Professional Ethics (long one, sorry!)

[ankh]

Hi Everyone,


I'd appreciate any thoughts/ advice on the following situation I have found myself in:


I am selling my house (let's call it house 'A') and buying another house. It took about a month for me to sell my house and the couple buying it were in a desperate situation as they had 2 previous houses fall through - according to them the buyers had decided not to sell and their mortgage offer was coming to an end. i think they were also keen to find somewhere and take advantage of the stamp duty situation before the end of the year.


The house I am buying (lets call it House 'B') belongs to a couple who are buying a house and the people at that house (lets call it House 'C') were looking for their 'dream house' and promised to move to rented accommodation once everyone below the chain was ready to complete.


My buyers recently found out from their mortgage lender that they were not prepared to extend their current mortgage offer beyond Nov and they needed to apply for another. The buyers asked for me to move by the end of Nov and I agreed I could but Houses B and C weren't happy with that. I then offered to stay with my parents for a few weeks provided I could exchange with House B before I moved. I then found out that House C's situation has changed and they have found their 'dream house' so don't want to move to rented accommodation. My estate agent tried in vain to convince them as apparently did House B's vendors. My estate agent then approached me saying she was worried my buyers were going to pull out (especially since they had walked away from 2 other houses) so to keep them happy would me, House B and House C offer to contribute £250 each towards the cost of the new mortgage on completion. I agreed, so she approached House B's estate agent who refused without even asking the people at House B.


I was going to ask:
(a) Are estate agents allowed to withhold information like that which might be the difference between the chain breaking or going ahead? (Apparently my buyers have discussed walking away from the situation)


(b)Should I approach the vendors of House B and tell them this and try and deal with them directly?


Sorry for the long post. Any thoughts very much appreciated.


Mona

[drhouse]

a) Any offers should be passed to the vendor and as this is much the same thing they should ask them.

b) By all means speak to the sellers of house B. No point in being outraged at the estate agents and then losing the house you want. They can be sorted out later. The vendors should also know that they are not assisting in their sale.