How hard is it to buy a house?

Hotzenplotz

Apologies for the flippant title but I am at my wit's end. Over the past twelve months we have gone sale agreed 3 times as first time buyers.

First time fell through as the vendor wanted more money. Second time fell through as the vendor wouldn't provide required docs for his extension. This was a private purchase of our rental property direct from our landlord. When the sale fell through he told us we had to leave the property by the end of February.

Now it looks like our next property is falling through. The vendor and solicitor will not resond to us, we are meant to close on the 20th of this month, no contracts are signed and they will not provide planning permission to change the property title.

We have the money but just can't close!! Plus, we have 3 young kids and this process is taking it out of us all.

Is there anything I can do on my side? Can I contact the vendor directly? I just want someone to tell me what the problem is.

BabySlam

Your solicitor is your representative in this process - talk to her/him

SparrowHawk

I feel your pain - we recently purchased our home. 1st sale agreed fell through as the "owner" legally did not own the property - took us nearly six months to get that clarified.

It may not be much use, due to your circumstances - but with the amount of money involved, better be safe than sorry. If it is not working out, my suggestion is walk away, keep your money, and keep looking, for your home.

And yes - talk to your solicitor - they (presumably) have done this many times before - let them guide/ advise you.

Hotzenplotz

Thanks for your responses, yes obviously our solicitor has been our first port of call but she has no further advice. Our most pressing concern is that we need to be out of the house by the end of the month and we have no option to extend with our LL.

leinsterdude

Why was it so hard, is it that the deals you got were very good, and then they put them back up with a higher price tag ?

Hotzenplotz

leinsterdude wrote: »

Why was it so hard, is it that the deals you got were very good, and then they put them back up with a higher price tag ?

Not at all. First of all the deals were hardly bargains, each time well over asking price.

What is hard is the daily emails and phone calls which are not being answered by the solicitor or estate agent. What is also hard is the uncertainty on where I'm meant to take my kids at the end of the month.

MarkAnthony

You just have to be clear from the get go I think. I'm getting to the point where I'm about to tell the vendors give me a closing date or we're leaving it. I wouldn't mind if they'd actually communicate but silence from the other side.

A couple of things to bear in mind.

-You FTBs this is good in itself as you don't have a chain
-Be clear from the get go and agree a closing date when the offer goes in
-Try not to get emotionally involved until you have the keys
-Prioritise empty properties.

on_my_oe

I would suggest door knocking the owners; knock on the door, explain the situation and ask for an explanation. Hopefully you'll discover the hold up or your gut will tell you they're playing games.

It's harder to ignore a purchaser on the door step.

We did this on our second attempted property purchase; turned out no one was passing on messages and that the property was in negative equity. They thought they had permission to sell, but didn't. Eventually we learnt they weren't ever going to get permission, but more importantly, we heard before our solicitor did.

We finally closed on our third attempt

um7y1h83ge06nx

In the market at the moment and have heard almost every story imaginable, we were sale agreed last year, hoping for second time lucky sometime soon.

Nothing to do but keep going unfortunately and hopefully something sticks and you end up with what you want.

Good luck.

Hotzenplotz

Thanks for the advice, will issue a final deadline for response and if we do not hear from the vendor or their solicitors by that date then we will walk. Will also deliver a written copy directly to the vendor.

All we want is for at least acknowledgement of our contact attempts.