Owning your own home

We've had a really shit time with dishonest estate agents over the years so we really didn't think many stories would surprise us. That was until we heard this gem from a neighbour.

Our neighbour's Mum is > 90 years old and has dementia. Last year they persuaded her to move into supported living accommodation which meant selling the 5 bed house in Suffolk that she had been living in alone for a few years. My neighbour spent some time negotiating a 1% deal with the selling agent. Property went to market and an offer was received and accepted. A few weeks later an invoice came through in the post for £22,500, 3% of the sale price.

Turns out that some time after the offer was received and accepted an estate agent visited the old lady who can barely remember her own name and convinced her to sign a backdated document agreeing to the 3% fee.

Fucking outrageous.

We left some nice coat hooks on the wall when we sold our place.
Texted the new owner...
"hello, we left our coats hooks - when is a good time for us to nip round and get them"
"hello WjP, come anytime. Please bring £100 for us to cover the cost of replacement coat hooks"

erm... no babe.

Must be possible to get that voided due to her not being of sound mind at the time she signed it or something

Sure. I doubt they'll be paying anything. They're hell bent on ending that estate agent.

Did they have a signed agreement for the 1% in the first place?

No idea. Just relaying the story as told to me.

well done! Where are you moving to?

Bunch of cunts either way, was just curious how brazen they were being.

Thanks, top of Deptford High St by the DLR.

Just heard from the estate agent that the seller has arranged for a removal company to come at 2pm. Not sure if this is going to mean we can't complete today. I've told my solicitor I don't care about the furniture I just want the keys.

That shouldn't stop you completing. Most people complete around 2-3pm once funds have cleared from the banks etc.

If the movers don't arrive until 2pm, all it will mean is that you probably wont get access until 4 or 5pm.

I lived on DHSt for five years. Its a fun area. We're moving not too far from you actually.

Completing tomorrow...

My solicitors have advised that it would be best to wait until the place is empty before going round and checking everything is in order. Maybe we're being over cautious but given the track record of the seller I think it's wise.

Not sure what it's like in Englandshire but in Scotland we have 5 days after moving in to a property to check the heating, if it's fucked then it is the sellers responsibility as far as I'm aware!

We matched the offer and it was accepted, but it left us pissed off with the other couple for not accepting the 'deal' that we'd all agreed re the survey race, and for pushing up the price, and we were pissed off with the buyer for also reneging that the survey race would be final

And then dropped the offer by the same amount on the day of exchange I hope?

aaaaand we've just been told the freehold management company has changed to a new one and their budget for next year is £600 more than what was previously quoted.

Fucking cunts.

Part of us buying was so we could get away from dickhead landlords, it's starting to feel like we should have walked away from this place months ago.

aaaaand we've just been told the freehold management company has changed to a new one and their budget for next year is £600 more than what was previously quoted.

You've learned this just now? Was your solicitor asleep?

Is this even legal? I mean if a will (I know it's not quite the same) was signed when the person isn't fully aware of they are doing so, that's illegal, right?

We'd already received a completion statement from the seller's solicitors but at 11am they sent an amended version. I've asked for a breakdown of the costs but from what I understand we'd have to put in a claim/complaint and prove that these costs are unreasonable.

"In the meantime I am afraid we must provide you with an amended completion statement. Our client has appointed new managing agents... blah blah blah ...you’ll see we have amended the apportionment in the attached completion statement.

I am aware this is very late in the game to adjust apportionments but am afraid I have only just been notified of the service charge increase. My client apologises to yours for any inconvenience.

Yours sincerely
Mr Dickhead"

How many flats are part of the agreement?

I'd attempt to go for Right To Manage.

Our client has appointed new managing agents

So the seller is the freeholder? What are they selling you?

is it a new build?

there are 4 in total so this could easily become an option

I would look at it as a priority.

There a high chance the other flats will be pretty pissed about the rise in costs as well. It should be easy to convince them to head in that direction.

The seller is the freeholder and has been letting the flat for the last 2 years. When they renovated the building they created 4 new leases for the flats, one was sold last year and I think they still own the other 2.

We're buying one of the leasehold flats, the previous management agent was a spin off company which the freeholder owned (Address of the building Ltd). The new agent looks to be a separate company which manages numerous buildings.

I don't know where that sits with being able to buy the freehold out. But I'd imagine not well given the freeholder still owns the other flats.

You might just have to suck it up. Might be a wild ride

Pretty much this. We're committed now so will have to hold tight and see what happens. We'll just have to challenge the service charge at a later date if we think it's inflated/no accurate.

4 years in this place then I'm fucking off to Bristol...