You fucking greedy bastards, I hope it falls down on top of you (house buying drama)

The BBQ Pit
1

I can’t remember the last time I started a thread, but I’m so bloody furious I need to vent somehow. Mods, please move if this is better suited elsewhere.

Crusoe and I have been looking to buy our first house for about a year now. We’ve been renting for the past five years, but we’re ready to start a family and need more space.

Last spring we had an offer accepted on a house last year and got immediately gazumped.

We kept looking, and several months later we found another house we loved, put in an offer, and had it accepted. The property was vacant, there was no chain, it all seemed to be going ahead according to plan. The vendor had wanted us to exchange before Christmas, but due to our surveyor and mortgage company dragging their heels, that turned out not be possible.

Thank God.

On the 4th Jan I got a call to tell me that over Christmas a pipe in the roof had burst and flooded the property. We were days away from exchanging, so have been thanking our lucky stars that it happened while it was still their problem, not ours. Since then, we have been sitting on our hands, waiting for their loss adjuster to go in and asses the extent of the damage. This happened on Wednesday.

Today the agent forwarded me an email from the vendor:

So basically, if we still want it it’ll be another six months before we can move, they will charge us more for the privilege, and it’s our fault for not completing quicker. Nothing to do with the fact that if we had all this would have been our problem not theirs, of course, oh no.

I’m furious but at the same time bitterly disappointed. I loved the house. It was the perfect family home (on a quiet, leafy cul-de-sac, in a lovely area, near a school, great transport links…). I was so looking forward to starting our family there. Now we have to start all over again, and I just don’t know if I can. I don’t have the energy and anything we do find is going to seem like second best now.

2

In fairness, it’s possible to read “If only they had completed before Christmas as originally indicated, it would probably never have happened!” as not saying it’s your fault for not completing.

A burst pipe in a vacant house is going to cause a shitload of damage because it can be gushing water for days or weeks before someone notices. If someone had been living there, the amount of damage would likely have been far less.

3

Well, yeah, it’s a sucky situation, and I can certainly see why you’d be upset, but I don’t think the owners are being particularly despicable. The reasons they gave for doing what they’re doing sound pretty reasonable to me. You mentioned how lucky it was that the burst pipe was still their responsibility - well, this is the price for that luck.

I don’t mean to be a jerk here, because I do sympathize, and I can certainly understand why you wouldn’t be viewing this completely dispassionately, but…yeah.

4

Even if we had completed before Christmas, there’s no way we’d have been able to move in by then, so it would have happened anyway, and we’d have been stuck with the consequences.

And fwiw, even their own estate agent seems to view their actions as despicable.

5

You dodged a bullet, be glad.

Maybe all kinds of interesting mold is growing in there even as we speak.

6

no doubt about that. Days away from a commission and they yank the sale back another six months. I’d be pissed too if I were their agent.

And it’s a sucky situation for you as well. Sorry.

7

I just tried to buy my first house too … well, a condo.

My sister is a realtor so she forwarded this listing to me as soon as it popped up. A condo, in a nice area, for which the price had recently been drastically slashed.

I looked at it on a Thursday and made an offer on it on Saturday – offered full price. I got out bid. I’m still not quite sure what happened.

8

That sucks, Jenny. Really horrible luck.

Buying and selling a house is incredibly fucking stressful, and the law doesn’t really protect anyone until the deeds are signed.

Having bought two houses and sold one in my lifetime, I can see it from the point of view of a vendor too. They have no emotional “contract” with you - they just want to make the best out of their purchase. Greedy is one way of looking at it but I was in the same situation too myself, and may have done the same.

Phil and Kirsty (and Sara Beeney) all advise never to invest emotionally in a property that isn’t yet yours. But that’s easier said than done. My first house I was desperate to own, and ended up in a damaging bidding war; the second one I was much more dispassionate: I even made the decision to buy it, having not seen it myself - I delegated that to my ex with the words “we want the same kind of house, and I trust your judgement”.

And having to deal with repairs while you’re living there would have been awful - if your insurance even agreed to cover it. I had a roof leak last year and some fucknugget claims adjuster drove all the way down from Leeds to tell me he wouldn’t honour it. I don’t have the money to fix it.

That aside, you’re both such lovely people, you deserve better - and you will get it, eventually. Keep your eyes out - something will come along.

9

Another thing I learned in the second purchase was to annoy the shit out of your mortgage broker. And your solicitor. Call (politely) up to once a day, and eventually they’ll push stuff through - or even hassle the vendor’s solicitor - just to get you off their back.

10

As someone who both has a house on the market right now and who is buying another (went through inspection yesterday) I empathize completely with your situation. When we were looking there were a couple that we let ourselves fall completely in love with, only to be crushed when the aquisition fell through for one reason or another. To have it happen because the seller reassessed their situation would be infuriating, no doubt.

Word to the wise, remain objective until it’s a done deal, then let yourself enjoy what you’ve purchased.

11

A pipe burst in the roof? Say what now?

What kind of house has water pipes, near the roof, where they can freeze? That sort of thing is forbidden, in cold climates, for this very reason.

It totally sucks for you, I can appreciate how disappointed you must be, but I vote for you dodged a bullet with this one.

This is not the house you were meant to have, nor was it as good a house as you imagined, cleary. Which means your dream house is still out there! Go find it. And good luck!

12

Wasn’t there, done that, came home to a half inch of running water. I lost my wall-to-wall carpeting, carpet padding, and drywall up to the 4-foot seam when all was said and done.

It was the condo’s PBE supply line, under their insurance – and it took THREE FUCKING MONTHS to get my place repaired, and I don’t remember how long AFTER that to get reimbursed for my up-front costs.

During all of this I found out that there had been plenty of previous PBE failures, with no master plan to replace the PBE lines.

13

They’re in “the other London” ;), and the entire UK has been experiencing the worst winter in years. British homes are generally brick and almost universally much better insulated than homes in the US, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

That, and if the house wasn’t vacant there would have been water moving in the pipes, reducing the chance of them freezing.

Jr, don’t focus on the opportunity/house you lost. Focus on the metric shitload of money and hassle you saved by not being the owner of a giant carpeted swimming pool.

There are plenty of fish in the sea.

14

As I have been doing some secretarial work for conveyancers for about say 2 years now all together (waiting to take some exams to move qualifications here) may I say that the sellers are taking quite a chance that they’ll get more money for the house in six months. It’s even possible that you can rebid at a lower price at that point. The market’s still really unstable and the basic situation of the house (total size and location) is not going to change, however they doll the house up.

What if you had exchanged, though, and were super excited and then learned you’d basically have to gut the place and not “live” there for six months? You’re extremely lucky, even if you did fall in love with the place.

About calling your solicitor every day – sure, that will remind them that you exist, but they usually are waiting for other things to happen. A lot of time is spent waiting for mortgages to go through, people up the chain to make up their minds on when they want to move, negotiating fixtures and fittings, getting search results and inspections, getting copy documents, etc and so on. I always tend to laugh a bit when people say they want to exchange and complete on the same day in a week’s time. Suuuuure, why don’t you talk to your mortgagee, and your seller, and their seller, and possibly your buyer, and everyone’s respective mortgagees, and all the moving companies, and the search providers, and possibly the Land Registry…you see my point. There’s only so much a solicitor can do to move things faster. And something can happen like someone’s bankruptcy search can turn up something and a mortgagee decides to cancel the loan, and then everything in the whole pile falls through.

Then you get the times when sellers do something ridiculous, like call off the certain sale of their property because they think they can make more money later. I’ve seen that happen a couple times, and they almost always settle on a lower bid later. Fools.

Don’t worry though, there’s another lovely property out there waiting for you, one without a burst pipe.

15

When we were looking at houses we found our current one and asked about it’s history. Apparently a couple had made an offer and it was rejected.

Great, we made our offer - close to asking price.

The other ealtor called the people that made the previous offer and encouraged them to make another offer, then called us to say there was another offer, did we want to up our bid?

I know no one did anything illegal, but it really pissed me off…

16

I’m a Realtor and almost every time I see someone lose a deal on a house there’s a house they like better in their future. You’re just not meant to have this house, start looking for the one you are supposed to have.

17

The same thing happened to my parents when they were going to buy the house my mom still lives in. The pipes burst a few days before closing. Of course, they had the other party repair the house, and got a slight dock in the price, so their situation wasn’t really comparable. But. . .still. Making you wait, and then charging more for it? That’s absolute BS. It might be legal BS, but still. You have my sympathy.

18

You don’t want to hear this, but I care enough to say it anyway.

My Dad had this happen in a house while he was on vacation. Six months later, after an unbeleiveable amount of stress and money, the place still smelled of mildew, and electrical shorts etc. were a common occurence. I don’t think the place was ever completely right, and he ended up selling it for a fraction of what he paid for it.

Step away from this house, and thank your lucky stars.

19

In London, the water tank is often in the attic. I’m guessing due to lack of water pressure. I live in fear that the damn thing is going to spring a leak and explode all over me in the middle of the night.

We’re just about to start looking for a house to purchase here and my biggest worry is the fact that sellers are not forced to honour their sale agreements if a better offer comes along before closing. You guys are right to not emotionally invest in any property until you’ve moved in…I’d be majorly pissed to get gazumped!

20

I’m with you. There’s no way in hell I’d buy a house with that much water damage. It looks to me like you dodged a bullet.
And am I the only one that had no idea what gazumpedmeant?