SSSSSLLLLOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW

Akrasia

Long story short, My wife and I are 'sale agreed' on a house but the vendor has been ridiculously slow in getting the contracts sent out.

We have had agreement to buy the house since about March last year.
Originally the house was registered as a holiday home so the vendor got the planning to change it to residential. The planning was granted by the local council and then appealed by a local resident to an Bord Pleanala.

In September planning was finally fully granted so we were told it was only a matter of getting the contracts sent out and a quick sale.

It's now half way through February and the contracts are still not ready to send.

We have contacted the EA over and over again and he keeps saying the same thing

"I was talking to the vendor and the contracts are almost ready to send, any day now"

Recently we discovered that the vendor has changed their solicitor so we're left wondering what's going on?

My wife is driving herself mad wondering whats holding everything up. Our solicitor mentioned to us that she had heard that the house we were buying had problems with the title, something to do with 'privity of contract' and this can be difficult to sort out, but surely it's not completely insurmountable even if it is more complex than normal?

We've been looking at other properties in the area but none of them are as good as this one which basically ticks all of the boxes for us.

Does anyone have similar experiences/advice/warnings/rants on this kind of situation?

Should we sit tight? Should we try to contact the vendors solicitor to find out whats causing the hold up, would they even talk to us?

mickman

Akrasia wrote: »

Long story short, My wife and I are 'sale agreed' on a house but the vendor has been ridiculously slow in getting the contracts sent out.

We have had agreement to buy the house since about March last year.
Originally the house was registered as a holiday home so the vendor got the planning to change it to residential. The planning was granted by the local council and then appealed by a local resident to an Bord Pleanala.

In September planning was finally fully granted so we were told it was only a matter of getting the contracts sent out and a quick sale.

It's now half way through February and the contracts are still not ready to send.

We have contacted the EA over and over again and he keeps saying the same thing

"I was talking to the vendor and the contracts are almost ready to send, any day now"

Recently we discovered that the vendor has changed their solicitor so we're left wondering what's going on?

My wife is driving herself mad wondering whats holding everything up. Our solicitor mentioned to us that she had heard that the house we were buying had problems with the title, something to do with 'privity of contract' and this can be difficult to sort out, but surely it's not completely insurmountable even if it is more complex than normal?

We've been looking at other properties in the area but none of them are as good as this one which basically ticks all of the boxes for us.

Does anyone have similar experiences/advice/warnings/rants on this kind of situation?

Should we sit tight? Should we try to contact the vendors solicitor to find out whats causing the hold up, would they even talk to us?

There are most likely issues with the title and vendor is trying to sort them before sending contracts as your solicitor will pick up on the issue anyway

Send ultimatum if they dont have contacts or a full reason as to why not by end of month then you move on to another house

peteeeed

Akrasia wrote: »

Long story short, My wife and I are 'sale agreed' on a house but the vendor has been ridiculously slow in getting the contracts sent out.

We have had agreement to buy the house since about March last year.
Originally the house was registered as a holiday home so the vendor got the planning to change it to residential. The planning was granted by the local council and then appealed by a local resident to an Bord Pleanala.

In September planning was finally fully granted so we were told it was only a matter of getting the contracts sent out and a quick sale.

It's now half way through February and the contracts are still not ready to send.

We have contacted the EA over and over again and he keeps saying the same thing

"I was talking to the vendor and the contracts are almost ready to send, any day now"

Recently we discovered that the vendor has changed their solicitor so we're left wondering what's going on?

My wife is driving herself mad wondering whats holding everything up. Our solicitor mentioned to us that she had heard that the house we were buying had problems with the title, something to do with 'privity of contract' and this can be difficult to sort out, but surely it's not completely insurmountable even if it is more complex than normal?

We've been looking at other properties in the area but none of them are as good as this one which basically ticks all of the boxes for us.

Does anyone have similar experiences/advice/warnings/rants on this kind of situation?

Should we sit tight? Should we try to contact the vendors solicitor to find out whats causing the hold up, would they even talk to us?

yes last year , i had sale agreed in mid november 2013 and finally got everything sorted late may 2014 , 1 day before the mortgage approval ran out, it was a nightmare, the hold up ended up being because the bank was forcing the owner to sell , he had huge debts and had a tenant in the property .....a mess that got sorted thank god

Akrasia

Thanks for the reply.

We would love to be able to do this, but there is literally nothing else in our price range that we would be happy to live in, and we're pretty confident that if the house came back onto the market, the vendor could sell it pretty quickly at the asking price or possibly an increased price given the movements in the market since last year so an ultimatum wouldn't really have any impact

The vendor is selling off a number of houses in the same development at the same time, so there are more than just us waiting for the contracts, and if the EA is to be believed, there are other people lined up to take houses if anyone fails to complete the contract.

I'd be happy enough to wait if I knew it was just a title issue that their solicitor could sort out before it reaches our solicitor, it's just the uncertainty and the lack of communication that makes us feel like we're being left hanging and that the deal could fall through at any moment. We've paid the booking deposit and have written emalils where the EA assures us that the deal is still on, but I know that these aren't really legally binding

mickman

Akrasia wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.

We would love to be able to do this, but there is literally nothing else in our price range that we would be happy to live in, and we're pretty confident that if the house came back onto the market, the vendor could sell it pretty quickly at the asking price or possivly an increased price given the movements in the market since last year so an ultimatum wouldn't really have any impact

The vendor is selling of a number of houses in the same development at the same time, so there are more than just us waiting for the contracts, and if the EA is to be believed, there are other people lined up to take houses if anyone fails to complete the contract.

I'd be happy enough to wait if I knew it was just a title issue that their solicitor could sort out before it reaches our solicitor, it's just the uncertainty and the lack of communication that makes us feel like we're being left hanging and that the deal could fall through at any moment. We've paid the booking deposit and have written emalils where the EA assures us that the deal is still on, but I know that these aren't really legally binding

I know how you feel , i really do. If you really want the house then you will just have to hang on. I dont see anything wrong with you insisting on getting some kind of explanation though

Akrasia

peteeeed wrote: »

yes last year , i had sale agreed in mid november 2013 and finally got everything sorted late may 2014 , 1 day before the mortgage approval ran out, it was a nightmare, the hold up ended up being because the bank was forcing the owner to sell , he had huge debts and had a tenant in the property .....a mess that got sorted thank god

I'm glad you got it sorted.

It must have been so ridiculously stressful that it went so close to the mortgage deadline

Davesh1

peteeeed wrote: »

yes last year , i had sale agreed in mid november 2013 and finally got everything sorted late may 2014 , 1 day before the mortgage approval ran out, it was a nightmare, the hold up ended up being because the bank was forcing the owner to sell , he had huge debts and had a tenant in the property .....a mess that got sorted thank god

Out of interest did the landlord try to get the tenant out early? I'm in the same boat, sale agreed and the tenant is on a fixed term and wants to stay until their lease expires, it's currently in a dispute with the PRTB but the EA won't give me any further information

peteeeed

Davesh1 wrote: »

Out of interest did the landlord try to get the tenant out early? I'm in the same boat, sale agreed and the tenant is on a fixed term and wants to stay until their lease expires, it's currently in a dispute with the PRTB but the EA won't give me any further information

no , he never told the tenant to move at all as he was getting the rent every month, all the money from the sale was going to the bank . they didn't have a long term lease as far as i'm aware

i only found out when i spoke to the tenant myself a couple of months later when he collected his post

the_syco

Akrasia wrote: »

The vendor is selling off a number of houses in the same development at the same time, so there are more than just us waiting for the contracts

Perhaps do a walk around the development, and see if anyone has been successful in buying a house?

MrMorooka

Davesh1 wrote: »

Out of interest did the landlord try to get the tenant out early? I'm in the same boat, sale agreed and the tenant is on a fixed term and wants to stay until their lease expires, it's currently in a dispute with the PRTB but the EA won't give me any further information

If the tenant is on a fixed term they have security to stay there until the end of it(that's the whole point of a fixed term lease, it is for the security of both parties to it). After that the current owner would be able to give them notice to leave under part 4 rules.

Davesh1

MrMorooka wrote: »

If the tenant is on a fixed term they have security to stay there until the end of it(that's the whole point of a fixed term lease, it is for the security of both parties to it). After that the current owner would be able to give them notice to leave under part 4 rules.

Not sure why you are telling me this information that I already know, I asked a question to someone else, thanks.

liam7831

Its prob worth more now so I would not be surprised if they waited for you to loose patience and then advertise it again at a higher price

the_syco

liam7831 wrote: »

Its prob worth more now so I would not be surprised if they waited for you to loose patience and then advertise it again at a higher price

The OP should check out PSRA to see what houses were sold recently, and for how much. See if there's an increase, and the OP may find out an answer.

Akrasia

the_syco wrote: »

The OP should check out PSRA to see what houses were sold recently, and for how much. See if there's an increase, and the OP may find out an answer.

There's nothing showing up on the Property price register for the address we are looking at.

I'm not sure how long it takes for them to update the database though

Akrasia

liam7831 wrote: »

Its prob worth more now so I would not be surprised if they waited for you to loose patience and then advertise it again at a higher price

That's what we're most worried about. Although If that's what they wanted to do, I don't know why they wouldn't just tell us our offer is no longer acceptable. They might even be able to get a few extra quid out of us for a guaranteed quick sale...

Akrasia

the_syco wrote: »

Perhaps do a walk around the development, and see if anyone has been successful in buying a house?

That's a good idea. The situation is that in the development, only some of the houses are for sale. Others are still classed as 'holiday homes' and many of these are under long term lease to families. The house we want to buy (and others in the same development) was being rented on a short term lease to some construction crew while they were doing a job. There is a chance that the vendor is happy to wait because they might get a bit of extra cash from this deal before they offload the properties, but the EA has denied that this is the case and it doesn't really make sense that they would go through the hassle of changing the planning permission and putting the propertes for sale if they didn't want to sell the feckin things

It's infuriating because all we can really do is speculate and we feel as though the answers we get from the EA and Vendor are just fobbing us off.