Seller is not sending contract details to buyer’s solicitor.

junotP

Hi all,

I’m feeling quite stuck currently as this situation is not moving forward. In October, we had our offer accepted for our first house. It all looked alright we were prepared for timelines to complete the purchase. We instructed a surveyor for a survey, we have a mortgage offer approved and we also paid our solicitor for stating the transaction. On the other side, there has been silence for over a month now. We have been chasing EA to chase the seller to send contract details to their solicitor, which they said they have done it but our solicitor reported that nothing was received.
At the moment, I have been chasing the EA to chase this but I am really going through a though time as it looks like the seller does not want to proceed with the transaction.

I would really appreciate any feedback and suggestions for this situation 

thank you 

Hoenir

Has your vendor a need to find another property themselves?  While it's a month. The entire Xmas/New Year period can effectively be written off. 

Mark_d

It is in the interest of your solicitor and the estate agents to get this contract from the seller's solicitor.  If they are unable to do so then maybe you are right in thinking that the seller is hesitant about proceeding with the transaction.  As far as I can see, your only real option is to set a deadline.  You need to accept that this purchase might not go through, and you will have lost a [hopefully small] amount of money on the survey & solicitor's initial fees.

kingstreet

Is there a fully formed chain? I would not advise you to charge off paying for legal work and valuations or surveys until the chain is complete and everyone is moving forward together.

eddddy

As above, it could take many weeks or months for a complete chain to form above you. And many people won't instruct their solicitor to start work until that has happened.

So it may be that your seller hasn't instructed their solicitor to start work yet.

You should ask the estate agent some specific questions about the status of the chain, and at what point your sellers intend to instruct their solicitor.


If this is the problem, it's a shame that the estate agent didn't explain everything up front. Unfortunately, estate agents sometimes encourage buyers to spend money early on surveys, mortgage applications, etc, because then the buyer is more committed to the purchase, and is less likely to walk away.

FlyMeSomewhere79

I've had a similar situation having accepted an offer on 31st Oct and had an offer accepted on another property on 2nd Nov. The guy we are buying from has fairly specific requirements for his next home and over 2 months on hasn't offered on anything. I found out in Dec that he'd been sitting on his sellers survey to but himself time but when the EA found out they made him return and said it wasn't fair to delay everyone else in the chain.

So finally my solicitor was expecting the contract pack back either Friday or today.

The seller has informally agreed to break the chain and move into rented digs but will need to agree formally once my solicitor is happy with the contract pack 

My buyers are a guy and his mum who are sat waiting in rented accommodation waiting to exchange and complete on my current property so they can move in along with his Gran so I cannot afford to wait for our seller now that he is too far behind to catch up. 

junotP

Hoenir said:

Has your vendor a need to find another property themselves?  While it's a month. The entire Xmas/New Year period can effectively be written off. 

the property is chain free and it is currently empty. We recently arranged viewings to the property as my parents were in town and wanted to see it. It was previously rented and an old couple was living there before passing away. I believe inheritance are selling this as I remember that when we sign some papers with EA there were their names with same surnames. 

FlyMeSomewhere79

kingstreet said:

Is there a fully formed chain? I would not advise you to charge off paying for legal work and valuations or surveys until the chain is complete and everyone is moving forward together.

Easier said than done when we have buyers of our own properties, mine are first time buyers stuck in rented digs so we had to start moving, the EA and buyers were pushing us and to be fair we want to move asap as living where we live is getting increasingly difficult.

If I'd refused to start moving on anything until my seller had made an offer we'd still be sat at the start of the process over two months later. It's better to complete and break chains where necessary rather than forcing people to have to give in and pull out to look elsewhere. Plus we had to apply for mortgages and have the offers in place and solicitors instructed before both houses would be taken off the market as sold subject to contract.

Hoenir

junotP said:

Hoenir said:

Has your vendor a need to find another property themselves?  While it's a month. The entire Xmas/New Year period can effectively be written off. 

the property is chain free and it is currently empty. We recently arranged viewings to the property as my parents were in town and wanted to see it. It was previously rented and an old couple was living there before passing away. I believe inheritance are selling this as I remember that when we sign some papers with EA there were their names with same surnames. 

What has the EA said? 

junotP

Mark_d said:

It is in the interest of your solicitor and the estate agents to get this contract from the seller's solicitor.  If they are unable to do so then maybe you are right in thinking that the seller is hesitant about proceeding with the transaction.  As far as I can see, your only real option is to set a deadline.  You need to accept that this purchase might not go through, and you will have lost a [hopefully small] amount of money on the survey & solicitor's initial fees.

kingstreet said:

Is there a fully formed chain? I would not advise you to charge off paying for legal work and valuations or surveys until the chain is complete and everyone is moving forward together.

kingstreet said:

Is there a fully formed chain? I would not advise you to charge off paying for legal work and valuations or surveys until the chain is complete and everyone is moving forward together.

kingstreet said:

Is there a fully formed chain? I would not advise you to charge off paying for legal work and valuations or surveys until the chain is complete and everyone is moving forward together.

kingstreet said:

Is there a fully formed chain? I would not advise you to charge off paying for legal work and valuations or surveys until the chain is complete and everyone is moving forward together.

Every week we have been chasing the EA for updates and their only answer has been ‘ let us deal with this’ then they told us that seller did not send the contract details to their solicitor but now they did. However, this was end of Dec, as for today our solicitor has not received anything yet. I’m just wondering, if they do not want to sell it, liaise with your EA and let us know so we can keep up looking at other properties.
It will be a total breakdown for me as we paid £1000 of legal fees and survey, we really love this house 

eddddy

junotP said:

the property is chain free and it is currently empty. We recently arranged viewings to the property as my parents were in town and wanted to see it. It was previously rented and an old couple was living there before passing away. I believe inheritance are selling this as I remember that when we sign some papers with EA there were their names with same surnames. 

So you mean it's a probate sale? That introduces an extra level of complexity (and potential delay).

In that case, has probate been granted? That can take a few weeks (or longer).  And I doubt the sellers can instruct a solicitor until probate is granted.