Informed by the estate agent that they were cash buyers was untrue

housebuyer143

SuseOrm said:

Th this happens so often I’m amazed that Estate Agents ever take people‘s word for it as far as I’m concerned a cash buyer physically has the cash in the bank and can complete within 30 days anything deviating from that scenario is not a cash buyer in my mind.  

I love the "cash buyers" who have something to sell.... Just because you do not need a mortgage does not make you a cash buyer. 

p00hsticks

SuseOrm said:

Th this happens so often I’m amazed that Estate Agents ever take people‘s word for it as far as I’m concerned a cash buyer physically has the cash in the bank and can complete within 30 days anything deviating from that scenario is not a cash buyer in my mind.  

I agree that the definition of a cash buyer is one who has the money readily available in a bank account but it doesn't necessarily follow that they should be in a position to complete in 30 days. Just because they are a cash buyer doesn't mean that they'll be prepared to forgo the normal searches, surveys etc. (In fact one could argue that the fact that it's 100% their own money may make them do even more due diligence themselves than if a lender was also involved.) 

theartfullodger

They may originally have been cash buyers but later changed their minds (lawful AFAIK).

I did exactly that some 21 years ago buying a second house in a town, had genuinely planned to buy for cash, had the freely available funds, but then decided to purchase a third also, concluding a mortgage on 2nd prudent.

Then there are dishonest persons who like to appear able to buy quickly, swift deal, but are being rather like our world-beating current government party. (Statement of fact, Johnson lied to the Queen)

SuseOrm

theartfullodger said:

They may originally have been cash buyers but later changed their minds (lawful AFAIK).

I did exactly that some 21 years ago buying a second house in a town, had genuinely planned to buy for cash, had the freely available funds, but then decided to purchase a third also, concluding a mortgage on 2nd prudent.

Then there are dishonest persons who like to appear able to buy quickly, swift deal, but are being rather like our world-beating current government party. (Statement of fact, Johnson lied to the Queen)

Of course you’re perfectly entitled to change your mind but it would appear that this cash transaction was never quantified or prove it in the first place in there lies the problem.  And of course with your mind change comes any loss of benefits that may have been a forwarded to you as a cash buyer i.e. a discount.  

macman

Most people don't have the cash to purchase a property sitting in their current account, or instant access savings account. My loose definition of a cash buyer is someone who does not require a mortgage.

walwyn1978

The question we used with the EA when checking ‘cash buyers’ when we sold our Grandma’s house - which we’d marketed as ‘cash buyers only’ was ‘does the prospective  purchaser need to sell a property to raise the cash’ and ‘have you seen proof of the availability of the cash’ 

if the answer was anythung but ‘no and yes’ we said no to that purchaser. Our EA became very switched on to that and we ended up with the kind of purchaser we wanted. 

OP I know that’s not helping you now and I’m sorry. I thought I’d add it in case other people about to be in a similar situation to you were googling what to ask/do. I hope you find another buyer with actual cash quickly. 

babyblade41

People lie .. simple as .. nothing you can do, and nothing you can hold the EA for

NameUnavailable

I worked as an estate agent for a while. The two most common things I heard and learnt to ignore were buyers who said they were 'cash' buyers, and vendors who said there wouldn't be a chain as they will move into rented accommodation.

We would ask 'cash' buyers for evidence of funds, but they would later say that the money was tied up with another project and so they needed a mortgage or the sale of another property to go through.

The vendors NEVER went into rented, NEVER!

To the OP - your options are to press on with the buyer or drop them and remarket, and hope that your next 'cash' buyer really is a 'cash' buyer. Or go to auction.

eddddy

A good estate agent will do a financial evaluation of a buyer.

Most Estate Agents are members of the Property Ombudsman scheme - which makes it mandatory for the Estate Agent to do a financial evaluation of a buyer.

If the buyer says they are a cash buyer, that evaluation should include asking for to see bank statements showing that they have the full cash price available.

Here's what the Property Ombudsman says:

10. Financial Evaluation

10a At the time that an offer has been made and is being considered by the seller, you must take reasonable steps to find out from the buyer the source and availability of their funds for buying the property and pass this information to the seller.

Link: https://www.tpos.co.uk/images/codes-of-practice/TPOE27-8_Code_of_Practice_for_Residential_Estate_Agents_A4_FINAL.pdf

So if you feel strongly enough, you could complain to the EA, and if they can't offer a good explanation, you could complain to the Ombudsman (if they're members).

JohnCox25

Thank you everyone, it has set my mind at ease. We have a letter from our lender saying they've asked their solicitors to enforce a possession order on the property and we are expecting a bailiff’s letter any day. We do have somewhere temporary to go. We are of the mind "live for today and not worry what will be". We thought we had all bases covered with the buyers, including the restrictive byway.

This is a second application (The first offer ran out of time) for a new offer from the lender.

The restricted byway is the sticking point for the lender.

On the first offer to the buyers the lender was happy to lend and they seemed satisfied with the private rights of way over the RB to the property.

Apart from the current economic situation we don't know why this time the RB is a problem.

We suspect may be to do with the buyers solicitors. 

Below is part of an email from the buyers solicitors, sent to our solicitors:

We have now received a response from our lender who have suggested they are only prepared to proceed if we are satisfied the property benefits from legal access across the Restricted Byway.

"we are satisfied".  I assume this is if the buyers solicitors are satisfied, not the lender?

As you have now produced a statutory declaration from the previous owner and the current sellers have done the same we will require a prescriptive right to be registered against the title, using these documents in order for us to agree the property benefits from legal access.

This part email sent to us from our solicitors

Essentially we are being asked to see if we can persuade the Land Registry to record the right over the by-way in the deeds formally by using the law of prescription relying on the declarations we have in our possession. There are likely to be a few challenges with this: 

(1) the byway isn’t registered land 

(2) We are asking the land registry to register a right to do something which is technically illegal – although as we know we would argue that statute did preserve existing rights being used which should hopefully void any illegality.

Thats the state of play so far. 

We think it maybe the buyers solicitor that has the issue, and not the buyers lender.