Hello,

First of all, I would like to apologies for the fact you felt you had to leave this negative review after your experience with our agency. Despite multiple conversations with different members of management, it disappoints me that an understanding has not been reached.

As a client that we have previously worked with in the past, after speaking with the vendor on our recommendation he was happy to reserve the property in question for you once the offer had been made. Our normal process is to wait until the survey has been completed and your mortgage is offered before we mark the property as SSTC, but as a previous client we were happy to recommend to our client that you were trustworthy and that we mark the property SSTC immediately.

It is correct we asked for you to start the mortgage application process as soon as possible once the offer was accepted as we would do with any buyer. In our opinion, any buyer committed to a purchase would want to start this process as soon as possible to ensure the property is purchased in the earliest time period possible.

The offer was made on the 7/4/22 and we did not instruct solicitors to begin work on the sale until the mortgage results were in, which was on the 9/5/22, over a month later. We were advised on the 14/4/22 that the mortgage application had been submitted and emailed the Mortgage Advisor for an update on the 22/4/22. After not receiving a response, we contacted you directly on 25/4/22 to see if you had an update, so that we could keep you and our vendor in the loop. The survey was booked in on the 27/4/22 and we contacted the mortgage advisor on the 4/5/22 and 5/5/22 to see if the results were in. After we did not receive a response, again we contacted yourself on the 6/5/22 to see if you had heard anything. We received confirmation that the mortgage had been offered on the 9/5/22 and instructed solicitors to begin working on the sale, as previously mentioned.

During the conveyancing process there was an issue where your case manager at the solicitors changed and did not advise us or yourself of this. We resolved this for and ensured that the sale stayed on track and advised you accordingly of this. There were a few correspondences with yourself during this time period as your solicitor was unresponsive and it took longer than anticipated to resolve this issue.

I apologies if the above timescale seems excessive to you, but we were trying to move the sale forward as quickly as we could for you and without response from your solicitor, in some circumstance we had to contact you directly. We pride ourselves on keeping our vendor and buyer updated throughout the process and this is what we have and always will be trying to achieve.
On the 6/6/22 we were advised by our vendor that due to financial changes he could no longer purchase his onward purchase and therefor he would have to remain at his current property. As a result of this, he subsequently had to pull your purchase off the market. We tried to call you to advise of this, but unfotantley you were on holiday abroad, so we could not make contact via phone, hence why we had to email.

As a agency we understand your frustration in regards to the purchase falling though and sympathise with you for the time and financial loss occurred. Unfortunately, this also applies to the vendor who also lost out financially with his mortgage application fee and survey for his onward purchase that he did not end up purchasing. A purchase is never secure until contracts are exchanged and buyers and sellers pull out of transactions all the time at different periods for different reasons. This is a risk both parties undertake once they agree a sale. As an experienced purchaser I am sure you are aware of the potential risks when investing in this country.

In regards to the other property you tried to purchase, an offer below the asking price was accepted by yourself, but it was made clear verbally and in writing that viewings would continue taking place until a survey has been arranged. Another buyer came forward and offered the asking price, which in this instance was £7,000 above your offer. The vendor wished to switch parties and it is their decision as it is their home.

On both occasions we advised that your mortgage advisor offers financial cover and it was worth discussing with them if they could offer any financial compensation.

I am sure this response will offer little insight as you have had this conversation with 3 separate members of management at our firm, including myself. If there is anything further you wish to add then I will be more than happy to discuss.

Kindest Regards

Ben Walkley
On Behalf of Jackson Green and Preston Estate Agents