Bloody house buying

[Alex200mph]

Got to have moan I am fraid

While I was away on business for work last week, found out that; the current owners of a house I had an offer accepted on in farnborough more than 10 weeks ago have now decided that they don't want to move now after all I had a nice fat deposit and my morgage approved as well. The trouble is, is that I now have to start looking again and that house prices have gone up in the meantime. I am a firsts time buyer so I dont have a house to increase in value at the same time either. So their having had my time wasted by these people are going to cost me.

This house buying process really annoyes me. Time for a change in the way it works must be overdue


>>> Edited by Alex200mph on Monday 7th October 12:13

[Gargamel]

yes- it definately sucks a fat one when this happenns

This is why when you make an offer - go and meet the vendors again and look them in the eye, try to understand why they are moving and asses if its a valid reason - eg job move, new baby etc -

I have also eventually moved recently, but we never stopped lookinga at other properties even when we had an offer in place and surveys being done, it just pays to keep options open..

I agree the system needs changing - but its very hard to find a system that balances everyones interests.

[trefor]

The only real way around this, and the pain of a chain is buying a new house, esp. if you're a first time buyer with nothing to p/ex. BTW, never pay full price -treat it like buying a car and don't be afraid to ask for a discount.

I lived in Edinburgh a few years back and bought a flat - the system up there is better from a contractual perspective - but it's like an auction where you don't know what other people have bid. I bought a brand new flat in a brewery conversion. Pain = zero (luckily they had finished building it too).

Now for a real moan ... we paid 25k in stamp duty on the last house ... (I love that smiley)

[VTECDave]

Don't have a clue about English law but up here in Scotland IIRC if either party tries to back out of an accepted offer they can land themselves in a load of Sh1t! Even as far forcing the sale.

Obviously English law is different and this comment does nowt to help you or make you feel better.

[rev-erend]

Alex - sorry to hear your story.

A very similar thing occurred to my new next door neighbour. He found a house, later the vendor took it off the market, then put it back on at a higher price.
He then decided he still wanted the house - increased his offer to the new asking price. Vendor then took it off the market again - just days before the moving date and after signing the contract.

[Alex200mph]

They were moving because they had children and wanted more space. Seemed reasonable at the time.
I guess I shouldnt have taken the sellers word and also, I should have carried on looking although my offer had been accepted.
Thats hindsight I guess!

[Don]

Total sympathy with you Alex. Happened to us a few years ago - the next house cost an additional 30K. Boy was I cheesed off.

At the end of the day you have to buy NOT the house of your dreams but the house that is genuinely FOR SALE.

This last time we moved some silly bint actually had us around to her house to view it and actually told us that she hadn't found anywhere to move to and was just seeing what the house was worth...

Better luck with the next one...

[mel]

As a first time buyer you are perfectly placed to be a "Bastard Buyer" as well. Find house, get offer accepted, allow full chain to get in place then day before exchange pull out and watch it all collapse. Go back to your sellers and then tell them that because of a shift in the houseing market you're dropping your offer by 10K or whatever. Sit back and watch phones glow red hot between estate agents/buyers/sellers/solicitors etc etc None of them can afford to let it collapse at this stage as often removals etc are all booked. Nine times out of ten the new offer will be accepted and the "knock" divided up between all the sellers in the chain. It's a shit trick and certainly doesn't win any friends but can save alot of money and is an ace trump to play if you've been dicked about by sellers. A friend of mine who buys a lot of houses To Let does this everytime and saves a pile of dosh being a bastard.

Edited to correct you're and your and prevent the wrath of ted.

>> Edited by mel on Monday 7th October 14:48

[plotloss]

Mel,

As a first time buyer also I thank you kindly for your advice sir and it is duly filed away for future use.

Its amazing the things you can learn on Pistonheads! Apologies in advance if other PH'ers are in the chain above me when I try this!

Matt.

[Don]

quote:
It's a shit trick

Certainly is. I suspect it only works if you are buying the house to let and don't really give a s*** if you buy that one...or another one.

Hard, hard trick to pull if you actually want the house. I guarded against this as best I could by "interviewing" the buyer as much as possible to determine why he wanted my house. I was also absolutely ready to let the chain fall through myself and f*** the consequences.

So my advice would be don't go for any tricks at all. BUT the minute you smell the slightest problem with a chain satisfy yourself that it is *very* short term or dump it.

Be prepared to lose a couple of survey fees along the way too I'm afraid.

House Buying. Its crap. Never again!

[JohnL]

quote:
Don't have a clue about English law but up here in Scotland IIRC if either party tries to back out of an accepted offer they can land themselves in a load of Sh1t! Even as far forcing the sale.

Obviously English law is different and this comment does nowt to help you or make you feel better.

'S about right. If "missives are concluded", usually a few weeks after agreeing the sale, then you have a legally binding contract and if either party pulls out they will have to (in theory) meet the other party's costs, eg bridging loans, rent, removals, readvertising, etc etc.

The downside of the sealed bid system here is that buyers can end up paying for a lot of surveys (which usually have to be done before bidding) - and at £300 plus a time it can mount up, I know someone who paid for 10.

[tailslider]

Tossers that try to 'get a good deal' by shitting on everyone else at the last minute deserve a fcking beating. If you cant afford it then fcuk off and grow up.

[shadowninja]

was thinking about this the other night... isn't it possible to get both parties to sign a contract stating they must agree to sell/buy unless there are extenuating circumstances (eg someone dies, someone else pulls out in the chain, redundancy) can be proven, primarily to avoid "gazumping"?

maybe I'm just being naiive (or however its spelt)?

[tailslider]

Yes, urbanspaces.co.uk do this to prevent it. Mind you it's only a 1k deposit, so maybe it won't make any difffference.

[mervynP]

quote:
It's a shit trick

Got caught out like this last time I moved. People above me in the chain had their solicitor instruct our solicitor that they were ready to move on a certain date about a week before christmas. Movers booked, boxes packed, cats safely ensconsed in cattery , all looking forward to our new home and first christmas their, when the agent rings the day before we were due to move and tells us that, very sorry, they don't actually have their mortgage approved, they disagree with the valuation of the house they want to buy (trans: think they can get it a lot cheaper, as couldn't afford it in the first place), and the whole thing has fallen through
Upshot of it all was we lost money on the solicitors fee, who to be fair actually charged us the minimum he felt he could, movers fees and mortgage arrangers fees. The delightful people who did this were trhen surprised that six months later we were no longer interested, as we had found a better house and had moved in already. In retrospect, although we had one very miserable christmas, it all turned ut OK in the end, I even managed to get most of my money back through relocation expenses

[tailslider]

If someone purposefully fcuked me around like that it wouldn't be the end of it. I'd make damn sure they lost out in equal measure. At the end of the day you know where they live.

[incorrigible]

quote:
Tossers that try to 'get a good deal' by shitting on everyone else at the last minute deserve a fcking beating. If you cant afford it then fcuk off and grow up.

I have a couple of "buy to lets" and am already accused of being money grabbing facist greedy landlord scum without being associated with ws like this. If I knew who it was I'd be continualy offer them houses at unrealistically low prices , than pull out at the last minute, see how they fg like it

[pdv6]

Could be worse. A guy I work with was trying to buy a flat in London and it was only when all the searches came back that he discovered that the person selling the flat didn't actually own it and was, in fact, in negotiations with the actual owner!

[mervynP]

quote:
Could be worse. A guy I work with was trying to buy a flat in London and it was only when all the searches came back that he discovered that the person selling the flat didn't actually own it and was, in fact, in negotiations with the actual owner!

people will try anything these days. Wasn't there some proposal not too long ago to introduce Scottish-style legislation into England and Wales to try and stop some of the sharper practices mentioned here, or did that go the way of the abolition of licensing laws?

[pdv6]

quote:

people will try anything these days. Wasn't there some proposal not too long ago to introduce Scottish-style legislation into England and Wales to try and stop some of the sharper practices mentioned here, or did that go the way of the abolition of licensing laws?

I believe that there are a limited number of changes that are due to be implemented next year, including making the vendor commission a survey rather than the buyer.