Phone call from disgruntled vendor

[gizzyjosh]

Hi all,

I have a fair idea of the answers already but I still wanted to bounce what's going on in my head off the PT community so ...

Tonight I received a call from a disgruntled vendor. I had put an S&P on her house but failed to follow through with the purchase due to finance. This was due to my equity partner changing his mind with about five days to go. He gave no reason why.

Our phone call went like this:

Me - 'Hi. Josh speaking.'

Vendor - 'Hi Josh. It's *mumble*. You were going to buy my house, but then weren't able to and now I have a bill from my lawyer for $100.'

Me - 'Ok. Ah.. *I get cut off*

V - 'My lawyer has charged me $100 for the property you didn't end up buying. I don't think I should have to pay for this.'

M - 'Sorry. Who am I speaking to?'

V - 'You know who you're speaking to'

M - 'Ah, no I don't. Who am I speaking to?'

V - 'I told you at the start. *I cut V off*

M - 'I missed your name at the start, which is why I'm you asking again'

V - 'It's *mumble*.'

M - 'Sorry, who?!'

V - 'It's *mumble*, it's (vendor), it's (VENDOR)!'

M - 'Oh! (VENDOR)! Yes! Sorry about that!'

V - 'Yes, well I've been charged $100 by my lawyer for a property you had no intention of buying. I mean, you took your little girlfriend for a holiday and didn't get a valuation, builder or anything. I don't think I should have to pay for that!'

M - 'And I'm getting charged $400 by my lawyer for a deal that didn't go through, all because *I get cut off*

V - 'But you had no intention of going through with the deal!'

M - 'Ok Vendor. Have you spoken to your lawyer about why I didn't follow through?'

V - 'Well, no *I cut V off*'

M - 'Because I explained to my lawyer why I couldn't do it and he should have explained it to yours'

V - 'But you had no intention *I cut V off*

M - 'Talk to your lawyer Vendor.'

V - 'But you had no *I cut V off*

M - 'Talk to your lawyer Vendor!'

I hang the phone up.

The questions I have:

What right does V have to ring me personally?
Is it within reason for V to "inply forcefully" for me to pay her lawyer bill?
Could I have dealt with this another way?
I would like to hear your FIRSTHAND experiences too.

Thanking you,

J

[k1w1]

Vendor sounds like a bully.

I would do the following:

Telephone Vendor and put on a posh lawyer's voice. Say "Is that Mrs Vendor? It's John Smith here from Lawyers & Lawyers, Mr Buyer's solicitors. I understand this purchase fell though recently. You do understand that his legal bill of $400 is the vendor's responsibility in this instance?". While she's stuttering and getting flustered, tell her that the fees increase by $250 per month.

That should put the cat amongst the pidgeons.

[ChundaMars]

What right does V have to ring me personally?

Well, there's nothing stopping the vendor ringing you personally, just as there's nothing stopping anyone calling you who can find out your number.

Is it within reason for V to "inply forcefully" for me to pay her lawyer bill?

No, but since when did everyone in the world act reasonably?

Could I have dealt with this another way?

Nah, I reckon you did exactly as you should have...

My question is - why are you worried about it?

[SuperDad]

Was this a property you got under contract with the intention of assigning, couldn't assign, and so pulled out using the finance clause?

Paul.

[gizzyjosh]

ChundaMars - Thanks. I'm not worried, just want to self reflect on the conversation. Make sure that I did do things right, in order to do things right the next time.

SuperDad - Thank you too. I had the intention of purchasing. With that said I did make the contract available for assignment to give me more options. At first, I didn't push the assignment too hard, but when I found out that my equity partner didn't want to go through with it anymore then I started pushing the assignment to save the deal. I didn't want it to fall through. I actually had a talk to some other PI's about how best to save the relationship between myself, the RE agent and the vendor, and the general consensus was to let the RE agent know what had happened immediately, give up the deal and let the V and RE agent get on to the next buyer. So I did that. Your feedback would be much appreciated on this!

On a side note SD; yours are some of my favourite posts to read. I usually pay attention when you write.

Thank you for your replies guys,

J

[SuperDad]

Thanks for the kind words Josh.

I asked about the assignment because I think that sometimes property finders act unethically when they get a property under contract that they have no intention of settling on themselves, and do not disclose this to the vendor.

In such cases I think that a vendor has every right to be upset.

Paul.

[gizzyjosh]

Hey K1w1,

I must have skipped straight past your post!

Um .. Thanks for the support, but I probably won't do that! haha. I'd prefer to be honest and get my lawyer to ring V's lawyer.

Thanks anyway though,

J

[KCT]

Haha. You have to see the funny side on this. I would post Vendor an invoice for your time on phone. Well worth the giggle.

[Wayne]

Thanks for the kind words Josh.

I asked about the assignment because I think that sometimes property finders act unethically when they get a property under contract that they have no intention of settling on themselves, and do not disclose this to the vendor.

In such cases I think that a vendor has every right to be upset.

Paul.

I have often wondered how the vendors feel about assignment and property finders. Generally selling a house is quite an emotional time and having the sale strung out by a property finder and then lost would be hard on many people.