Purchaser slow to sign contracts

[Henny Penny]

We agreed the sale of our house at the end of August and we still have not had contracts signed by the prospective purchaser.

Thus far the purchaser has paid a booking deposit, had a structural survey done, a bank valuation and a list of questions answered by our solicitor, and still he hasn't signed the contracts. The contracts were sent to him by our solicitor 4 weeks ago.

Should we be worried ... we feel as though the purchaser is really dragging his feet ... even though the EA assures us that it's all good ... he's hoping to be in by mid November ... ?

Are we within our rights to put the house back on the market ... even though he has paid a booking deposit?

Thanks as usual.

 

[phoenix_n]

Are we within our rights to put the house back on the market ... even though he has paid a booking deposit?

Thanks as usual.

Yes but do some research first to see if you could secure the same price again. If not, then might be best to wait out for prospective buyer to make up his/her mind.

 

[messyleo]

but at the same time, there's no point dragging on the sale for another month only for the contracts to remain unsigned and the buyer to pull out. Perhaps you could tell your solicitor to issue a note saying if contracts aren't signed by X date then the house will go back on the market?

 

[Askor]

I would not be inclined to put the house back on the market. I was in a similar situation and found that it was actually the solicitors who were holding everything up.

In your situation, they have paid the booking deposit, they have paid for the structural survey (which is not cheap) and if they pull out, they still will have to pay their solicitors' fees. So they have committed finances to the purchase already.

It's a buyers market out there: you might find it hard to sell your house. Stick it out until the end of this month and see what happens.

 

[Henny Penny]

Thanks to everyone who replied. I suppose it's just because we are being kept in the dark by EAs, solicitors etc that we are worried. We had the impression from the EA that the purchaser was keen to complete the sale asap ... which turns out not to be the case. We will hold tight and hope for the best. Thanks again

HP

 

[micamaca]

Most of the problems we had with purchasing our house came down to our solicitor...I'd ring him for news and he'd say he will ring someone and get back to me and he never got back to me. This happened everytime I rang him...I started ringing the estate agent instead as she was more informed and would even ring my solicitor to put pressure on him. He was cheap but we paid in other ways! grey hairs!