SELLING YOUR HOUSE? - SELLERS BEWARE!!

Thousands of people in the UK who are selling their homes have experienced the collapse or loss of a sale for many reasons: Their chain collapses, the buyer pulls out of the sale before exchange or perhaps the buyer's mortgage lender withdraws or reduces the mortgage offer. In quite a few cases though, there are those people who, for whatever reason, pretend to be buyers then disappear before spending any money on legal fees and surveys.

Then there are a few instances when a bogus buyer embarks upon a hideous campaign of falsehoods and misdirection for reasons that may escape the average human being. This is the story of a house sale that was agreed between two parties, both of whom instructed solicitors and agreed a date for exchange and completion. The buyer wanted the seller to move out as quickly as possible and certainly within eight weeks of agreeing the purchase price.

On the face of it, there was nothing that the seller should concern himself about after all, the buyer had instructed a conveyancing solicitor and perhaps the only strange thing was that he advised the seller that all the usual searches would be carried out by his own in-house team and that no third party external surveys would be required.

The seller and his lawyers became concerned when the buyer terminated his solicitors four weeks after appointing them giving the reason that they were not any good, yet the solicitors in question had advised both the estate agent and the sellers solicitor that the buyer had not paid their initial fees despite numerous attempts to gain payment from him.

Initial fears were dispelled however, when a new firm of solicitors were appointed by the buyer and the sale appeared to progress in the normal way. The seller closed his business, (a recording studio) which was operating from an outbuilding within the main property's land. All the equipment within the business was sold on the belief that new equipment would be purchased when the seller had purchased his new home. On the strength of the sale, the buyer made an offer to buy a smaller property and a sale was agreed.

A major programme of house clearance and temporary storage arrangements were carried out resulting in volumes of items being sent into skips. Family and friends all lent a hand in getting the house ready for sale and much of the property's external assets were disposed of for reason that the seller's new home was significantly smaller than the home they were leaving.

As the time drew near to exchange, the buyer made a number of visits to the seller's property which further endorsed the prospect that the sale would go ahead, the buyer began drawing up plans to convert the property to the style that he and his partner preferred. The buyer also agreed to purchase certain assets including a tractor, garden equipment and a full size snooker table.

With one week left before the agreed exchange date, the seller and his solicitors put pressure on the buyer and his solicitors to confirm that the money required for the exchange was in place. The buyer's solicitor was not able to confirm that the funds had arrived into the client escrow account at that time. This obviously raised concerns with the seller who made contact with the buyer directly, he was assured that there was nothing to worry about it was a minor glitch as the money was coming from the Isle of Man and extra checks were required under money laundering rules.

The exchange date came and went without any funds being available to complete the exchange. Daily chases were made to the buyer's solicitor by the seller's solicitor. The buyer's solicitor was advised by the buyer that there had been a fraud on his account and his funds were frozen temporarily but would be resolved very soon. The matter remained unresolved and the date for completion was rapidly approaching.

The seller advised the buyer that he would need to give his removal company two days notice if the move was not going ahead but, the buyer insisted that all would be in place before the removal company arrived. This did not happen and as the removal company needed several days to complete the move, the seller had no choice but to proceed with the removal arrangements.

The day before the date to complete, the buyer visited the property to ascertain that the property would be ready for occupation the following day. By this time, the removal company employed by the seller had almost completed the removal of assets to store and the assertions made by the buyer suggested that he would be arriving with his assets at some point the following day and everything was on vans at his end. The buyer lived in Cornwall and the property he was buying was in Essex so it was quite plausible to believe that the buyer's assets were already pre-loaded.

Exchange and Completion day arrived, no funds were received by the buyer's solicitor and what was worse, the buyer was not responding to anyone by email text or phone, it appeared that he had gone to ground. Many phone calls and texts were sent to the buyer throughout the day and eventually the buyer's solicitor was advised that there had been a second fraud on the buyer's bank account however, this was being resolved. Later in the day the seller, who by now was beginning to despair managed to make contact with the buyer. The buyer told the seller that all had been resolved and that his solicitor had agreed with the seller's solicitor that it was too late in the day to exchange and complete and that they agreed to do so on the following Monday.

The seller could not confirm this with his solicitor for reason that it was after 5pm and the solicitor's offices were closed for the weekend. Needless to say, there had been no such agreement.

The seller was advised on Monday that the buyer had suffered a stroke and was incapacitated. This was later proved to be an untruth and that there was nothing wrong with the buyer. By now, the seller's family had left the property and had gone to their static caravan on the south coast believing that this would be a temporary arrangement whist the conclusion of the purchase of their new home went through.

Weeks went by and the buyer was still not able to fund the purchase of the property. There were many reasons given for the delay ranging from the bank putting a stop on the funds for reason that the money was overseas to his ex-wife having claim against his assets. The buyer's family had to make the decision that they would have to separate and live in different areas due to the daughter's work commitments and the hospital visits required for the buyer's partner who is suffering from CLL. The daughter went to live with her grandmother whilst the buyer and his partner lived in transit at their caravan and occasionally with the buyer's partner's mum. In Essence, the family was separated for many many months.

Over the next few months, the seller and his solicitor received numerous stories regarding the continued delays and the seller decided to take legal advice. The Buyer was confident that he had no legal obligation which is not the case. Whilst it is true that until an exchange has taken place in the UK there is no obligation financially on either party, if a party can prove losses resulting from someone telling lies, giving misdirection or fraudulent misrepresentation then a claim for Promissory Estoppel can be made.

On the threat of this, the buyer decided to speak openly about his situation but still affirmed his intention to buy the property. Something that he has maintained throughout the whole of this saga. It appears that his ex-wife does not agree with his divorce settlement offer and until this is resolved the buyer has no ability to release assets to satisfy the sale. It is understood that there was a hearing a week or so before the exchange was to take place. Another four months later and another four months after that. Today, there is still no result apparently and the seller has placed the property back on the market which, as we all know, is not in good shape at the moment.

The buyer has since declared on social media that he is intending to re-locate either to a Tonbridge post code or to a Norwich postcode no mention strangely enough that he intends to move to the property in Essex!

So, please be aware that there are some very strange people about posing as genuine buyers who, for whatever reason, will go to extraordinary lengths to satisfy their own fantasies whist inflicting maximum pain and financial loss to unsuspecting innocent honest and trusting victims. I will be updating this blog as the saga unfolds so please look forward to reading the next episode.

Finally if you are intending to move home and live in a large property in the Tonbridge or Norfolk area look out for a potential bogus buyer, we have already advised various estate agents in those areas to be on the alert if a buyer by the name of Andrew Redford from Cornwall approaches them with a view to buying a property. He is not a genuine buyer.

Thank you for Listening

David King MBE