Deposit paid - can they pull out safely now?

Hi,
Relatives of mine signed contracts and paid a 15k deposit on a house last autumn with a closing date oct 2007. The vendors held onto the contracts until Mar 08 and crossed out the closing date to read ' to be agreed'........

Since then the vendors are not forthcoming with any agreed closing date (vendors are waiting on new build). My relatives (the buyers) are now financially not as sound as when they decided to buy the house last year. Their solictor isnt very direct and comes from the 'wait and see' school of thought.

Their question is what are their options:

1) if they try to pull out now, other than loss of deposit (as thats a given) can the vendors force then to complete the sale (even if financially they can not) and what are the consquences?

2) If they can get their finances in order can they put notice to the vendors to close on a given date and force the vendors hand?

Is there ever a safe way to get out of this situation???

No, they can't be forced to complete the sale.

They can serve them a 28 day notice to close, if the vendors don't close in that time, your relatives get their deposit back. Sounds like they need a new solicitor.

Snork Maiden said:

Relatives of mine signed contracts and paid a 15k deposit on a house last autumn with a closing date oct 2007. The vendors held onto the contracts until Mar 08 and crossed out the closing date to read ' to be agreed'........

Click to expand...

Do they actually have an agreed and signed set of contracts....

did the sellers hold onto the contracts for 6 months before sending them back ? or make the change later ?

Did your relatives sign the contract with the change 'to be agreed' regarding the completion date?

jhegarty said:

Do they actually have an agreed and signed set of contracts....

did the sellers hold onto the contracts for 6 months before sending them back ? or make the change later ?

Click to expand...

Yes, they actually have signed contracts. Yes, the Sellers held onto the contracts from Oct07 - Mar08.

deedee80 said:

Did your relatives sign the contract with the change 'to be agreed' regarding the completion date?

Click to expand...

My relatives signed the contract with a date in oct07. The contracts were forwarded to the vendors who crossed out the oct07 date and replaced it with 'date to be agreed' and returned the contacts in mar08.

Cara said:

They can serve them a 28 day notice to close, if the vendors don't close in that time, your relatives get their deposit back. Sounds like they need a new solicitor.

Click to expand...

can you change solicitors during the process? I thought that you couldnt but I really dont know......I would imagine it would be difficult to find a solicitor to take over a awkward case?

Snork Maiden said:

My relatives signed the contract with a date in oct07. The contracts were forwarded to the vendors who crossed out the oct07 date and replaced it with 'date to be agreed' and returned the contacts in mar08.

Click to expand...

Well then they don't have an agreed set of contracts , both signed copies must be agreed and the same...

the seller needs to get any amendments signed by the buyer ...

i'd say ask the solicitor to send back the amended contact as not been agreed and ask for the deposit back....

As a point of notice, once contracts have been signed by both parties either one cannot get out of the transaction. However, if the vendors changed the contract without agreement of the purchaser, there is a case to be answered especially by the solicitors, and the vendors solicitors for altering the contract ,the change, the time delay and not representing the client's interest. Conveyancing solicitors are not that busy at the moemnt so it should not be too hard to find another.

Thanks all for your replies and words of advice.

I shall forward your comments and hopefully they can come to some resolution......

Cheers