Seller forcing me to complete in less than 2 weeks

doublewobble

Hello everyone

Same property as my previous thread, different matter.

 Difficult to communicate with both seller’s solicitor and estate agent- sometime took 7-10 days to get back with answers.

We agreed on a retainer in the end.

Initially, the seller agreed in writing(via solicitor) to pay half the costs for electricity and gas checks, since none been tested in many years.

They now turned around, saying they don’t want to, and it’s not a legal requirement.

Instructed my solicitor to agree that I will pay for costs, but seller needs to arrange because I can’t get hold of estate agent, and as such can’t arrange date/time for electricity/gas/boiler to be checked.

This has been on/off for the past week or so.

Now the seller’s solicitor send my solicitor this reply:

From seller’s solicitor:

“We are not agreeable to the same.  It is not a legal requirement to have the gas and electrics tested and my client needs completion in November so is not willing to delay the matter any further. 

 

Please arrange for the buyer to check this once they have completed.”

My solicitor said this is the first time she heard about November as deadline and asked me if I planned this. My answer was “of course not, it took me by surprise as well.”

The mind boggles

elsien

Of course, if you walk away because you can’t get the electrics et cetera tested, their chances of completing in November would go from slim to non-existent. 

doublewobble

So lets say I instruct my solicitor “no deal”. 

What happens after? Whole process is erased?
what if seller comes back and changes their mind/renegotiated etc, ..what then- do we start a new buying process or take it from the step where we’re now at?

Another thing, is it possible somebody else offered a better price for the property??(don’t know why I’m asking you this) Could they complete by the end of month?

eddddy

Why isn't the estate agent involved with this and progressing the sale?

A good estate agent should be all over this - phoning the buyer and seller; negotiating compromises; etc - and doing everything they can to stop the sale falling through, because they want their commission on completion.

... Unless it's the type of estate agent who's paid a fee upfront, so isn't really bothered whether the sale completes or not.

Communicating via solicitors might work like this...

• You email your solicitor with a question for the buyer
•           (The email might sit in the solicitor's inbox for a few days)
• Your solicitor emails the seller's solicitor with the question
•           (The email might sit in the solicitor's inbox for a few days)
• The buyer's solicitor emails the seller
• The seller replies to their solicitor
•           (The email might sit in the solicitor's inbox for a few days)
• The seller's solicitor emails your solicitor
•           (The email might sit in the solicitor's inbox for a few days)
• Your solicitor emails you

So it can easily take 2 weeks to get a reply to a question.



But communicating via the estate agent might work like this...

• You phone the estate agent with a question for the seller
• The estate agent phones the seller 
• The estate agent phones you back

So you might get an answer within 15 minutes (instead of 2 weeks)

Plus the estate agent will try to find a way around any problems and/or negotiate a compromise at the same time.

If the answer is something that needs to be included in the contract, you then tell your solicitor what has been agreed.

doublewobble

Thank you both Elsien and Edddy.

Edddy, it took the estate agent a day short of 2 weeks to “try” and communicate something to the seller- since my solicitor was on holiday, in which time I’ve called him back every 3-4 days with no result. 

Each time I rang the EA, they’d say “I can’t get hold of the seller, I’ll try again later”.

To be fair, my solicitor sent the communication pretty quick to their solicitor.
I think the seller is a bit of “old leather” with “old ways” kind of person, also not hearing very well.

On top of this, my solicitor(and myself too) believes seller’s solicitor doesn’t send all our inquiries to seller.
E.g my solicitor send an email about a price negotiating retainer. Within exactly 1 minute, reply was back from seller’s solicitor about 5 rows of words, giving ultimatums as “we haven’t got time for these, could you hurry up”.

Against what I’ve wrote, this might sound like a incredibly fast reply from sellers solicitor but unfortunately it was unhelpful.

prowla

Since they've agreed to something and have now un-agreed and put a clock on it, I'd walk away.

Alternatively, lower the offer to cover the difference.

kinger101

In these circumstances, if I really wanted the property, I'd say the price will be reduced by an appropriate amount as you see a very high probability that electrical and gas works might need urgent attention.

But I'd seriously reconsider any purchase where I was being blocked from doing due diligence.

dander

But why are you asking for electricity and gas checks? No-one gets these done as standard on their house so of course they haven't been done for "many years".  I can totally see from the sellers point of view that this sounds like a timewaster thing to do. I would also be telling you to get lost. 
If you are really desperate for a boiler service, you can pay £100 or so and get one done when you move in. 

kinger101

dander said:

But why are you asking for electricity and gas checks? No-one gets these done as standard on their house so of course they haven't been done for "many years".  I can totally see from the sellers point of view that this sounds like a timewaster thing to do. I would also be telling you to get lost. 
If you are really desperate for a boiler service, you can pay £100 or so and get one done when you move in. 

They have agreed to pay themselves which is fair.  One person's time wasting is another person's desire not to get electrocuted / die in house fire because of shoddy electrics.

No point prescribing what checks a buyer can do.  Many people would see these as sensible.

elsien

Most buyers quite like to have an idea of how much any remedial work is likely to cost them, before they buy the house, not afterwards. 

Do you consider surveys to also be a waste of time, on the same grounds?

justpassingthrough24

I'm also in the process of buying and have been scouring these forums regularly to get some wisdom. I thought I'd reply to this incase it helps at all. I also asked for an electric check to be arranged on the property I'm buying but it was very late into the process. The EA and seller had no problem with it provided I pay for it and arranged it ASAP. I managed to get one sorted within a few days. I also agreed to cover the cost of any repairs (although you could technically negotiate this, the seller has every right to say no). You do need to ensure you aren't going to be stuck with thousands of pounds of repairs like a full rewire especially if it hasn't had a check for years. I would try and push to get it done if I were you.