Pulling out of a purchase before exchange

Do I have to give any reason? Or are "gut feelings", "warning bells" enough?

MM

Reply to
MM
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No reason needed. Either party can pull out of a sale/purchase at anytime before the contracts are signed.

However, if you do decide to pull out of a purchase, you would have just wasted money on searches/legal fees/surveys

S
Reply to
ABC

If there's an obvious reason then you could tell them, but if it's just that you don't want to buy the house then that is enough. They may think you're planning to offer less money, so they may be slightly acrimonious.

Make sure you don't plan on changing your mind, as they probably won't be too keen on accepting an offer from someone who has already pulled out once.

Al

Reply to
Al Reynolds

I have at least two concrete facts before me that were not made known to me at the time I made my offer:

(1) The property is advertised as brand-new and appears to be so. However, it is not. It has already been purchased, therefore it is now secondhand. No one told me this at the time. The original estate agent's sales report listed the developer as vendor. This was corrected by the agent some five days later to replace the developer's name with that of the actual purchaser, a relative of the developer. The registration of the title with the Land Registry on that first purchase is still being processed by the LR.

(2) The property's services as listed in the brochure include "mains drainage". But the drainage is in fact to a privately run sewage treatment plant that will be maintained via a "Management Company" which is to be formed by all residents on the development. This is not my idea of being on mains drainage.

MM

Reply to
MM

Your solicitor should have advised you not to pay any attention to anything told to you by anyone other than in answer to a question he put to the vendor via *his* solicitor.

Without more information I wouldn't have thought either of them was particularly problematic.

On point 1) you could try to get the 10 year warranty to run from the completion of your purchase or ask for a reduction.

Point 2) was dealt with earlier, I think, and as recommended you could seek assurances that the costs associated with drainage are (for example) pegged to those of the local sewerage co. or ask for a reduction.

Depending on your local market conditions you will either get your guarantees, your reduction, or a raspberry. Once you have a response you are in a position to decide whether to withdraw, or not.

HTH

Neil

Reply to
Neil Jones

No, neither of these things are necessarily a deal breaker, it very much depends on the negotiations.

I would try to give reasons if possible, esp. if I thought I might be buying via the same estate agents again - you don't want a reputation with them as someone not to be taken seriously.

Reply to
chris French

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Which is why seller's packs are such a dumb idea.

Reply to
Huge

It could be due to those findings that he wants to pull out, so I would say that it could have been money well spent !

Reply to
:::Jerry::::

Surely the opposite? I had assumed that the information in a sellers pack was to be taken as contractual - so if the SP says mains drainage and it's not you have a right of action against the seller if the info is wrong, same as with the current questionnaires that solicitors send you when you sell a property.

Reply to
Tony Bryer

Having bought a fair few houses over the years, I think your "gut feelings", "warning bells", may have been fully justified, particularly about the strange sewage works.

Reply to
EricP

If you're really in doubt and you're looking for an excuse then they've possibly given you two. It's a big commitment. If you're not happy just listen to yourself. You're not obliged to follow things through until the point you exchange.

norm

Reply to
norm

If you consider these good reasnos to pull out, youre going to waste a lot of peoples time, and your own.

NT

Reply to
N. Thornton

I've spoken to several people and they all agree that it smells fishy the way I was not told up front about these points (and one or two others). Why did they only inform me five days after I made the offer (and had had it accepted) that the house had actually already been sold to someone else already? They could have explained this. The agent must have known. You can't offer a property for sale without knowing who the true owner is. So why try and keep it secret? Same goes for the sewage treatment plant. Why say 'mains drainage' when it is not?

And the people I have consulted have all said that a future buyer might have exactly the same kinds of questions as me, e.g. why was the property initially bought and sold so quickly and at such a difference in price? What will I be able to say? The honest answer is, I don't know. Many buyers on hearing that would just walk away, as I am now tempted to do myself. This is not time wasting, this is making darned sure what one is letting oneself in for before signing on the dotted line.

MM

Reply to
MM

Well, it is 'mains drainage' in that you have direct connection to a sewer which takes waste from your house, and other people's houses, and take it to a sewage treatment plant, as distinct from a septic tank or cess pit. Apparently, though, this particular mains drainage is not connected to the public sewer.

Reply to
Neil Jones

You shouldn't rely on the estate agents for anything other than the most basic factors regarding the property. Their description should be accurate (within limits), but will be covered with a truly prodigeous number of get-out clauses. And as long as they have someone who they can charge for the sale, then they won't bother to look too deeply at the ownership aspects. After all, the legalities of the purchase are down to the solicitors. I certainly wouldn't worry too much that they didn't let you know how the vendor was until the offer was made.

As for the mains drainage, well effectively it is. You don't have a septic tank, and all the properties sewage is taken by mains sewers, along with that from the other properties, to a treatment works. That this isn't a major treatment plant, but is instead a dedicate unit for the development doesn't invalidate the statement regarding mains sewage.

Now the maintenance aspects and related costs of the private treatment plant should be a concern, and one for your solicitor to check, though still not necessarily a reason to pull out (unless costs are going to be significant).

I doubt that any future buyer is going to be too concerned over the purchase history prior to your aquisition of the property. And if it was ever questioned, then you can make reference to possible tax dodge by the builder (emminently plausible reason), or localised property boom :^)

Seriously though, there's nothing apart from the potential future cost of the sewage treatment plant that would give me any concerns. Even the low NHBC value wouldn't bother me too much. To put you mind at rest, it might be worth contacting one or two of your potential new neighbours to see how they feel. After all, they also bought properties from this builder, and are using the treatment plant.

hth Clive

Reply to
Clive Summerfield

You can sell the searches on and recoup some of this. We bought the searches for one of our properties from a potential purchaser who was unable to proceed.

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew

Well, it is more "mains" than having a tank in the garden. It still sounds odd, though. Ask the agent if they've corrected the sales particulars and whether the property disdescription act would be relevent here. It may be the vendor who has misled the agent.

The chances are that no one will know or even think to ask. We've

*never* been asked about previous ownership of the five houses we've sold.

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew

I would have thought that would be a legal mine field, who does one blame if, later, facts come to light that were missed in the search ?

Reply to
:::Jerry::::

probably the relative that bought it purchased it off plan and is making a tidy sum at the expense of the next purchaser. bet theyve never set foot in it but are expecting to be laughing all the way to the bank soon.

Reply to
Tone

I'm with MM on this.

One house I bought I was put under a lot of pressure by the absentee vendor to complete. I was resisting wanting to take things at a sensible rate, I very nearly pulled out as I was sure there was something odd going on.

Two years later I was visited by the Police, I ended up as a prosecution witness against the estate agent who actually owned the house. Turned out they were spotting vendors who were desperate to sell, waiting for them to get to exchange then telling both vendor and purchasor that the other had pulled out, the Agants alias steps in and buys at a very low price. Then the house would appear on the market again.

Trust your instinct.

Also try and get direct contact with your vendor/purchasor. That was how the eastate agent got caught.

Reply to
Mike

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