help. vendor won't settle on settlement day . can i not buy the house?

[fuboy63]

bought a house on the 14/aug, settlement was ment to be in 6/7 weeks time, but the vendor requested to move the settlement day on the 22/oct, which is tomorrow, but yesterday his solicitor called and told me that the vendor won't settle on the the 22/oct , he wants another two weeks of extension for the settlement day. i'm pretty sick of this waiting, what can i do in this situation? if i don't agree with the extention settlement time , can i say that i don't want the house , give my deposit back? thanks

ps.. how long does the vendor has to settle? i get the feeling that the vendor can delay the settlement as long as he want?

 

[RickF]

Get in contact with your solicitor. The vendor should be accountable for any further costs you will incur due to the delay just as you would be if you delayed settlement.

 

[Propertunity]

You can certainly issue a "14 day Notice to Complete". Get your solicitor to do this now, in case he wants more time again.

You cannot collapse the contract or get your deposit back ......at all.

 

[jrc77]

bought a house on the 14/aug, settlement was ment to be in 6/7 weeks time, but the vendor requested to move the settlement day on the 22/oct, which is tomorrow, but yesterday his solicitor called and told me that the vendor won't settle on the the 22/oct , he wants another two weeks of extension for the settlement day. i'm pretty sick of this waiting, what can i do in this situation? if i don't agree with the extention settlement time , can i say that i don't want the house , give my deposit back? thanks

I've bought two houses and had settlement delayed both times. The first one was delayed three times before finally settling. It was very frustrating, but not a lot I could do about it.

The sale contract is written by the vendors solicitor - so normally has clauses in it for penalties if you delay settlement, but nothing if the vendor delays settlement.

Why do you want to pull out? Aren't you happy with your purchase? In a years time will a delay of a few weeks matter? Also remember you have a locked in price for a property that is hopefully increasing in value - and you aren't paying mortgage repayments on it until settlement.

Regards,

Jason

 

[Empty Pockets]

Get in contact with your solicitor. The vendor should be accountable for any further costs you will incur due to the delay just as you would be if you delayed settlement.

Really how so? Yet to see a contract written by a vendor that favours a purchasers with penalties.

 

[fuboy63]

Why do you want to pull out? Aren't you happy with your purchase? In a years time will a delay of a few weeks matter? Also remember you have a locked in price for a property that is hopefully increasing in value - and you aren't paying mortgage repayments on it until settlement.

Regards,

Jason[/QUOTE]

at the beginning we were quite happy with the purchase, but after we signed the contract and talk to the solicitor, there's lots of things coming up concerning us, and we found really big pressure if we buy the house. but there's nothing we can do now , as we are locked into the contract. thank you for your tip

 

[fuboy63]

You can certainly issue a "14 day Notice to Complete". Get your solicitor to do this now, in case he wants more time again.

You cannot collapse the contract or get your deposit back ......at all.

so . after 14 days notice sent if the vendor still don't want to settle what happens? what can be done?

 

[fuboy63]

I've bought two houses and had settlement delayed both times. The first one was delayed three times before finally settling. It was very frustrating, but not a lot I could do about it.

The sale contract is written by the vendors solicitor - so normally has clauses in it for penalties if you delay settlement, but nothing if the vendor delays settlement.

Why do you want to pull out? Aren't you happy with your purchase? In a years time will a delay of a few weeks matter? Also remember you have a locked in price for a property that is hopefully increasing in value - and you aren't paying mortgage repayments on it until settlement.

Regards,

Jason

how long did ur settlement got delay. it's really frustrating... it's been 4 weeks longer than the normal settlement time and now they still wont settle... i just want this settlement to get done very quickly and kick off the other problem.

 

[Simon]

Be careful you don't catastrophise what might be quite minor.

What don't you find out what the reason is?

He may have had trouble moving house or a problem in the family.

In this case a few weeks is nothing in the scheme of things.

Solicitors sometimes make things harder. If it was me I'd just give the vendor a call and see what's going on.

Cheers,

 

[Empty Pockets]

so . after 14 days notice sent if the vendor still don't want to settle what happens? what can be done?

You can walk away with your deposit.

You can apply to courts to enforce the contract but I would assume that is both messy and costly.

 

[jrc77]

how long did ur settlement got delay. it's really frustrating... it's been 4 weeks longer than the normal settlement time and now they still wont settle... i just want this settlement to get done very quickly and kick off the other problem.

My first place had settlement delayed twice - the first time by two weeks and then by about a week and a half. Apparently it was because the vendor and his bank had a on going disagreement about were the money should go Had a mad scramble to extend my lease as I was renting at the time and had given notice already - luckily my landlord was happy for me to just extend for a few weeks.

The second place was delayed only by a day - and that was because the vendors bank "lost" the paper work - although personally I think the bank cut themselves short on time because settlement fell on the first business day after Easter.

Wish you all the best for a speedy resolution.

Regards,

Jason

 

[RumpledElf]

I'm the vendor on a house that is supposed to settle tomorrow and probably won't - the problem being my bank. Two different people within the bank have said sure, tomorrow, but we'll just take $50,000 off you for a bit, and another has said it can't settle until the end of the month, so I don't know who to believe at the moment. My conveyancer is confused too

 

[adso]

Gah I dont see how they can move settlement dates without significant penalty.. in my case im renting & id have given notice to my landlord already... other people might have timed settlement with the settlement of their current house..

Either way.. the purchaser ends up homeless till the vendor gets his act together... how is that fair for the purchaser?

 

[Empty Pockets]

Gah I dont see how they can move settlement dates without significant penalty..

Because it's in the contract.

 

[Amadio]

Apologies if this is somewhat diverting the OP's question, but how can this be avoided?

What wording can be added to the contract which protects the buyer?

There are so many things to be done which all need to come together on one day, especially if moving interstate (termination of lease, moving company, perhaps even end of a job), how can a seller have the legal right to just tell a buyer to bugger off - they aren't ready to move out yet.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Apologies if this is somewhat diverting the OP's question, but how can this be avoided?

What wording can be added to the contract which protects the buyer?

What vendor is going to let you penalise them, they hold the house, they draft the contract.

 

[RumpledElf]

Avoid it by having a longer settlement. I have a cash buyer so we did a settlement of just under 3 weeks. Everything is fine EXCEPT the bank needed to value our other properties first because they are crossed, and with 2 weeks notice the crazy department shuffle in the bank only managed to send out a valuer the day before yesterday. Settlement is today.

This is now bringing up more issues as I have cancelled my electronic collection of the rent, the buyer hasn't set one up yet and the next rent payment is next Thursday so I'm kind of prodding the buyer to visit the tenants and get them to sign all the forms to pay *him* instead of me, since the rent is 2 weeks in advance and the conveyancer will sort any overlap out.

The bank could have been a bit more proactive and valued our properties when we subdivided earlier this year. So now they have on file a block of land worth $0 and a house worth $90k (both wildly incorrect figures) securing a loan of $80k, which they are now having a big whinge about as they have our LVR down as 68% and those figures put our LVR well above that. A desktop valuation on the block of land alone could have avoided this.

 

[Dazz]

What vendor is going to let you penalise them, they hold the house, they draft the contract.

What a breath of fresh air, to read a reply that is exactly correct and succinct.

You must live in the real world empty pockets, cos your replies have been spot on in this thread.

the purchaser ends up homeless till the vendor gets his act together... how is that fair for the purchaser?

No such thing as "fair"....it's all plain as day in the Contract of Sale. Contract is written by, and for, the Vendor. Clauses in there to penalise the Buyer if they are late or cannot complete. Obviously they don't write clauses in there to penalise themselves.

Smart Buyers pick that anomoly up and can obviously negotiate with the Vendor prior to signing up, but of course the Vendor (typically through their solly) tell the Buyer to get stuffed.

Buyer then has a choice to make - continue on or move along.

Fair / whining / complaining like a little school girl doesn't come into it. Read the contract and act accordingly. It will stipulate all of the Vendors rights and all of the Buyers obligations. Choice.



One of the contributors of this forum shared with me over a cup of tea her nightmare of trying to force an old guy to complete settlement. He simply changed his mind about 2 weeks prior to settlement and told everyone to get stuffed - he wasn't shifting. It went to court....on the recommendation of the Buyers solicitor. The threatening lawyers letters did nothing. He dragged it out over 3 years and it cost them well over 150K to enforce the contract. Gave them ulcers and migraines for 3 years. Eventually forced him out, but it took such a toll, they immediately put it up for sale again.


IMO, if the Seller doesn't want to settle, then I'd just move along and find another to buy. Enforcing adults to actually do stuff they desparately don't want to do, is MIGHTY MIGHTY difficult, especially as they dig their heels in and prepare for a long drawn out battle. This "stick to yer guns" thing works both ways unfortunately.

 

[Amadio]

What vendor is going to let you penalise them, they hold the house, they draft the contract.

And what buyer should allow a vendor to hold all the cards?

Seems logical that if there are penalties for a buyer not to come up with the $$ on time, there should be penalties for the seller to be penalised if they don't hand over the goods in the time stated on the contract.

After all this time, NOW I understand why the selling agent for a property in Victoria just about had an apoplexy when we said no thanks to her contract, we had our own - being fresh from the USA we hadn't a clue that buyers here just don't go around with their own offer-to-buy-forms, which of course, are all in the buyer's favour.

 

[fuboy63]

And what buyer should allow a vendor to hold all the cards?

Seems logical that if there are penalties for a buyer not to come up with the $$ on time, there should be penalties for the seller to be penalised if they don't hand over the goods in the time stated on the contract.

After all this time, NOW I understand why the selling agent for a property in Victoria just about had an apoplexy when we said no thanks to her contract, we had our own - being fresh from the USA we hadn't a clue that buyers here just don't go around with their own offer-to-buy-forms, which of course, are all in the buyer's favour.

move along? huh. easy to say, not likely when ur 140k deposit is locked in the real estate's acct. if i can get the deposit back i'm sure will move along, stuff the vendor, it'ss not like there's no other house to buy derrrrrr......