House sale

[Nauti Fox]

Anyone out there skilled in the art of getting to the truth with estate agents?
We have now had a sale agreed for six months and the latest sticking point is that the person buying from our buyer has split his house into two flats,not a problem except that one of his buyers has got a 100% mortgage and the solicitor will not exchange and complete on the same day,so has to find a deposit which he has'nt got,hence 100% mortgage.
Our solicitors won't contact his due to legal reasons.
We are now close to throwing our toys out the pram and telling them to **** off.
Rant over,any ideas?
Al.

 

[gonfishing]

Lend them the deposit, sale goes through, money released you get paid back. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Nauti Fox]

Did go down that route Julian but were strongly advised not to as it would be difficult to make up a contract,thanks all the same.

 

[DavidJ]

"difficult to make up a contract"???
I read this as "this looks more difficult than the office junior conveyance clerk can handle...I might have to do something myself...do I have the skills??"

 

[Nauti Fox]

Thanks David,looks like you and Julian might have something,I'll try again with a different solicitors!
I spose my main worry is we are being told lies!The hold up before this one was "one of the buyers in the chain is in the army and has just gone to Ireland".When we looked into it everyone denied knowledge of saying this.Then there was a letter from our solicitors asking us to pay a retention on our house,when I read a copy of it,it was nothing to do with us and was asking them to pay up on a property where they acted as the buyers solicitors in another town!

Trouble is its hard to make the decision to just say Thats it!,no more.
Thing is when we bought before I'm sure we were able to exchange and complete in the same day. Hay ho!

 

[gonfishing]

When we bought our current property it took 10 days from viewing to moving in!!!
The mortgage was all in place, and we did indeed exchange and complete on the same day! One of those rare occasions when something did not go wrong,and for me THAT'S saying something!!!
Good Luck

 

[Nauti Fox]

I really don't see why it should'nt be like that.What makes me chuckle (not really) is they asked if we would be able to complete inside a month.
Oh dear,just remembered we've just agreed to sell the other one as well,where's me gun. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Benny1]

As far as I know you do not have to have a deposit to exchange, it is just something that is normally paid to stop prople from exchanging and then not completing (as they would forfeit their deposit). If you trust the purchaser you can exchange with no deposit and simply receive the full monies upon completion.

Your solicitor will try and say this can't be done, when what they mean to say is that it's not normally done. But has anyone here tried getting an actual opinion (as opposed to a caveated load of nonsense) out of a solicitor recently?

 

[Benny1]

Oh, and as for their solicitor not contacting theirs, forget the lawyers, just ask your buyer if you can speak to him. If it's all sounding like a big stalling tactic give them a dealine to exchange and be prepared to walk away if they don't meet it.

 

[hlb]

Think your getting a bit too excited. We've sold Debs boat four times according to the folks that come and look at it. One bloke agread a price, then discused lift out, survey and transport. Not heard from him in two months. He was an estate agent!!

Trouble is, every one want what they cant afford these days, think they can have any morgage they like. Just ignore the buggers and sell it some one else. Thats if there still is anyone left buying houses these days!!!

 

[petem]

Jeez, six months, you must be mad!

Re-market the house. If the original buyers get their act together and can proceed then fair enuff. If not, you'll have made a start in finding someone else.

Pete

 

[whisper]

Agreed. This will either see a sudden surge of activity with the present "purchaser" and the legal system or else nothing. If the latter then you will atleast have made a step towards finding another purchaser.
Regrettably I have to report that after dealing with property sales over many years one must assume that no more than 70% of what solicitors tell you is factual - perhaps 70% is over generous. Most problems are of their own making and lethargy is endemic.

 

[Nauti Fox]

Thanks everone,we have had the house back on the market for a couple of weeks now but somehow I don't think they're pushing it very hard.
Its just that every week they say its nearly there of course and the weeks slip by.
The other thing we thought of doing was letting it again and might let or sell,whichever comes first.

 

[Strathglass]

I am glad we are under the Scottish legal system.

Put the last house on the market (April 04 through an estate agent),
Recieved a verbal offer directly within an hour of someone viewing house.
Discussed details of the offer and entry date with the purchaser on the phone.
The written offer was recieved by lawyer and accepted by myself within one week of puting my house on the market. At that point no going back for buyer or seller (under Scottish law)

Saw the house we wanted to buy. It had been rented out for the last five years and had been badly neglected for that time.
The owner was working in the States and wanted it off his hands.
I phoned him directly and we discussed and agreed price and entry date.
I told lawyer price to offer and entry date. Purchase agreed within a week.

We moved to present house five weeks after puting previous house on the market. We could have had the whole completed transaction within one week but I wanted a little breathing space.

I supose we were lucky, No chains and we were downsizing (back garden still large enough to for 33 ft yacht and 50 ft mast) but to a more expensive part of the country.

I would hesitate to give any advice on a house sale in England as I have only experiance of the Scottish system.

I would only add that if you intend to rent the house out then but some safeguards in the contract to protect the condition of your property.

Best of luck

Cheers

Iain

 

[Nauti Fox]

Thanks Ian,we let it before we decided to sell.I think we've been lucky as we have had three lots of tenants in there and and no real problems.
Shame the last guy had to go when the sale looked like it was going through.
Al.