2nd house fallen through. Potential next steps

Maverick2016

So, we’ve now had a second property fall through whilst within touching distance of the exchange point. So frustrating let alone the few thousand pounds lost now. 

Background story. Was in rented, landlord wanted to sell, we wanted to buy the property but he was basically deluded over the price he wanted so we told him proceed to sale through an estate agent. 

We found the perfect property in March 2021, offered the asking price of £195k offer accepted. Great stuff we thought. Everything going through the solicitors and there were various ‘legal’ issues with the paperwork. Turns out the property was an ex housing association property that the vendors had bought through right to buy and was subject to a buy back scheme, this in itself was no issue, however, that paperwork was completed so poorly, incorrect dates, figures and details, a deed of variation had to be completed, along with the fact the housing association wasn’t originally approached to ask if they wanted to buy back before our offer was accepted, they also completely ignored the vendors solicitors for 5 months, but finally got sorted. We also had the issue that the road wasn’t subject to a S38 agreement, lots and back and forth with the council, but again, finally sorted. The Sunday afternoon of the week we were due to exchange, I was contacted directly by the vendors (horrific estate agent that has a colour in its name so they can message direct) stating as the sale had taken so long, the estate agent has advised that the property value was much more than the agreed current price and the wanted £25k more. Needless to say we didn’t agree and they advised the estate agent we had pulled out which wasn’t the case at all. All this happened after the fact that we had to move out the sold rental property and into a family members house 200 miles for where we and are jobs are based due to the 7 month conveyancing time frame. 

We found a rental property pretty quickly after and managed to move back to the area within a month. 

January the search stated again. Found a house albeit not perfect, it needed loads of cosmetic renovations and one small structural issue following the survey it had great potential. Offer a accepted £5k under the asking price at £185k. All was going swimmingly with minimal issues with the conveyancing until it was uncovered the road the house was built on has been declined for adoption due to it being to ‘an unsatisfactory build’ despite weeks of my solicitor hassling for why the road was unadoptable, we got no information back, so she was forced to advise the lenders, their surveyor then devalued the property by £5k. The vendors refused to accept a lower offer stating ‘we’ve never had an issue with the road why should we reduce’. So I was forced to pull out. 

My dilemma is now how to move forward. Both property purchases were solely based on me and my salary alone. We been keeping my partner out of the process as he’s a few years older than me and will be restricted with the length he can take out a mortgage. 

We can’t now decide whether to now go for a joint mortgage, upping the budget as the market to get what we want has gone nuts, but we would be restricting ourselves to a 15 year, maybe 20 year mortgage term if we can find the right lender, or hang fire, wait for everything to calm down, whenever that would be and start again. 

What would you do? 

comeandgo

Well, none of the properties I’ve lived in have had the streets adopted and it’s caused no problems in 20 years of ownership so I would not have pulled out but I think it was because you could not afford the £5000 difference.  My husband is 15 years older than me and we started looking for property together when he was 55.  We got 20 year mortgage.

Maverick2016

comeandgo said:

Well, none of the properties I’ve lived in have had the streets adopted and it’s caused no problems in 20 years of ownership so I would not have pulled out but I think it was because you could not afford the £5000 difference.  My husband is 15 years older than me and we started looking for property together when he was 55.  We got 20 year mortgage.

Thanks for the reply, my partner is now the same age as your husband and we have the same age difference, so that’s reassuring you got the 20 year term. 

I could well afford the £5k difference, putting extra money down wasn’t an issue, I just didn’t want to or, overpay for a property I didn’t really ‘love’ especially given the level of repairs the property needed I was bound to find some nasties. 

The issue wasn't itself that it’s not adopted, the lender were initially still prepared to meet the asking price - deposit if there wasn’t any major/structural issues, it was the fact there was no information available as to why the council won’t adopt, just a flat ‘the road is not built to spec we won’t adopt’ so they assumed the worse. 

Did you ever get any info on why any of the roads you lived on wasn’t adopted? The info must be out there, it just seems it can’t be found. 

eidand

let me get this right ... you pulled out and wasted thousands already and months of wait, over 5k, because you did not want to "overpay" ???

You were not forced to pull out, you just made a terrible decision.

Every house transaction requires some flexibility and if you can't do that over 5k then maybe you should stop wasting money. It was your decision to go for both houses so you can't even use the argument of needing too much work. you went for it.

Home ownership is not for everyone, I think you're better off in renting tbh. 

AFF8879

It doesn’t really make sense that you wasted two sets of legal fees but were willing to pull out entirely over £5k?? I’m struggling to see how you were “forced” to pull out to be honest. £5k is a very minor amount especially over the length of a mortgage 

donutandbeer

Maverick2016 said:

We can’t now decide whether to now go for a joint mortgage, upping the budget as the market to get what we want has gone nuts, but we would be restricting ourselves to a 15 year, maybe 20 year mortgage term if we can find the right lender, or hang fire, wait for everything to calm down, whenever that would be and start again. 

What would you do? 

Problem I see here is that it is difficult to decide when the market has “calmed down” (unless it’s a huge crash) and when is the best time to enter the market. If you are not actively looking online anymore then it would be even harder.

I think the most common advice I see on here is to push through and persevere. But it is very tiring and daunting, and after two lengthy unsuccessful processes you had I completely understand you will want a break. We have only been looking since March, our offers never accepted because there are always someone chain-free competing with us. We are so tired of this already. Now we are finally chain-free we are hoping we are in the best position compared to others, but the market stocks are disappointing and there isn’t always something new to view every week. We can’t really afford to stop looking so just have to keep pushing ourselves. 

Don’t really have any advice I can give you. But I feel your pain. No matter what you choose to do I wish you luck. 

movilogo

Problem I see here is that it is difficult to decide when the market has “calmed down” (unless it’s a huge crash) and when is the best time to enter the market. If you are not actively looking online anymore then it would be even harder.

Typically you will see plenty of properties have asking prices reduced. There will be also few properties coming to market. Usually market becomes stagnant before a crash. Though I personally feel 5-10% reduction likely and there won't be any crash. 

donutandbeer

movilogo said:

Problem I see here is that it is difficult to decide when the market has “calmed down” (unless it’s a huge crash) and when is the best time to enter the market. If you are not actively looking online anymore then it would be even harder.

Typically you will see plenty of properties have asking prices reduced. There will be also few properties coming to market. Usually market becomes stagnant before a crash. Though I personally feel 5-10% reduction likely and there won't be any crash. 

In the area we are looking we have seen a few more “prices reduced” recently but they are reduced from a hyped up crazy price (so still a lot more expensive than say December last year). But there is also barely any stock right now so anything not sold within a week or two are probably still “overpriced”. Personally I feel like if I stop looking for a while I will lose the “sense” I developed from constantly looking for months. 

comeandgo

Maverick2016 said:

comeandgo said:

Well, none of the properties I’ve lived in have had the streets adopted and it’s caused no problems in 20 years of ownership so I would not have pulled out but I think it was because you could not afford the £5000 difference.  My husband is 15 years older than me and we started looking for property together when he was 55.  We got 20 year mortgage.

Thanks for the reply, my partner is now the same age as your husband and we have the same age difference, so that’s reassuring you got the 20 year term. 

Did you ever get any info on why any of the roads you lived on wasn’t adopted? The info must be out there, it just seems it can’t be found. 

We never asked, it was just something our solicitor brought up, I have always presumed nobody pushed the council to take them.  

Maverick2016

eidand said:

let me get this right ... you pulled out and wasted thousands already and months of wait, over 5k, because you did not want to "overpay" ???

You were not forced to pull out, you just made a terrible decision.

Every house transaction requires some flexibility and if you can't do that over 5k then maybe you should stop wasting money. It was your decision to go for both houses so you can't even use the argument of needing too much work. you went for it.

Home ownership is not for everyone, I think you're better off in renting tbh. 

What a ridiculous comment. So all the flexibility needs to come from my end? The decision in my gut is correct, I’ve lost £2k instead of £7k in a market that’s bound to slow. 

Both property had legal issues unknown at point of offer, I’ll get my crystal ball out next time in case I waste more money.

Maverick2016

AFF8879 said:

It doesn’t really make sense that you wasted two sets of legal fees but were willing to pull out entirely over £5k?? I’m struggling to see how you were “forced” to pull out to be honest. £5k is a very minor amount especially over the length of a mortgage 

Yes as crazy as it sounds over £5k I was. As was the vendor also crazy enough to to turn down and start again over £5k. The property has now fallen through twice at the same stage for them. 

I spoke in length to the surveyor and my conveyancer who I have known for many years both, along with the estate agent who also advised their client the reduction was fair and just. 

I lost £2k on this property instead of £7k, in my mind and gut, the decision is correct.