Vendor ignores closing date second time round - sorted in time for Xmas :)

Hi wondering if anyone can help us out, offer advice on this.

As cash buyers we went sale agreed on a property ( neglected looking property I might add!) end August 2020. Paid booking deposit to estate agents & engaged solicitor. Contracts signed by both ourselves and vendors mid Nov and balance of full deposit 10% paid by us on time. Contained within that contract was a closing date of Dec 1st which was not complied with by vendors. Despite us calling, texting & emailing estate agent & solicitor in the weeks before that date requesting clarification on pre-closing inspection and transferring funds in time for closing we were told no one could make contact with vendor and we were probably not going to close on Dec 1st.

The vendor then requested a closing date 2 months away which did not suit us and was contrary to what was agreed in contract. Our solicitor then served a 28 day completion notice and on receipt of that by vendor solicitor a new closing date was agreed days away.

As we near that new closing date we are once again trying to arrange a pre-closing inspection, have funds transferred and working on the basis of moving in on that date only to be told no one can make contact with vendors again to organise pre-closing view and that "they are being uncooperative with both estate agent and their own solicitor ".

We have passed the house and zero sign of anything moving or any attempt to remove junk and belongings from house gardens etc What is particularly worrisome is that on documents we signed we noticed that the mortgage is a vulture fund group so assume bad debt is involved and estate agent also mentioned something about banks chasing vendors.

Any views or advice on this topic would be very much appreciated

Without being smart, what does your solicitor say?

Not much you can do really. What does your contract/solicitor say in terms of penalities for delay? From what I remember there's nearly a standard wording about a charge when one party delays. Not sure if this would apply at this stage or how recoverable it is in practice but it's a small stick to potentially wave at them.

RedOnion said:

Without being smart, what does your solicitor say?

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Solicitor says delays do happen in closing dates which we can accept but seems very strange to have a date in contract , one party - vendor - does not adhere to that with no explanation or good reason then another date settled ( not really suitable for us but we are willing to be totally flexible on that ) and now no sign of vendor moving out in time for that either. Im just wondering what happens if vendors do not close and move out on this second closing date and we have all monies paid over

Did your solicitor request a copy of their redemption figure on mortgage prior to you signing contracts? If the mortgage is more than the amount you're paying, they could be waiting for permission from the fund to sell.

Or maybe they've no intention of selling, and were getting the bank off their back, but are now willing to draw the close out.

There are so many possibilities as to what's happening.

Your solicitor is really best place to advise you. But ask them questions.

skrooge said:

Not much you can do really. What does your contract/solicitor say in terms of penalities for delay? From what I remember there's nearly a standard wording about a charge when one party delays. Not sure if this would apply at this stage or how recoverable it is in practice but it's a small stick to potentially wave at them.

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Great thankyou for that it will be worth for us to enquire about that charge as we are incurring costs on storage items, accommodation etc

It didn't arise for us but I recall our solicitor explaining to the effect that, although he always puts this clause in a contract, it is very difficult to enforce in practice. Given that there is a vulture fund and assumed bad debts in this case I would not be too hopeful.

RedOnion said:

Did your solicitor request a copy of their redemption figure on mortgage prior to you signing contracts? If the mortgage is more than the amount you're paying, they could be waiting for permission from the fund to sell.

Or maybe they've no intention of selling, and were getting the bank off their back, but are now willing to draw the close out.

There are so many possibilities as to what's happening.

Your solicitor is really best place to advise you. But ask them questions.

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Great thankyou for that but thats another problem we have no idea what questions to be asking...anyway my fear has been just that that they may be trying to get banks off their backs and dragging out closing could they stay in house even though we have paid over all funds

2ForJoy said:

even though we have paid over all funds

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The first thing to keep in mind is that the seller hasn't got your money. It's held in trust until the sale completes.

It could drag out. Or maybe there's a simple, genuine reason, and it'll get sorted quickly.

Your solicitor has already served the 28 day notice. If it drags out again, you need to talk to your solicitor and decide if you want to void the contract walking away and get your deposit back , or enforce the contract including potentially suing for breach of contract and damages.

It's stressful dealing with this. Solicitors do it every day, and seem to forget it's a once in a life thing for most people. Don't be afraid to ask them questions, and tell them to talk in simple language so you understand all your options.

My personal opinion is that the vendors don't really want to sell, that it is perhaps a slightly forced sale.
I would walk away from it.

Early Riser said:

It didn't arise for us but I recall our solicitor explaining to the effect that, although he always puts this clause in a contract, it is very difficult to enforce in practice. Given that there is a vulture fund and assumed bad debts in this case I would not be too hopeful.

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sorry you would not be too hopeful of what? the sale going ahead or us getting our money returned or both

RedOnion said:

The first thing to keep in mind is that the seller hasn't got your money. It's held in trust until the sale completes.

It could drag out. Or maybe there's a simple, genuine reason, and it'll get sorted quickly.

Your solicitor has already served the 28 day notice. If it drags out again, you need to talk to your solicitor and decide if you want to void the contract walking away and get your deposit back , or enforce the contract including potentially suing for breach of contract and damages.

It's stressful dealing with this. Solicitors do it every day, and seem to forget it's a once in a life thing for most people. Don't be afraid to ask them questions, and tell them to talk in simple language so you understand all your options.

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Thankyou very much for that. That is good to hear about being held in trust. I was told by non legal person it goes to vendors solicitor so I was thinking it might be hard to get that returned if through no fault of ours sale does not happen/close. I just thought once you hand over money it may be very difficult to get it back if sale does not go ahead. We do not want to go down sue route on someone who apparently has no funds anyway if it came to that

I would not be hopeful of either forcing the vendor to complete or extracting any compensation. Have you asked your solicitor about retrieving your deposit money ?

RichInSpirit said:

My personal opinion is that the vendors don't really want to sell, that it is perhaps a slightly forced sale.
I would walk away from it.

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Thanks for that. Yes I'm thinking that too that they dont want to sell. However re walking we were told you cannot walk away from a signed contract but you can get your deposit back after 28 day notice served if that also elapsed. However, vendors came out with another closing date before the 28 days we believed them so we paid over full amount in order to have funds in place for second closing as requested but have been told since that vendors cannot be reached, are not cooperating with their own solicitor or estate agent and will not decide on a pre closure view.

They are stalling, such a nightmare when this happens. All the expense with surveys and legal fees you have had to endure. You just have to tell your solicitor you going to have to walk away from it.

Early Riser said:

I would not be hopeful of either forcing the vendor to complete or extracting any compensation. Have you asked your solicitor about retrieving your deposit money ?

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Yes we did ask and were told that you cannot just get deposit back. You have to serve a 28 day notice and wait for that 28 day period. If by end of that they have not yet closed / left you can get deposit back - less costs. However after serving that notice vendors solicitor came back with a new closing date earlier than the 28 days so we thought if we did not pay full amount in time for second closing date they could say we were delaying things and then we could lose deposit so we paid up full amount which I'm now thinking was bad decision.

2ForJoy said:

However after serving that notice vendors solicitor came back with a new closing date earlier than the 28 days so we thought if we did not pay full amount in time for second closing date they could say we were delaying things and then we could lose deposit so we paid up full amount which I'm now thinking was bad decision.

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Do you mean you transferred the full amount (the balance) to your solicitor's client account to enable him to complete the deal at closing ? This money should be still there and should be readily retrievable. If the deal didn't close the money should not have gone beyond your solicitor's account.

Early Riser said:

Do you mean you transferred the full amount to your solicitor's client account to enable him to complete the deal at closing ? This money should be still there and should be readily retrievable. If the deal didn't close the money should not have gone beyond your solicitor's account.

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Yes we lodged full amount to solicitor client account. OK good to hear it will be retrievable if sale does not go ahead due to vendor

RedOnion said:

Did your solicitor request a copy of their redemption figure on mortgage prior to you signing contracts? If the mortgage is more than the amount you're paying, they could be waiting for permission from the fund to sell.

Or maybe they've no intention of selling, and were getting the bank off their back, but are now willing to draw the close out.

There are so many possibilities as to what's happening.

Your solicitor is really best place to advise you. But ask them questions.

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Thanks for your input. I don't know if solicitor requested a copy of their redemption figure on mortgage, never thought of asking before signing as I never heard of a redemption figure before but will enquire. Can that be disclosed to us?. I did ask estate agent, after he told me banks were chasing vendors for money & wanted them out of house what % of sales proceeds will be going to banks but he said he could not disclose that figure to us. If they have no intention of selling we will know after 28 day period has lapsed and then hopefully we can get out of this mess & get funds retrieved

second closing date just passed today without closing ...vendors through their solicitor set the time to allow a preclosure view on closing day at latest possible time in the evening ( despite our repeated requests for a preclosure view at least 24hrs in advance ) ...the time given allowed less than an hr to close but vendors were not ready when we arrived.......finally when we did get into property huge amount of junk in many rooms which vendors wanted to come back and clear later after closing while we were still in house. We were advised to allow them clear this evening, inspect again first thing tomorrow morning and hopefully close then tomorrow.

We feel we have done everything correctly and as requested in this process and have been seriously let down. We transferred deposits and balances in full & on time and been hugely flexible throughout. We are just very concerned that something else will crop up tomorrow on the vendor side, another closing day will pass then we are into christmas & new year .......any advice?

I know posters previously said talk to your solicitor, well yes we have repeatedly and we are still in this process weeks after original closing date & now after second closing date.

Good luck. Don’t close and let them back in.