Tips for pushing a sale forward?

russ9898 · 9 Mar 2012 at 20:46

Hi everyone,

We had an offer accepted on a property around 10th January. The offer was made on the condition that the sale completed on or before 23rd March to avoid the stamp duty deadline.

Weve progressed our side of the sale very fast with a survey being completed on the 15th, mortgage offered on the 22nd. Last week we paid our deposit to the solicitor and signed all relevant paperwork. The trouble were now having is getting the other party to exchange contracts. The limited information we have is that the vendor has yet to secure a mortgage offer, we know only 2-3 weeks ago the vendor hadn't even been to see their mortgage broker which is frustrating at best.

The estate agent is useless (and has been from the start) and our solicitor is chasing the vendors solicitor daily to try and get contracts exchanged. Unfortunately were getting nowhere fast.

Anyone have any tips or suggestions to help pressure the vendor into exchange?

I plan to pop into the estate agents tomorrow (seen as they haven't returned my calls or email today) and give them a deadline to exchange and agree a completion date. However im at abit of a loss as to what else we can do.

Were desperate to complete asap to avoid the £1400 stamp duty, i will also seriously consider pulling out of the sale as a point of principle if they're going to mess me around. Afterall im the one sending £140k the vendors way.

Thanks,

Russ

mattyfez · 9 Mar 2012 at 20:53

Tell the seller you will (add on) off-set the extra stamp due to the delay.

Then negociate if you really want the place.

Tingtangmakadingdong · 9 Mar 2012 at 20:56

Ask your solicitor if they set the deadline as a condition of the contract, if so then vendors side are slightly screwed and you could negotiate to have stamp duty off-set due to breach of condition.

mame · 9 Mar 2012 at 20:58

mattyfez said:
Tell the seller you will (add on) off-set the extra stamp due to the delay.

I'd go with this. It's unlikely that reducing the price by 1% will make them not sell the house at this point.

Hamster · 9 Mar 2012 at 21:05

Give them an ultimatum. Tell them you want to complete by a certain date or you will withdraw your offer. I was reluctant to do this with the house I'm now in as I really liked the property and didn't want to lose it but it worked and it worked quickly.

Slade2 · 10 Mar 2012 at 01:24

Yeah, if they are thinking about moving and already have a house in mind to move to and are just sorting out the mortgage offer then having a buyer for thier property pull out would be a bit of a ****er for them also so I would suggest telling them you will pull out if not complete before deadline.

Hamster · 10 Mar 2012 at 03:47

russ9898 said:
The offer was made on the condition that the sale completed on or before 23rd March.

russ9898 said:
Last week we paid our deposit to the solicitor and signed all relevant paperwork.

russ9898 said:
we know only 2-3 weeks ago the vendor hadn't even been to see their mortgage broker which is frustrating at best.

russ9898 said:
The estate agent is useless (and has been from the start) and our solicitor is chasing the vendors solicitor daily to try and get contracts exchanged. Unfortunately were getting nowhere fast.

russ9898 said:
Were desperate to complete asap to avoid the £1400 stamp duty, i will also seriously consider pulling out of the sale as a point of principle if they're going to mess me around. Afterall im the one sending £140k the vendors way.

Slade2 said:
Yeah, if they are thinking about moving and already have a house in mind to move to and are just sorting out the mortgage offer then having a buyer for thier property pull out would be a bit of a ****er for them also so I would suggest telling them you will pull out if not complete before deadline.

Sounds like they're not trying hard enough to get their mortgage and need a big kick up the backside to me to get things moving. I was in exactly the same boat and the delay was extremely frustrating. I stick by my advice as it's exactly what I would do....again!

MrMoonX · 10 Mar 2012 at 08:16

yeah they can go rent for a bit if they really want to sell, threaten to pull out as I doubt you can complete before the deadline if the muppets don't even have a mortgage sorted

Mr Jack · 10 Mar 2012 at 08:50

I'd tell them that the price goes up by £1400 if they don't complete before the given deadline. But if you do that you need to be willing to re-market if they baulk.

Paul11 · 10 Mar 2012 at 08:58

i agree, tell them if you dont complete by a certain date you will either withdraw or want money off to cover the stamp

russ9898 · 10 Mar 2012 at 10:48

Thanks for the advice guys.

I have already sent messages via both the solicitor and the estate agent saying that we will have no choice but to withdraw our offer if we dont complete on or before the 23rd.

Just to clarify, the situation is -

Were first time buyers
Vendors were buying from are buying a new property
The people our vendors are buying from have no upward chain

So were in a small chain fortunately, the people at the top of the chain can move out quickly if required. Its all unfortunately being slowed down by our vendors. Ive explained on several occasions the significance of the 23rd March and why we need to complete by then although it doesn't seem to be hitting home.

dowie · 10 Mar 2012 at 11:26

russ9898 said:
The limited information we have is that the vendor has yet to secure a mortgage offer, we know only 2-3 weeks ago the vendor hadn't even been to see their mortgage broker which is frustrating at best.
[...]

Were desperate to complete asap to avoid the £1400 stamp duty, i will also seriously consider pulling out of the sale as a point of principle if they're going to mess me around. Afterall im the one sending £140k the vendors way.

If they're in a chain and they've not even got a mortgage offer yet then you've got very little chance of this going through in time. Just knock 1.5k off your offer and let them take a small hit for the stamp duty you've now incurred and the delay etc...

dowie · 10 Mar 2012 at 11:29

russ9898 said:
I have already sent messages via both the solicitor and the estate agent saying that we will have no choice but to withdraw our offer if we dont complete on or before the 23rd.

You don't have no choice - you can simply lower your offer so the stamp duty then has no effect - seems silly to let the whole sale collapse over something that could be resolved easily. (then again if the vendor refuses, which would be silly of him, you can walk away from the chain and blame it all on him.)

fendi · 10 Mar 2012 at 13:34

How much has been spent on fees/surverys so far out of interest. What others have said about knocking a grand point five off the total seems fair if there is to be a delay.