Vendors too slow, advice on how to proceed...

tek-monkey

But they had already offered to move into rented hadn't they? The problem is they haven't.

I still feel that if a timeframe was agreed, and has now passed, you should get tough on them. If an actual deadline was not agreed though, you can only wait and apply a little more pressure.

1echidna

tek-monkey wrote: »

But they had already offered to move into rented hadn't they? The problem is they haven't.

I still feel that if a timeframe was agreed, and has now passed, you should get tough on them. If an actual deadline was not agreed though, you can only wait and apply a little more pressure.

Trying to apply pressure in a situation where one is a supplicant and can essentially be shown two fingers is likely to be counterproductive. If one must try to get reassurance a little gentle reminder is likely to be more productive.

lelole

property.advert wrote: »

If you are prepared to walk away, insist on penalty clauses. Too many people offer unrealistic schedules and do not want to move into rented or be faced with those costs.

If I were the vendor and you wanted me out, I'd counter offer asking for some extra cash and I would move into rented, throwing the ball back into your court.

We are prepared to walk away, and if they tried to suggest we should offer them extra money to help fund their indecision, then that would be the last straw! To be honest, it's not that "we want them out" as such, it's just that we know our buyers timescale and we want to adhere to that. We would rent, but, it seems senseless for us to rent for a few weeks or a couple of months, when they clearly are struggling to find somewhere to buy, surely it makes sense all round for them to agree to rent, giving themselves the breathing space to find somewhere... If they were upfront and said look we can't find anywhere, but we'd like to keep you, can we come to some arrangement to split the cost of you renting we *might* agree to it, even though they had intially said they would be happy to rent. We just feel like we are being fobbed off and fobbed off - so of course are losing faith in their motivation...

Anyway thanks for all of your advice, I tried to get hold of their EA and was fobbed off again, so I spoke to our EA today and they are going to see if they have better luck at finding out what is happening...

Thanks
lelole

DVardysShadow

Time for you to rethink this from the base?

You have a buyer B for house L
You have an accepted offer for house V but vendor cannot proceed due to not having found another property
You are not prepared to rent, because you could require to move in and out before Christmas.

Now put the following objectives in order of preference

1. I do not wish to lose buyer B
2. I do not wish to lose house V
3. I do not wish to go into rented accommodation

The reason for this is that you will be lucky to get 2 out of the 3 - you should be planning to get at least 2 and be prepared to compromise on the 3rd.

On 1], your buyer could walk away, but there are others. Or your buyer could be making a fuss in order to get in for Christmas, but have no real need.

On 2], your vendor has a nice house, otherwise you would not be offering. So you could expect them to want an even nicer house and for it to take some time to find it - and for it to take even more time ad infinitum up a chain.

On 3], once it comes to this, it is unlikely you will be in and out before christmas, and about your only leverage with your vendor is that once you go into rented, you will be in no hurry and will expect to stay put for christmas. Which could encourage them to dump you as a buyer, but frankly there would be little prospect of them finding another buyer and completing before christmas. Plus, you never know, perhaps they are reallyplanning not to move before christmas.

But never mind the detail of the above, what is realy needed is your priority ordering for the above.

1echidna

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]I know it is somewhat oblique, but my thought for the day on what the OP should be offering as a prayer is:

"God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference."[/FONT]

terryya

I've been in this situation where the sellers EA keep saying "tomorrow" or "next week" but tomorrow or next week never comes, and weeks turn into months. We obviously like to house to put an offer in but eventually got to the point where we had had enough and advised the Estate Agent we were getting fed up and would withdrew our offer if progress wasn't made - surprise, surprise, a few dasy later a date was set to complete. This was a few years ago when houses were selling before they were in the EAs window so not a decision we took lightly.

I'm not saying that this will work for you, just that I think eventually it is worth just walking away - even if just to keep you sanity!

tek-monkey

1echidna wrote: »

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]I know it is somewhat oblique, but my thought for the day on what the OP should be offering as a prayer is:

"God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference."[/FONT]

Not a religios person, but that is pretty much what I live by.

If I don't like something, I change it.
If I can't change it, I stop worrying as there's nothing I can do.
If I can change it but don't, stop whinging as its my own fault (kind of)

Works well.

zzzLazyDaisy

If you go into rented, the minimum period is a 6 month assured shorthold tenancy.

So unless you know someone who can put you up temporarily, or who is happy to come to an informal arrangement with you to occupy a property they are not using at the moment (which isn't very likely, because of the laws relating to rentals, even informal ones) then you will be committing yourselves for 6 months.

That would give your seller time to find somewhere and they would just have to wait for you. Or, it would give you time to pull out of the current purchase and look for somewhere more suitable, at your leisure.

Sweetcaz_2

I feel your pain having recently been in the same situation!

I had a cash buyer for my property and the vendors were going into rented. 8 weeks in they had an offer accepted on a house and a week later my cash buyer said complete next week or I pull out. I managed to stall them for a few more weeks but then the same threat was made and my vendors said I would just have to wait as they want to tie their purchase up with their sale and are no longer going into rented - so basically tough my problem!!

We did not want to lose out buyer so 4 weeks ago completed and moved in with parents. We are still there and still awaiting a completion date - not even exchanged!

It seems to me threatening to pull out only has any effect if you are a cash buyer and makes little difference when caught up in the middle of the chain - or as I prefer to call it stuck between a rock and a hard place, LOL!!

lelole

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

If you go into rented, the minimum period is a 6 month assured shorthold tenancy.

So unless you know someone who can put you up temporarily, or who is happy to come to an informal arrangement with you to occupy a property they are not using at the moment (which isn't very likely, because of the laws relating to rentals, even informal ones) then you will be committing yourselves for 6 months.

That would give your seller time to find somewhere and they would just have to wait for you. Or, it would give you time to pull out of the current purchase and look for somewhere more suitable, at your leisure.

Yes, that is the thing, you can't really rent for less than 6 months. We wouldn't have minded going into rented, but we would want to drop our offer to accomodate our losses in taking that action... we are strongly considering this and have decided to just give ourselves a bit longer as we are not ready to take drastic action - yet!

lelole