This work investigates whether the observed ${1}^{\ensuremath{-}+}$ exotic mesons are molecular states. We first use a potential model to calculate the spectra and lifetimes of the ${f}_{0}(980)$ and ${a}_{0}(980),$ taken to be loosely bound molecular states of $K\overline{K},$ then apply the same scenario to the ${1}^{\ensuremath{-}+}$ exotic states ${\ensuremath{\pi}}_{1}(1400)$ and ${\ensuremath{\pi}}_{1}(1600),$ assuming them to be $\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\eta}(1295)$ and $\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\eta}(1440)$ molecules, respectively. We derive the effective potential in the framework of field theory at the hadronic level. Our results indicate that the present data on ${\ensuremath{\pi}}_{1}(1400)$ and ${\ensuremath{\pi}}_{1}(1600)$ rule out the specific molecular ansatz. We show that the lifetime of a loosely bound heavy-light molecule with enough angular momentum is fully determined by the lifetimes of its constituent mesons.