How On Earth Can People Buy And Sell Property?
Discussion
Wonderful paradox has developed on the sale of a property. (Disclaimer this is in England and Wales, I'm sure someone can tell me it's better/different elsewhere!)
We have Me, Conveyancer and Lender.
Property completes and monies paid to Conveyancer.
Conveyancer, of course, needs to have unencumbered title to pass over to buyer's side.
Manages to get verbal amount from Lender.
Lender won't provide written confirmation of that verbal amount.
Conveyancer pays verbal amount anyway.
Conveyancer caught with knowing that Lenders have come back after "verbal" amounts and said that figure was wrong.
Conveyancer cannot get the amount in writing.
I have contacted Lender.
Lender will send me (by second class post) a statement of redemption. (Conveyancer has already been asking for this and not got it!)
Lender will tell me that loan is £0.00 including all interest and any "redemption/administration" charges.
I can't get my money. Balance of sale less outstanding loan. Nor buy another property with this money, nor anything. No confirmation, no money.
Sounds bizarre? Couldn't happen, you say. Well that's what happened to me yesterday. Still at an impasse today.
Apparently several lenders have decided that their policy is not to send these things by email, facsimile, courier, first class post, carrier pigeon. But are relying on second class post. My Lender is one of those.
We have Me, Conveyancer and Lender.
Property completes and monies paid to Conveyancer.
Conveyancer, of course, needs to have unencumbered title to pass over to buyer's side.
Manages to get verbal amount from Lender.
Lender won't provide written confirmation of that verbal amount.
Conveyancer pays verbal amount anyway.
Conveyancer caught with knowing that Lenders have come back after "verbal" amounts and said that figure was wrong.
Conveyancer cannot get the amount in writing.
I have contacted Lender.
Lender will send me (by second class post) a statement of redemption. (Conveyancer has already been asking for this and not got it!)
Lender will tell me that loan is £0.00 including all interest and any "redemption/administration" charges.
I can't get my money. Balance of sale less outstanding loan. Nor buy another property with this money, nor anything. No confirmation, no money.
Sounds bizarre? Couldn't happen, you say. Well that's what happened to me yesterday. Still at an impasse today.
Apparently several lenders have decided that their policy is not to send these things by email, facsimile, courier, first class post, carrier pigeon. But are relying on second class post. My Lender is one of those.
My sympathies, the whole process is frustrating.
We are in the final furlongs of a house purchase which seems to have been dragging on and on. It should have been simple with us moving from the in laws following the sale of our house in January and them moving in with his elderly mother short term. They have however taken every opportunity to be awkward and continually insisted that the completion date should be pushed back. We finally managed to get to exchange last Friday at which point they said they needed an extra 3 weeks on to the completion date otherwise they'd take the house off the market. We reluctantly agreed and are now exchanged but still have just under 6 weeks till completion.
We are in the final furlongs of a house purchase which seems to have been dragging on and on. It should have been simple with us moving from the in laws following the sale of our house in January and them moving in with his elderly mother short term. They have however taken every opportunity to be awkward and continually insisted that the completion date should be pushed back. We finally managed to get to exchange last Friday at which point they said they needed an extra 3 weeks on to the completion date otherwise they'd take the house off the market. We reluctantly agreed and are now exchanged but still have just under 6 weeks till completion.
A neighbour here moved away yesterday. They got up the morning of the day that all parties agreed to exchange contracts to find that their purchaser had sent them an e-mail at 11:45 pm the night before stating that unless the neighbour reduced the price by £40,000 they will not exchange. A reply was required by 10:00am. Bluff was successfuly called to a large extent by a compromise agreement, but exasperating to say the least.
R.
R.
s.I done this a few times as a vendor and purchaser, insist that 2% of agreed price is placed into a third partie solicitors client, with a little agreement that whoever pulls put forfeits the money, whilst it might not be totally legal it sorts the men out from boys and give both parties less stress..whoever pulls out the other partie has a holiday to think what a tozzer the other side was.
It's called lockout agreement.
It's called lockout agreement.
tescorank said:
I done this a few times as a vendor and purchaser, insist that 2% of agreed price is placed into a third partie solicitors client, with a little agreement that whoever pulls put forfeits the money, whilst it might not be totally legal it sorts the men out from boys and give both parties less stress..whoever pulls out the other partie has a holiday to think what a tozzer the other side was.
It's called lockout agreement.
The trouble with that approach is the honest buyer and dishonest seller. I recently pulled out of a buy because when we got to contracts, the buyer decided to reveal that they had wilfully misrepresented the amount of land included in the sale and that they would retain the ownership of a section of land and have a right of way over my land to it. Further investigations revealed building consent on this land and a number of other little subterfuges. So I pulled out of the buy but not before I'd incurred about £6k of survey fees.It's called lockout agreement.
Losing the cost of the survey was bad enough but I'd have been royally fscked if I'd have had to pay 2% to the lying fecker.
tescorank said:
But surely this was in the particulars of sale!
This is not foolproof but as said sorts the men out from the chancers.
In this case the particulars were deliberately misrepresented. Usual disclaimer about accuracy of the details etc., but the vendor had a lot of opportunities to present the real picture. The minute we got the draft contract through I said, "that boundary is the wrong shape...". I think they just thought that a buyer would be so wrapped up in the purchase that they would ignore the issues and proceed. Really beggared belief. Silly sod the vendor was, the house has been on the market for 4 years, has dropped 30% in guide price in that time, and it's now going to sit on the market for a damn sight longer.This is not foolproof but as said sorts the men out from the chancers.
I think if both sides are genuine then your suggestion will work but in my case the genuine party would have been disadvantaged and out of pocket.
tescorank said:
But surely this was in the particulars of sale!
This is not foolproof but as said sorts the men out from the chancers.
We asked our solicitor to take a binding deposit from the buyer of a house we sold a couple of years ago but he wouldn't hear of it - he said it used to be common practice but you end up in battle over whose fault it is if the sale falls through. This is not foolproof but as said sorts the men out from the chancers.
He said it's just not done these days, although I suppose anything is possible if you really want to do it (and both parties agree, of course).
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