pulled our old house off the market
So this week has been exceptionally stressful. After a summer of stress prepping house for sale and finding and negotiating on three homes one of which we got to completion in 6 weeks after 3k miles the month before house hunting.
To explain here is the letter to our agent selling or old normal house which I drafted while I couldn’t sleep last night.
“ Dear “My Agent”
No, we will not be moving straight to exchange within two days of the seller finally agreeing they are ready to proceed after delaying matters for over 8 weeks by asking questions and wasting my solicitor’s time (at my expense) they already had the answers to in the title documents, standard questionnaire,and indemnities, they requested and supplied, I agreed to pay within the first 6 weeks of discussions.
They have merely been delaying exchange whilst you have supported them and expected and pressured me to move out by September on their behalf.
I would also note that as late as the beginning of September (two weeks ago) their solicitor asked for substantial reduction in price for the lack of planning permission in relation to the cabin that firstly doesn’t need planning permission and secondly we had already agreed to provide and indemnity (provided by them that I agree to pay for) back in June.
It then took 10 days from the buyer’s solicitor confirming there were no more outstanding issues (as far as they were concerned and that they would seek their client’s instructions for exchange) to suddenly and unexpectedly (and I assume after discussing it with you) request (wasting my solicitor’s time again) on Monday this week that we move straight to completion on Wednesday, on a house we are still living in.
I am shocked you immediately followed up their request with an email chasing my solicitor to respond, which seemed to suggest the buyer is right to be “frustrated” by either my (for not moving out without a binding commitment to buy) or my solicitor’s actions (when they have responded in a timely fashion to any questions, even repeat questions).
It is an absolutely ridiculous situation that you have created by considering and supporting only the buyer’s position. You are in fact employed by me as my agent and should at least equally be looking after and protecting my interests, and not only those of the buyer.
I am particularly concerned you, and they, thought we were going to move out of our home before exchange of contract, without a reasonable gap to completion (which I was always happy to do), or before we bought a new home and had time to move in to it, without discussing it with me. That is absolutely as absurd situation. There would obviously be a real risk of me running 3 homes for the time it takes to re-market and sell again if the buyer pulled out which obviously thay had the right to do at any time up to exchange… just like I am doing now.
Please take this email as formal notification to withdrawn The House from the market and terminate your company’s agency agreement.
Your sincerely “
Obviously I didn’t send any of it except the last paragraph.
So we have all the time we need to get weird wooden house sorted and a cabin or annex built for our son before he has to move over.
What a huge relief.
Meanwhile we’re making progress getting rid of the previous owner’s stuff. It’s proving quite emotional.
And a good friend is helping us and keeping spirits up 😁
