Are we being strung along? Purchase not progressing

demeggy

Hi all,

I posted in another recent thread about issues we were experiencing with our purchase, but now with little progress I'm coming to the conclusion that somewhere along the chain, someone isn't being honest.

Back in March, we received a sale offer on our property, and had an offer on a property purchase accepted.
Thave have been 4 months of issues, involving sudden Land Registry complications (the purchase has become available as the result of our seller going through a seperation).

It took 2 months to receive the contract pack, and responses to eqnuiries are still outstanding.

Today, our buyer has threatened to pull out due to the wait the delays.

I've had numerous comms issues with the onward estate agent, as have my own estate agent and solicitor who have all repeatedly tried to confirm chain.
I'm now coming to the conclusion that the seller of the property we've been trying to progress with over the past 3-4 months does not have an onward chain and we are probably being strung along by their solicitor and estate agent.

There's a lot more to this story that I don't want to divulge, including repeated and frequent attempts at communication over phone, email and text.

My next steps I believe should be simple; we confront the estate agent on Monday and demand an explanation. At this stage, we're ready to abandon the entire thing (at cost to us) due to the impact the process is having on our lives.

Has anyone else had a similar experience, and can you offer any advice?

Thanks

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster

Don't buy from a separating couple. 

Mine took 5 weeks to receive the pack, but completing on Friday with offer accepted in early March. 

demeggy

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster said:

Don't buy from a separating couple. 

Mine took 5 weeks to receive the pack, but completing on Friday with offer accepted in early March. 

Congrats. We only found out it was through a seperation when issues surrounding the names of the deeds arose.

cannugec5

We bought our home from a separating couple, although didn’t know that when we put in the offer. 

We learned that delays were being caused by refusal to sign documentation by one party or the other - using access to the children as collateral. 

On the advice of our solicitor we gave an ultimatum. Sign by x date or we pull out of the purchase. 

It worked.

pjs493

One of my siblings bought from a divorcing couple a few years ago. The only issue they had was that the couple were in negative equity and needed to fight it out between themselves how they’d make up the difference with the mortgage company. Everything went to plan and they completed within 12 weeks. For context, my sibling was moving out of rented accommodation and the divorcing couple had already moved out of the house so there was no chain. 

demeggy

Fundamental bit of info I missed out here, the seperation was last year with the financial aspect of the house being handled already. The delay itself I don't believe is anything to do with the seperation (minus the land registry issues we're hearing of).

Land_Registry

demeggy said:

Fundamental bit of info I missed out here, the seperation was last year with the financial aspect of the house being handled already. The delay itself I don't believe is anything to do with the seperation (minus the land registry issues we're hearing of).

If they were joint owners, separated and were transferring the house to just one of them to sell then there shouldn’t be any issues if they’ve expedited the application to register the transfer. Unless they’ve got the paperwork wrong and that’s where the delay is. 

But it’s not entirely clear from the posted details so only way to try and get clarity is through the chain itself 

Danien

I was buying a house and it wasn't proceeding, turned out seller was in negative equity, was using the in house conveyancing of the estate agent and they were deliberately delaying the sale to try to get us so desperate to proceed that we would pay part of the sellers fees to the estate agent (and in house conveyancing) as they weren't expecting to get them from the seller who was broke. Worth checking if this is an issue. Seller won't be buying as they are unable to buy a further property.

demeggy

Land_Registry said:

demeggy said:

Fundamental bit of info I missed out here, the seperation was last year with the financial aspect of the house being handled already. The delay itself I don't believe is anything to do with the seperation (minus the land registry issues we're hearing of).

If they were joint owners, separated and were transferring the house to just one of them to sell then there shouldn’t be any issues if they’ve expedited the application to register the transfer. Unless they’ve got the paperwork wrong and that’s where the delay is. 

But it’s not entirely clear from the posted details so only way to try and get clarity is through the chain itself 

With the land registry issue, it turns out their divorce solicitor hadn't submitted the changes last year when required. When this was highlighted during the purchase process, it took weeks for them to get the expediting process rolling, which ahs only just started and has now revealed that the wrong paperwork has been submitted.

Land_Registry

demeggy said:

Land_Registry said:

demeggy said:

Fundamental bit of info I missed out here, the seperation was last year with the financial aspect of the house being handled already. The delay itself I don't believe is anything to do with the seperation (minus the land registry issues we're hearing of).

If they were joint owners, separated and were transferring the house to just one of them to sell then there shouldn’t be any issues if they’ve expedited the application to register the transfer. Unless they’ve got the paperwork wrong and that’s where the delay is. 

But it’s not entirely clear from the posted details so only way to try and get clarity is through the chain itself 

With the land registry issue, it turns out their divorce solicitor hadn't submitted the changes last year when required. When this was highlighted during the purchase process, it took weeks for them to get the expediting process rolling, which ahs only just started and has now revealed that the wrong paperwork has been submitted.

Sorry to read that. Expedition shifts the application from waiting to being processed. Too many think it’s a magic wand and it’s then done in 10 days. It’s not and the application has to be in order and unfortunately sometimes it’s not and it takes the conveyancer time to sort things and respond 

demeggy

I've managed to get some clarification on things, but it does identify where the dead end in the chain is. It seems that the consistent point of failure is with the Estate Agent I'm purchasing through. If things don't improve by the end of the week, I may regretfully have to contact the seller directly.