Vendor continually postponing closing date

My friend paid 10% deposit on house in March. However, contracts have not yet been returned, despite her solicitor requesting same on numerous occasions. There has always been some excuse, the Vendors new house not ready, title deeds for new house taking a long time to arrive etc. However, my friend and her family need to be in the house at the latest by August for the children to get settled in before school in Sept. Their solicitor sent a letter to the Vendor's solicitor saying that the contract would be null and void if the contracts were not exchanged by a date in May, but Vendor's solicitor refusing to accept this. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Hi Elaine

Was there a closing date inserted into the contract and if so has this passed?

Can you better explain exactly what stage it is at?

If the contracts had not been exchanged, how could the solicitor not accept that ?? Best thing is to tell him and them to go to hell as if the contracts do get exchanged the vendors will probably mess about and your friend will be in Limbo. Surely there no other houses available in the area concerned ??

And if the friend still wants to go ahead, she should renegotiate the purchase price as with the vendors messing about the market has moved down further.

There was no date inserted in the contracts. The vendor's solicitor suggested 8th May, which was o.k. with my friends. Then about two weeks later, the Vendor's solicitor said they could not close until early July due to the Vendor's house not being ready; then it was that the title deeds for their new property were delayed. However, friends found out through ea that the man's wife was not well and they did not want to move down the country while wife was still attending hospital appointments in Dublin; then ea asked if they could rent the house back off my friends (the pruchasers), and, as you can imagine, my friends said no. Contractually, my friend's solicitor send the contracts back with the 10% deposit to the Vendor's solicitors, but the Vendor's solicitor has not sent them back. My friends' solicitor then said that if the contracts were not signed by end of May the contract would be null and void, and demanded the deposit back. However, Vendor's solicitor seemed to ignore this and has so far refused to return the deposit. The vendors know that my friends children are starting school in the area in September and there is a rush on them to get settled before school starts - one of her children is only starting school in September. Yes, there are other houses in the area, but it would probably be impossible to arrange to buy one now before August/September. Any one ever come across this problem. Again advice really appreciated.

elainem said:

My friends' solicitor then said that if the contracts were not signed by end of May the contract would be null and void, and demanded the deposit back. However, Vendor's solicitor seemed to ignore this and has so far refused to return the deposit.

Click to expand...

The vendor's Solicitor cannot simply refuse or ignore requests to return deposit. Your friend's Solicitor needs to be more forceful - write a letter to the vendor expressly stating that if the closing date is not within the next 14 days your friend will be pulling out and your friend is fully entitled to do so.
In the meantime, I would strongly suggest your friend looks around for another house, i'd say it would be possible to find one that would close in the next 6 weeks - leaving plenty of time for the kids starting school. There are so many houses for sale, I would find it hard to believe that she wouldn't find a vendor who is in a rush to sell and move out.
Also they could probably save themselves alot of money as we all know houses are not likely to be worth what they were when she put the deposit down a few months ago.

elainem - yes I did. That is why I mentioned it We sold our house in Dublin. Bought a house but it fell through as there was serious planning issues and had to buy another. Found a house and bought it at end of July of that year and moved in early October, and the only delay was that the vendors were running a business from the house. Now I am not sure what part of the country your friend is in or moving to but there must be one house with an eager seller, especially in this market.

"The vendor's Solicitor cannot simply refuse or ignore requests to return deposit. Your friend's Solicitor needs to be more forceful - write a letter to the vendor expressly stating that if the closing date is not within the next 14 days your friend will be pulling out and your friend is fully entitled to do so. "


Actually, I think that the purchaser would want to be careful about how the solicitor is instructed. It is quite possible that a letter in this exact form would be unwise. It appears that the solicitor has already written that if a signed contract was not returned by end of May, then the deal was off. To now write a letter which suggests that the contract is still somehow in existence would be contradictory. The next letter from OP's solicitor should be carefully drafted: I don't think the info posted here is adequate for us to say exactly what it should state. This is a case where detailed case-specific legal advice is required.