Seeking advice on experience of a sale agreed that turned to a total fiasco

Rashinsane

Hi everyone,

Myself, my partner & our 2 toddlers like probably many of you these days were looking for a property to live far out of Dublin (too expensive; too rough, extremely poor quality/price ratio). We found what we thought our dream house somewhere in Co. Wexford and we went sale agreed in November (2021); we were getting the balls rolling like they say and we were on par with everything (booking deposit done) and all the process we can move forward with our bank (mortgage approved, etc).

We were hoping things to go smoothly but we had an odd start with the announcement the seller did not have the deeds & title of the property and they were currently being asked by his solicitor. No regular news so we had to chase systematically to eventually hear that they've been requested during Christmas week which already started to raise our eyebrows; why waiting a month for asking them while knowing it's already not recommended and poor practices to not have the deeds handy before listing up your property for sale. Nonetheless, we remained patient especially given it's seller market these days.

We kept chasing and we were very concerned because of 2 things. 1) The deeds and title not already received by the seller's solicitor 2) The fact that a tenant was still present in the annex of the main property. We kept hearing from them "he'd be long gone by the time we receive the contract". After discussions with our solicitor and the time still going and we lack clarity and timeline for all the process; we decide to push further. Eventually we got dates when the tenant is meant to leave which is obviously primordial because if the property is not fully vacant; our mortgage would never be allowed to be draw down by our bank which they obviously knew too.

We heard after New Year then early February then we even had information that he left and week later that he's being help for paper work to leave. Different versions which left us even more concerned and worried; maybe it turns out they have an issue with the tenant and could not evict him etc... We kept hearing from the Estate agents and the seller's solicitor that the seller is keen to sell and all and chase himself (Pepper) as apparently they were the ones having the deeds. From there we can deduce the property was not fully paid yet and this could explain why it's taking so long but the all story with the tenant started to be stinky.

Eventually tired of this situation, we entered in contact with a good friend of us who happens also to be a good solicitor and explained the situation. After very short amount of time she managed to get some information about what is going on and the news were shocking. The solicitor announced like that very casually the seller is not the real owner of the property; therefore they could not claim the title deeds of the house on his behalf...

We obviously saw red after such announcement; especially after 4 months being 'Sale Agreed' with it and it took them 4 months to tell us such a thing while we run through valuation, surveyor reports and we were literally just waiting for these deeds so they can draft the contract and we can all move forward.

There were tons of communication from the moment the property went 'Sale Agreed' with us until now and we've been consistently be hearing what seems to be lies all along because it's clearly hard to believe that not only the Housing Estate Firm in question as well as the seller's solicitors were just been made aware of this. I'd rather not even say anything about the seller's himself to believe he tried to sell a property he doesn't even own; it's somewhat questionable but let's just say there could have been some circumstances; maybe it's an inheritance issue or there are more people involved for the possession of the property.

However, the Estate Agency and the seller's solicitor to lie to us for 4 months saying; "we asked for the deeds; they're on the way; the bank have them on hand and will post it to us next week" and other announcement like that until we found out this fiasco... I do believe this is by far wrong enough to be fraudulent and reprehensible; therefore I'm asking here if you think it is worth suing these both parties for professional misconduct. We've been doing 4 viewing for this house with our 2 kids on our own. They were long journey, we had expenses for valuation, surveyor reports, other associated expenses in relation to the property and also the most impact thing, 4 months of tough times entirely wasted while we could have look other properties but we did not as we went 'Sale agreed' and they were basically making it sound it'd be just a matter of time before we'd go through the sale. Now in the space of 4 months the market went even worse; we feel entirely biased by what happened.

If you'd encourage suing them; do you happen to know a good attorney specialized in such case?

Note: We also discovered the annex property while being rented was not even registered with RTV; rent likely paid in cash not declared but that's another subject we've been already dealing with. As soon as we found out these information; the property has been removed and updated to Gone on the websites daft, myhome and the estate home firm within 24 hours. We are still waiting to get our booking deposit back from the Estate firm as we speak.

Thanks for reading and your potential helpful feedback you may have.

Kind regards,

muffler

Dear God. No harm mate but you might try condensing that post.

Mellor

It's not uncommon for errors in deeds to emerge during a sale. Maybe people in the country are not listed on the deeds of property they think they down. Usually the original owner is still listed, or the developer. I know a guy who went sale agreed, but it turned out the seller name was actually on the neighbours house and vice versa.

They can't sell the house without the deeds so that's zero chance they were all in on this to defraud you. That's complete paranoia. They probably realised the error and wanted to get to the bottom before coming to you to scrap the deal.

And you notions of suing sound like trying to capitalise on the situation tbh. What exactly are you suing for, they aren't going to keep your deposit. Valuation, surveyor reports, etc are the cost of buying property. It's never guaranteed to result in a sale.