Hi all, I am in some predicament here that need some Sifus to help. I went to view an old double storey house last year and decided to buy the house after about a week or two. We paid the deposit to the agent around end of November. However the owner did not sign the agreement letter and hold it for one month before signing under pressure of us cancelling the purchase (or sth like that).

I cannot remember the details but each time we needed a document to proceed with the completion of the purchase, the owner's side delay one month. This includes house deed, ownership documents, site/house valuation by the bank and more. Of course during MCO 3.0 we were not able to proceed with anything at all.

It is now end of October and we have been waiting for discharge documents from the seller's bank & lawyer since early September. Apparently the seller's bank is also slow (SCB) so this document extra long. After this, it'll take another month at least to change name before the process can be completed.

Now you may be wondering why he purposely delay every document by one month, that is because he is still staying in the house with his whole family and is planning to move out to another bigger house. This new house however is a leasehold and as you may be well aware of...leasehold properties take longer to process. On top of that, we had an agreement in writing on the sales agreement that the owner will pay a minimum rent per month for staying at the house once all the SPA processes are complete.

My question here is can we do anything about this deliberate delay? I have been paying rent out of my own pocket for his benefit for months (another friend who bought a house on the same month as me moved into his new house in APRIL!!) and this Chinaman tactic needs to be addressed legally.

All advices are appreciated.