House purchase - any advice from you wise folk..?

MoneyBags

Hi,

My wife and I decided to move last September - we put our house on the market and it promptly sold. We completed on our sale on the 4th Jan.

End of Nov / early Dec we found a house we liked and made an offer. We made the offer on the basis of completing by the end of Jan (which we thought would be reasonable considering Xmas etc)- with the vendor agreed as, although they hadn't found a house to purchase, they said they would move into rental. The offer was accepted and solicitor instructed the 1st week in Dec.

After xmas I spoke to my solicitor as to the progress of the purchase and she informed me that the vendor hadn't completed or returned any of the required documentation. I chased the agent to chase the vendor - as they were aware we currently has no where to live and they had agreed to complete by the end of Jan.

Last Friday the documentation still hadn't be completed or returned - so I chased the agent again - who spoke to the vendor and they said they would sort it and that we were still on for the end of Jan.

The solicitor finally recieved the documentation Wednesday - and it seems as if the shed and the cooker are not including in the sale ... which was a surprise based on the conversations we'd had with the vendors during the viewings.

Yesterday the agent called to say the vendor still hadn't found anywhere to move to yet (although they were going for a 2nd viewing at a house) and there was no way they would be completing by the end of Jan. Nor could they give me any idea as to when they would likely completing....

So it looks as they are not moving until they find a house to move into (not a rental as promised) and there is no way we are completing by the end of Jan... and at this rate end of Feb isn't looking good either ... and in the meantime my wife and I have no home and are currently staying with the in laws and our cats are in a cattery...

So what do we do? We made the offer on the basis we would complete by the end of Jan... so do we:

a. Give up on this one - chalk it up to experience - look for a 6 six month rental and find somewhere else? Although so far it costs us somewhere around £1200 (with mortgage application and solicitor fees)

b. Sit and wait? We could sit and wait - once they have found somewhere and are ready to exchange hit them with some demand of money off (on the basis we agreed the end of Jan and by this time they would be invested in some other property). The downside to this is it could take months (if they dont buy the property they have 2nd viewed) and we arent in a comfortable position to wait ...

c. Set them a new deadline? Do we set them a new deadline - say the end of Feb - and if they dont agree to this then we walk away?

Any other suggests? Also any advice on where we might stand should we walk away re solicitor fees etc? I'm guessing there is no come back ....

Anyway thanks for reading sorry for the long post ...

MB

delmar39

Hmmmm difficult one and many things that could be said here.

How much do you like the place and are you prepared to wait for it no matter what?

Can you do a three month rent somewhere and afford to pay the mortgage (if you get your new place before the three months rent is up) and the monthly rent?

We are currently going through on our sale. When we accepted the offer our buyer had accepted an offer on their place and we are off to a new build so no onward chain. So, relatively straightforward if all goes to plan.

To a certain extent your buyer hasn't really done anything wrong because it would have been unfair of them to start viewing other properties before they had accepted an offer on theirs. They simply haven't found anywhere they like yet - something that couldn't be foreseen.

Perhaps see how their second viewing goes. If they put an offer in and it's accepted then you may be looking at six weeks, but what's the chain like on the place that they're buying? Get all the info from them if they put in a second offer and it's accepted and make your mind up.

Put bluntly you're in their hands and it all depends on how much you want the property. You could be waiting for ages or it could all go through quickly. Plus, would you want to start marketing your property and go through it all again?

pie81

Unless there are plenty of properties on the market that you would be prepared to buy, then the chances are it would take you longer to find another place to buy and complete on that, than it would to sit and wait for this one. Moving into rented and losing your arrangement fee etc will cost more than some more cattery fees. So it's worth continuing with this one for a bit more.

On the other hand at the moment they have you hanging on and there is no real need for them to compromise by buying somewhere quickly or moving into rented. So there is a need to do something to show you are serious about the deadline.

If you are feeling bolshy then I would suggest you say that your offer will reduce by £Xk for every week of delay after a certain date. That should give them some motivation to get on with it.

MoneyBags

Thanks for your replies.

It would seem the most sensible options would be to establish if they've put an offer on the place they've just been to see (which is currently vacant), if so sit and wait.

I suppose the real issues are:

1. The feeling that we've been misled - we made of the offer on the basis of completing in Jan - the vendors have always known that they dont want to move into a rental .... why they couldnt be honest about this I dont know ...

2. Our cats have been in a cattery since Jan 2th ... the idea of leaving them in there for the next 6 weeks seems very unfair ...

Anyway thanks for your thoughts.