buying does need modernisation) so is she hoping someone puts in a higher offer? When I spoke to my solicitor, she did say both solicitors and both estate agents have all said everything is good to go, so they are worried why nothing is progressing!
Is there anything I can do to speed things up? We are both so stressed at the moment!
Any advice would be appreciated!
0
Comments
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Has your vendor purchased the retirement flat or is she in the process of buying a retirement flat?
Lovely as they look retirement flats are very hard to sell and come with a lot of conditions, so it wouldn't be surprising if queries were raised.If you've have not made a mistake, you've made nothing1 -
Tell the agent you are looking at other properties and if something suitable comes up they will lose the sale. (And probably do it in case this all falls through)
2 -
say you propose to lower the price, to reflect the expected higher mortgage interest rate. If that doesn’t get some action out them, start viewing other properties on the assumption that this deal isn’t going through.0
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I don't understand why the delay on the searches is anything to do with the seller. Its external agencies that hold this information.
Has your solicitor raised queries with your seller? Have you had a response on the queries raised?
You could ask for an extension on your current mortgage offer. This wouldn't affect your product rate.0 -
I wonder if she is unwell ? sometimes that can lead to delays in these circumstances and the radio silence maybe because they don't want to scare the buyer off.
0 -
My mum recently sold a retirement flat that she inherited. It over 5 months despite there being no chain due to delays with the management company answering queries.I wonder if this is the reason for the delay. My mum ended up doing a lot of the chasing that her solicitor should’ve been doing in the end and 2 completion dates missed.0
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Lots of people say things like "mum can move in with me for a few weeks", but when it comes to it, they don’t want to do that.You need to keep looking at other houses until exchanging contracts.No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?2
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Unfortunately when you are renting, vendors think it's ok for you to carry on doing that forever, but they won't put themselves out. I blame this on the current market conditions (albeit I think it will correct).
Not saying that is the reason , but I think you should demand the facts. Whether daughter or mother, you need some answers.0 -
lookstraightahead said:Not saying that is the reason , but I think you should demand the facts. Whether daughter or mother, you need some answers.
Out of interest, how should the OP force the daughter or mother to give the facts/answers?
2
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