Estate agent pushing one buyer

choccyness

Nov 2021 we decide to sell what had been my family home since 1976. We chose our agent as he seemed professional and assured us he would guide us through as we had no idea of house moving; also his company was linked with the company my daughter works for. 

We sold straight away, having 3 offers on the first day of viewings. At the advice of the EA we chose a buyer, who we were told, had sold her house already and was living temporarily with her ex husband. We found a house in December but unfortunately after a few weeks it was taken off the market. We found a second house in Feb and got everything fast tracked and were ready to go by Mid March. We then found out, through a slip up from our EA that our buyer had not sold and her buyer had pulled out in January. Since then we have had several delays and at Easter, when we expected to be moved by, we instructed our EA to re market. We sold again straight away at a higher price and thought that was it. The new buyer had sold, they want to move quick as they are expecting a baby and their friend works for the solicitor so is fast tracking everything.  With only about 6 weeks left on our mortgage offer we now find out that our EA has been ignoring calls and emails from the new buyer and their solicitor, and is still pushing the sale with the first buyer. Who may not even be able to sell as her buyer is questioning subsidence in her house. 

EA does not reply to our calls either and when I complained to him he got stroppy and just said he has done everything by the book and the new buyers cannot possibly turn a sale around in 6 weeks. If we don’t move in the next 4 weeks we will loose our low interest mortgage.
any suggestions

SusieT

It sounds as if you are in touch with the new buyer, is there a reason you cannot simply give the solicitors the sale price (as if there had been no estate agent involved), and ask yours to send the contract to the ones acting for the buyer? 
Then just tell (not ask) the estate agent that you are proceeding with the second buyer and that he should explain that to the first buyer? Can you not call in to the estate agent and tell him face to face that you are at risk of losing the mortgage, and that 6 weeks is possible as the solicitors and buyer are very motivated?

TripleH

Might in this case, be worth advising your solicitor that if your buyer has queries / needs surveys to come direct to you to sort them out?

I'd do that to try and minimise further delays before tackling the estate agent. I would however raise a complaint with the agents about their fees. If they are pushing a lower price buyer, maybe argue they get the commission on that and nor the difference? (But focus on selling first).

Good luck.

eddddy

Have you put your instructions to the EA in writing - for example, in an email?

i.e. Tell them to inform your current buyer that you are not proceeding with them because they do not seem to be ready, willing and able to proceed.

And tell them that you are proceeding with the new buyer instead, and ask them to progress the sale accordingly.


(But I do tend to agree that 6 weeks is a bit optimistic. Has the new buyer requested searches yet? How long is it taking for searches to be returned in your area?)

choccyness

As an update, because I know how annoying it can be to not get the whole story. The 2nd buyer could not turn the sale round in time. The first buyer(s) came in at the last minute, just. It was a mother and daughter (+ g children) and what the EA also didn’t tell us was, they were both reliant on house sales, not the rich widows he had lead us to believe; effectively we had a double chain not one cash buyer. On move day, their money was delayed, leaving us waiting outside our new house for hours on the hottest day of the year.
Anyway Karma hit back; apparently they hate living all together in one house and argue constantly ( old neighbours hear them) they didn’t get planning permission to build a house in the garden for grandma, we could have told them that if they asked, as we looked into years ago. To top it off, they didn’t pay the EA. 😂

propertyrental

Thanks for the update, but why would the buyers have paid the EA?