This is the third week since everything was signed off as OK and we are still waiting for sellers to sign contracts. There have been a stream of excuses, their holidays, their solicitors holidays, etc etc. We have spoken to the estate agents who 'are trying to get hold of both the sellers and their solicitors' and leave messages for the past week, and the same with our solicitors who have been trying.
Apart from being right on the verge of a nervous breakdown , I am worried that they might have someone else 'on the side' .
Has this or similar happened to others before? Good, bad news?
I just need some reassurance and no one can offer this at the moment, it will be another night of endless glasses of wine for me..
P.S. We have signed everything and everything is ready from our side, they know this.
Hi Richard, that's the thing....we have been told there is no chain and I am sure our solicitors would have found out by now...(offer accepted early November).
They may just want to delay a bit for (non sinister) reasons of their own. A work colleague of ours bought a property in Brighton recently, initially it was all systems go but then when they got close to exchange he had a lot of business travelling to do and wanted to delay purely for his own convenience. I am sure it frightened his vendor witless, but the transaction went ahead fine, just a few weeks later than intended.
oh thanks velvet...I have to think this is what's going on to keep my sanity.
I e-mailed my dad in the meantime and he said that there's something fishy with the whole thing...that they may have a better offer and just want to drive us mad so that we pull out...
Well, I will probably end up at the hospital but no way I am pulling out!! They can't just fob us off like this.
If it is any comfort, reading the threads on here over the past few years it is apparent that during transactions people behave in the oddest ways, but it isn't always sinister. There was one recently where the buyer disappeared and couldn't be contacted for weeks on end, the poster on here was sure he had changed his mind. Then just as she was about to put the house back on the market, he popped up again as if nothing was wrong and the transaction went through.
Will keep my fingers crossed that this is the case for you.
Putting a rocket up them by giving a (reasonable) deadline for exchange often seems to help, if you want to go that route. At least that will let you know if they are serious or not.
actually i wouldn't mind a similar thread from Richard to the EA one. It would be interesting to read on 'a day in the life of a conveyancing solicitor'. I am sure it will be an eye opener.
Hi Miss Clueless - I know exactly how you feel because I'm in precisely the same position as you at the moment, only as a seller. It's more than likely everything is ok, but it doesn't help when the people who are meant to be 'on your side' (including and especially those you are paying!) either lie to you or even worse, give you no information whatsoever and never get back to you when they say they will, if at all.
Problems and the attendant stress, I would say, are more than anything caused by breakdown in communication and not necessarily that anything sinister is going on. Our crazy archaic system, whereby anyone can come along and make an offer (or accept an offer) chug along for months, and then merrily pull out for any reason, or no reason at all, does not exactly encourage transparency or speed.
It also doesn't help that data protection laws have made it much more difficult (or impossible as in my case) to contact the buyer/seller directly which had in the past been the best and quickest way of finding out straight from the horse's mouth what, if anything was going on; there's often a simple and straightforward explanation but unfortunately all too many estate agents and solicitors don't *do* straightforward, so instead of having the situation explained to you to enable you to make informed decisions, you are left hanging for months in mid-air in total silence, with your life on hold. Not good enough.
It's a pity that a golden opportunity to effectively transform the buying/selling process to avoid all the stress and hassle that people like us are suffering is not being taken up this June with the introduction of HIPS. All this is going to do is cost the seller money but won't do anything at all to cut the unacceptably long period between offer and exchange when nothing is certain - and is the main problem with our system IMO. OK - it's not a bad idea to have searches, etc in place before you sell but as suggested on the SPLINTA website, what about also having some real committment from both buyer and seller in the form of a non-refundable deposit (except under certain circumstances)?
This would effectively force everyone to walk the walk, whereas at the moment in 30% of all transactions, people just talk the talk and nothing comes of it.
And people like Miss Clueless and myself wouldn't be sitting around waiting for other people to allow us to get on with our lives.
Miss Clueless- forgot to mention - don't worry about anyone else 'on the side' because once your offer has been accepted, the other party is bound by law to inform you of any other offers made on the property. If you are in a contract you must be told about it. Sounds like a useless solicitor or agent somewhere along the line. Are your vendors also buying a property? (Sorry if you've already told us this but I couldn't see a reference to it.) If they are then the hold up may be there. The problem with chain hold-ups is that if a buyer or seller pulls out, the affected party always tries to hush it up and orchestrate delays in the hope that they can repair the chain before anyone notices!
.. it doesn't help when the people who are meant to be 'on your side' (including and especially those you are paying!) either lie to you or even worse, give you no information whatsoever and never get back to you when they say they will, if at all..
clap clap, well said
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Problems and the attendant stress, I would say, are more than anything caused by breakdown in communication and not necessarily that anything sinister is going on.
I sure hope so TM, although I am a total wreck after reading the EA thread and all the gazumping business.
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Our crazy archaic system, whereby anyone can come along and make an offer (or accept an offer) chug along for months, and then merrily pull out for any reason, or no reason at all, does not exactly encourage transparency or speed.
It's the time and investment that really really does it for me. I would of course mind if they pulled out 2 days after offer acceptance, but now, several months into this, with no chains and everything clear, pulling out would border on inhumane, greedy and totally sl*p-worthy selfishness.
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It also doesn't help that data protection laws have made it much more difficult (or impossible as in my case) to contact the buyer/seller directly which had in the past been the best and quickest way of finding out straight from the horse's mouth what, if anything was going on;
I think it's not too difficult for the buyer, we've done it once, and maybe we should try knocking on their door a second time only I would be too upset as they don't seem to give a dime;
We weren't told anything about the protection of our data and i think it's simply a con from the EAs who try to avoid us dealing directly with each other.
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unfortunately all too many estate agents and solicitors don't *do* straightforward, so instead of having the situation explained to you to enable you to make informed decisions, you are left hanging for months in mid-air in total silence, with your life on hold.
clap, clap
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It's a pity that a golden opportunity to effectively transform the buying/selling process to avoid all the stress and hassle that people like us are suffering is not being taken up this June with the introduction of HIPS. All this is going to do is cost the seller money but won't do anything at all to cut the unacceptably long period between offer and exchange when nothing is certain - and is the main problem with our system IMO.
Personally I think exactly the same. I am convinced this will just add to the costs of the seller, who will then try to pass them on to the buyer, and will do nothing to prevent the gazumping business.
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what about also having some real committment from both buyer and seller in the form of a non-refundable deposit (except under certain circumstances)?
I've heard that you can request this but both seller and buyer must agree for it to go ahead. There is also the worry that this money would be held by EA and they are mostly acting on behalf of the seller so it may be of a disadvantage to the buyer. An independent scheme like the tenancy deposit one which will also soon become compulsory would be the best solution IMO.
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And people like Miss Clueless and myself wouldn't be sitting around waiting for other people to allow us to get on with our lives.
True. I get the impression that people (EA, solicitors etc) think we have nothing better to do if we care too much. So not true. What it means is that we have so much on our plate we can't deal with anything any more.
Oh don't you just wish you could leave everything behind for a Pina Colada 3-month holiday
It does seem like you'll soon exchange, as everything appears to be ready to go. When you think about it, it makes no sense for your vendor to pull the plug now and go with another buyer (which sounds like your main concern)because as we know with this system (to our cost!) there's no guarantee that the *next* buyer will come up with the goods in a month, a year or indeed ever! It looks so positive to me because it's you, the buyer who is ready to go and pushing things along, whereas (in my vast experience of property transactions from, hell)it's usually a problem at the bottom of the chain holding things up (mortgages, surveys, etc.) IF the top of the chain does indeed end with your vendor and they are keen to get going, then the hold up must be caused by one of the solicitors involved - not exactly an unheard of scenario! No, I think you'll be fine. Easy for me to say chill out but of course, I can't do this myself even though I know it's the only answer - the situation is entirely out of our control. We actually got the searches done on our OWN house and paid over £200 for them, handed them to our buyer on a plate and still she (or more probably her solicitor) is hissing about! Plus the chain is complete, surveys are done, everyone is apparently ready and there are no mortgages involved. No one will tell us anything (our buyer cannot contact us either because she can't speak English) our wonderful NAEA agent has never once got back to us on ANYTHING and our solicitor can't get to the bottom of it. Like you, Miss Clueless, the stress is starting to make me feel physically ill. I have lost thousands of £s in work I have had no choice but to turn down in case I can't complete it - we could - huh! - in theory be exchanging any day.
The Pina Colada holiday idea is especially ironic at the moment, as it's exactly what we're trying so desperately to do, as we're selling up and moving abroad to the sun.
what about also having some real committment from both buyer and seller in the form of a non-refundable deposit (except under certain circumstances)?
I've heard that you can request this but both seller and buyer must agree for it to go ahead. There is also the worry that this money would be held by EA and they are mostly acting on behalf of the seller so it may be of a disadvantage to the buyer.
Our buyer gave a £500 deposit voluntarily (this was years ago). She pulled out the day before exchange. And she got her deposit back. It is just a goodwill deposit and legally unenforceable. So actually it was useless and just lulled us into a false sense of security - we thought she was a bit flakey but the fact she had given a deposit made it seem like she was really serious. But she wasn't. (That is a long time ago and I have never forgotten her )
Our buyer gave a £500 deposit voluntarily (this was years ago). She pulled out the day before exchange. And she got her deposit back. It is just a goodwill deposit and legally unenforceable. So actually it was useless and just lulled us into a false sense of security - we thought she was a bit flakey but the fact she had given a deposit made it seem like she was really serious. But she wasn't. (That is a long time ago and I have never forgotten her )
Slightly off topic, but i bumped into the woman that pulled out on us the day of exchange (the day before christmas 2005) - and she didnt even recognise me a year later! Amazing we had a terrible christmas and new year! I always knew i would bump into her, she lives locally!
She gave me a different story to what the solicitor told me, didnt believe her as she exchanged on her sale and went into rented - i think she just changed her mind - i said to her if i'd had bumped into her a year ago i would have probably "lost it" with her, but a year later, i've moved into another house (lost our first house we were buying, because they had emigrated on us buying their house, and couldnt wait for us to resell, they sold the day they put theirs back on the market - and it took us 2 weeks to sell again) and am really happy - even though we lost nearly a £1k on searches and surveys - but i suppose thats what CAN happen when you buy and sell!
So now i have seen her, do feel like i can put the whole nasty ordeal "to bed" as such! Won't ever forget "that woman" for stringing us along for 4 months though!
Glad to hear that it worked out for you despite her. But still that doesn't excuse her behaviour.
It worked out for us too, we managed to get under offer again within a week. However in order to keep our vendor happy we had to get our new buyer to complete within 6 weeks, and the stress of that is not something I have forgotten (and that was 12 years ago).
Originally posted by Tropical_Moments: Miss Clueless- forgot to mention - don't worry about anyone else 'on the side' because once your offer has been accepted, the other party is bound by law to inform you of any other offers made on the property. If you are in a contract you must be told about it.
TM well I don't know how enforceable that law of telling about other offers is. I know they are not showing it to others as I asked a friend to call before Christmas, but people here arm wrestle...a semi-decent property goes for full asking within 24 hours usually. So it could be that someone may have offered substantially more in cash.
Thanks Velvet, it did work out for us, but i then got involved in the chain of 7 from hell - sold again in January, eventually moved in June - but that is definitely another story!
Originally posted by Tropical_Moments: Miss Clueless- forgot to mention - don't worry about anyone else 'on the side' because once your offer has been accepted, the other party is bound by law to inform you of any other offers made on the property. If you are in a contract you must be told about it.
TM well I don't know how enforceable that law of telling about other offers is. I know they are not showing it to others as I asked a friend to call before Christmas, but people here arm wrestle...a semi-decent property goes for full asking within 24 hours usually. So it could be that someone may have offered substantially more in cash.
When we were due to exchange on a property (my buyer pulled out at exchange as already mentioned) - the EA obviously had to tell the people whose house we were hoping to buy - they put their's back on the market (fair enough) - and sold that day - but when we sold again 2 weeks later, the EA approached the owners of the house to put them in the picture and they said they don't care who has the house as long as its sold - so effectively we were in a contract race - but the other people were not told! When the found out about us they were fuming! - not surprisingly, but they were FTB's so we had no chance of beating them! My point being, where this "is bound by law" comes in i don't know - because this certainly wasnt the case in this instance!
, I am worried that they might have someone else 'on the side' 
.
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Richard's gone posh! He'll be charging us next!
that you can request this but both seller and buyer must agree for it to go ahead. There is also the worry that this money would be held by EA and they are mostly acting on behalf of the seller so it may be of a disadvantage to the buyer. An independent scheme like the tenancy deposit one which will also soon become compulsory would be the best solution IMO.
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