Vender wants to pull out of sale and re-list after 5 months

wonderwoman19

We had an offer accepted on a property 5 months ago. A date for completion was originally set and a few weeks before the vendor said they couldn’t do that date. A new date was then set. 4 days before the new completion date, my solicitor informed me that the Help to Buy aspect of our sale was not fully completed - they never mentioned there were any issues until this point, nor did they advise on how it needed to be sorted. I have been trying to sort everything from my side but it will take a few extra weeks to do this. The vender (who wants a quick sale) has now decided they don’t want to wait any longer and is re-listing the property without an instantaneous completion date. The whole chain has a potential to fall. We have lost fees from the movers, surveys and everything else. Where do we stand with this? I’m not sure how to proceed. 

Hoenir

Has your vendor pulled out of the transaction entirely ?  

Smalltownhypocrite

Have you exchanged?

I assume you have if you booked movers?

gm0

England.  The chain and the flow of costs for failure to complete - ONLY arises if you have exchanged and then fail to do so.  Talking about dates to go on a contract not yet exchanged - is meaningless in terms of sunk costs of due diligence, losing the house to another buyer.   Anything.  Nothing flows up and down the chain contractually.  As there is no contract - yet.

It sounds like your conveyancer/solicitor has not been proactive.  And has "discovered" an issue very late.  Or perhaps failed to do some paperwork in a timely way.  It seems unlikely that Help to Buy would be a novel experience for them by now.  Of course they may have acted entirely properly (or at lease defensibly in terms of the order of events). And there is now an issue which has only now been discovered which is about you specifically.  Getting them to admit to sloppy work and to discount your bill or even compensate for sunk costs will be a struggle.  Law unto themselves in general.

The only way you get anywhere is to discuss exactly what has happened, i.e. what is the issue now. How this has come about. And when it was spotted. That may inform if this should have been validated/spotted a lot earlier.  

Then if justified (due to sloppy work on their part). Discuss formal complaint route, discount on proceeding with a different property if you lose this one etc.  Mitgate losses.  And it it's just bad luck. Something came up. You are stuck.  And alienating your conveyancer and having to start anew with another will not help you.

Absent a contract the vendor can do as they please.

GDB2222

5 months, and then there’s a snag, and not just a small snag! You can hardly blame the vendors for relisting.  Hopefully, you can get it sorted before they commit to a new buyer. 

I don’t know much about help to buy, but I thought that was new properties only? And, the scheme ended. Or are you in the armed forces?

Herzlos

Has someone mentioned the nature of the delay to the vendor and that waiting another couple of weeks will be much quicker than starting over?

Tabieth

Have you exchanged? It sounds like you haven’t but you’ve booked movers so… If you haven’t exchanged there’s not much you can do. 5-months is a long time and it’s hard to blame the seller under the circumstances. I’d be onto my solicitor to get things moving asap and as quickly as possible. 

Good luck!

Hoenir

wonderwoman19 said:

We had an offer accepted on a property 5 months ago. A date for completion was originally set and a few weeks before the vendor said they couldn’t do that date. A new date was then set. 4 days before the new completion date, my solicitor informed me that the Help to Buy aspect of our sale was not fully completed - 

Completion dates are normally set once everybod in the chain is ready to exchange. Have there been conversations going on not involving your solicitor?  

saajan_12

wonderwoman19 said:

We had an offer accepted on a property 5 months ago. A date for completion was originally set and a few weeks before the vendor said they couldn’t do that date. A new date was then set. 4 days before the new completion date, my solicitor informed me that the Help to Buy aspect of our sale was not fully completed - they never mentioned there were any issues until this point, nor did they advise on how it needed to be sorted. I have been trying to sort everything from my side but it will take a few extra weeks to do this. The vender (who wants a quick sale) has now decided they don’t want to wait any longer and is re-listing the property without an instantaneous completion date. 

So then your solicitor wasn't ready even for the first date proposed. Unless the issue is with the property, the vendor is rightly annoyed that this is coming up now and thinks there's a good chance another buyer would complete faster even if they started again. 

If you've already spent all the money and there's not much costs to go, it might be worth getting that HTB check completed and reaching out to the vendor again to say you're ready to exchange immediately. It may be faster than they can find a new buyer etc. Other option is just to move on and start looking again. 

wonderwoman19 said:

The whole chain has a potential to fall. We have lost fees from the movers, surveys and everything else. Where do we stand with this? I’m not sure how to proceed. 

Unfortunately you stand at likely looking for a new property and rebuilding the chain. If your buyer doesn't want to wait it might mean finding both sides again. That's how it goes - nothing is agreed until exchange. Re the costs: 

- Movers would usually only be booked after exchange, so if it fell through afterwards (rare) you could claim that back. If you chose to book movers early, that's your choice and essentially means you're happy to risk that ££. 
- Surveys is part of the cost of buying. 

TheJP

It sounds to me that;

1. You havent yet exchanged - there is no legal obligation for the seller to sell you the property.
2. I dont think the seller has pulled out, it sounds like they want to re-list while you are sorting out your issues.

I would make sure you communicate clearly via the EA to understand the position so you know what action to take.

Albermarle

Hoenir said:

wonderwoman19 said:

We had an offer accepted on a property 5 months ago. A date for completion was originally set and a few weeks before the vendor said they couldn’t do that date. A new date was then set. 4 days before the new completion date, my solicitor informed me that the Help to Buy aspect of our sale was not fully completed - 

Completion dates are normally set once everybod in the chain is ready to exchange. Have there been conversations going on not involving your solicitor?  

I suspect the OP is mixing up exchange dates and completion dates.