Sellers have "accepted" our offer, but have nowhere to go.

forumgrazer

There's almost nothing you can do to tie down your vendors under the England/Wales system. As general advice from a fellow buyer and previous seller there are some things you can do...

You should ask for it to stop being marketed ie under offer or StC. This will at least allow you some peace of mind - though you should check what their ES's policy is - often EA's will only do this once a valuation/survey has been instructed as non-proceeding sales aren't sales in their eyes. If you can ask th vendor outright - again this will let you gauge their response. If they won't, its unfortunately probably only a matter of time before the EA turns up 'another buyer'. I know its not 2007 but its risky if they're not desperate to sell at your price as they'll always be looking for more.

Why are they moving?... What are they looking for? You need to know all these things so that you can prepare yourself. In the meantime try and do as much research without your solicitor - if its leasehold then read through the lease in the HIP and find out about management companies, trawl through the Land Registry, old planning applications and Building Regs. If you have a solicitor I'd make sure they go slow as you don't want to rack up costs. If not get one so that you're ready to go quickly if necessary (it'll also be reassuring to EA and vendor that you're serious)

Ask if they'll consider breaking the chain... Lots of complications with double moving but they may consider if they're serious sellers.

Don't fall in love with the house... its really hard but it'll save heartache.

00ec25

this is a chicken adn egg situation, as a seller they really cannot progress with finding a place to move on to until they have an offer for their own house and know what funds they will have to play with themselves

as the buyer you have no idea how long it will take for them to find the place nor what will happen when they do

many years ago I was buying a place in a new area and was renting whilst waiting for a purchase to go through on a place I had had an offer accepted on. But the seller I was buying from "suddenly" lost out on the place they were supposedly purchasing and told me they were now back to house hunting, would I please wait.
Having bought houses before, I had done my own survey and had not yet appointed a solicitor, so the only money I had spent was the costs of doing the visits etc. so not badly out of pocket yet but still having to rent rather than live in my own place.
Move on 3 months and now my rental was coming to an end so I pressured the seller to commit, 2 days later their EA contacted me to say the house was now off the market and the seller was no longer moving, neither I nor their EA were very impressed! To this day that house has never changed hands again according to the various house price websites

marc-h_2

Using property bee it looks like lots of properties have been on the market for ages where I am looking, which is to be expected I suppose with the market how it is. I am worried that lots of them have left if on the market but after 12-18months aren't as fussed about moving as they once were. It makes it difficult and I can see this type of situation happening a lot until the market picks up again.

Jowo_2

Give the EA your proposed deadline for exchange and completion which ties in with the end of your current rental period and that failure to achieve the dates will lead to your withdrawal from the purchase. Get these dates communicated by your solicitor to the vendor's at the outset.

Make it clear up front that you expect the vendor to make alternative plans if they don't find an onward property to buy, such as putting their stuff into storage and moving into a relatives property or getting rental accommodation.

But ultimately you have to accept the risk that the sellers are flaky and there's little you can do apart from convey your seriousness that you aren't willing to wait around for months for them to find a new property to try and reduce their scope for timewasting.