Our EA lied to me on phone

hdh74

We're in the process of buying and selling. The EA selling our property rang me last week to ask if we'd got all our paperwork in as they hadn't heard from the solicitor. I confirmed we had done so the week before and asked if our buyer's survey was in and was told yes. On that basis, I chivvied our solicitor, forked out £600 towards the next step of their process and another £600 for a survey on the property moving forward. 
Today we had a call saying that our buyer has done nothing. He wants to come to the property tomorrow 'to measure up' and will be putting his paperwork by Monday. I'm really worried he's having second thoughts and is stalling us.
I doubt there's much I can do as I cannot prove the phone call but I'm really worried. If anyone has any helpful thoughts I'd be pleased to hear them. The survey can be cancelled up to Monday. I'm hoping we can see what the buyer says tomorrow and have some kind of contingency plan - maybe ask the seller of the property we want if they will wait till we resell - maybe cancel survey and at least save that. Should I phone solicitor and ask them to put next step on hold while we wait?

anselld

If a chain died every time an EA lied there would be very few completions.
Chill out at least until you see the buyer tomorrow and confirm interest.

Sandtree

Not to defend someone with "agent" in the job title but 95% of the time they can only relay what they are told (or sometimes make things up on the hoof). The buyer may well have said he was just about to do it last time they spoke so they made a not unreasonable assumption that it had when they spoke to you but the buyer didn't do what they claimed.

Similarly phrases like "I believe they have" or "they've said they will have" get remembered as "yes".

Having been a call centre complaints manager I've read a customer's complaint and the call centre agent's views and often listening to the call neither have remembered the conversation properly. 

hdh74

Update - The EA accessed the records and confirm the buyer told them he had completed and submitted all the records. They then chased us to proceed on that belief. They have confirmed all the times and details - so looks like our buyer deliberately lied. The timing - he's coming tomorrow and not doing the paperwork until after that suggests to me he might be having second thoughts but wanted us to push on and secure the onward chain.

ReadingTim

Whilst linked, these are separate transactions.  So even if your current buyer pulls out, as long as you can find another buyer in a reasonable timeframe who offers the same or a similar amount, meaning you can still afford the place you're looking to buy, then there really isn't a problem. 

Yes, the people from whom you're buying might be a little annoyed by the delay, but dumping you as a buyer and trying to find someone else is unlikely to result in a faster move for them.  

hdh74

That's a really good point. Thanks @ReadingTim Will keep our fingers crossed that things look positive when we see the buyer tomorrow but prepare for some hasty talks with our seller and remarketing if it goes wrong. I've let our solicitors know and they've made a note to incur no further costs at this stage and let us know if and when they hear from the buyer's solicitor. 

RogerBareford

hdh74 said:

We're in the process of buying and selling. The EA selling our property rang me last week to ask if we'd got all our paperwork in as they hadn't heard from the solicitor. I confirmed we had done so the week before and asked if our buyer's survey was in and was told yes. On that basis, I chivvied our solicitor, forked out £600 towards the next step of their process and another £600 for a survey on the property moving forward. 
Today we had a call saying that our buyer has done nothing. He wants to come to the property tomorrow 'to measure up' and will be putting his paperwork by Monday. I'm really worried he's having second thoughts and is stalling us.
I doubt there's much I can do as I cannot prove the phone call but I'm really worried. If anyone has any helpful thoughts I'd be pleased to hear them. The survey can be cancelled up to Monday. I'm hoping we can see what the buyer says tomorrow and have some kind of contingency plan - maybe ask the seller of the property we want if they will wait till we resell - maybe cancel survey and at least save that. Should I phone solicitor and ask them to put next step on hold while we wait?

I think your doing the right thing by pushing forward with your purchase because if you delay then the people you will be buying off will be wondering why you arn't making any progress and will be concerned about your intentions, just like you are with your buyer. The house buying process is long enough without intentionally delaying things and i always prefer to be the one who has done everything and waiting rather than being the person everyone is waiting for.

The last house i bought i didn't even have a buyer for my place lined up when i had the offer accepted and was pushing forward with the purchase.