sellers refuse to move out althgough they had plenty of time - need advice please!!!

Piiaaa

hello, i was wondering if anybody could help...

we are first-time- buyers and are in a bit of a mess.... (

about 4 weeks ago, we have signed the contract to buy our new house and we asked for a moving in date for around 3 weeks later... the solicitor said this shouldnt be a problem at all....

there was no communication from the sellers whatsoever and we finally did find out last week, that they hadn't even sorted their own mortgage out at that point..... apparently now they have a mortgage but we still hear NOTHING about a possible moving in date... they have a baby and therefore refuse to stay in temporary accommodation.....

we have to move out of our rented house this coming monday, we have to put our cat into a cattery (but are unable to tell them for how long we will need it for......, which causes a problem...) and we have to move into a b & b for a while.....

my question is: is this just our own bad luck, so we have to pay for accommodatin and cattery for god-knows-how-long or can we do anything by law to make the sellers move out or pay for part of our accommodation???

also, since they hardly talk to their solicitors, the lack of communication is most distressing - could we just go to the house one night and knock at their door to find out what the score is??? any advice would be much appreciated!!!!! MANY thanks!

Conny

MissMotivation

Firstly I would speak to the agent that is selling the property, it's possible the the vendors don't even know of your predicament. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do to force them to move out or to compensate you.

You should have stayed in your rented accommodation until you had agreed a moving date with sellers. I feel for you but there is not much you can do now unless the sellers take pity on you!

BobProperty

Funnily enough we were just discussing this on another thread.
First question : have you actually exchanged contracts and have a completion date? I suspect not, but if you have the rules of the game are totally different than what I'm about to say.
Assuming you haven't exchanged, first see if your landlord will let you stay on a bit longer where you are. (if you have given him notice and he already has tenants lined up to take your place, then I might have some sympathy for him) It is by far the easiest way to keep a roof over your head (plus I have some sympathy for the cat )
As far as making them move or them paying for your accommodation, sorry it's not going to happen. Given the recent discussion on here, I'm curious if your solicitor explained the situation and how the law works.
You can go round and ask them what is going on, they may have a perfectly genuine reason why they haven't done anything (baby could be ill for instance). Just be polite and don't push it. The last thing you want is them getting upset at you and pulling out of the deal. If this doesn't work or you can't get hold of them, then, I suggest, first thing Monday morning you get on to your solicitor and ask them what is going on and get them to contact the vendors' solicitor. Keep pestering until you get an answer (in the politest possible way) but do keep on top of it, it 's the only way you will find out what is happening.

Piiaaa

thank you so far for your responses! )

we handed in our notice for the rental house two months ago because everything seemed to go well and we had a 2 month notice period anyway... in fact everything looked so promising that we thought 2 months would be too long anyway......!
there is another couple moving in here on tuesday i have already asked 2 weeks ago whether we could extend but unfortunately that was too late...

we are contacting our solicitors and estate agents daily since 3 weeks and they try their best to find out whats going on but they can never get hold of the sellers and theres no communication from their side at all........

we have signed our part of the contract over three weeks ago, aparently the sellers were to sign theirs last week but this couldn't be confirmed yet as their solicitors didn't manage to come back to our solicitors so far.......

it is just so frustrating..... the worst thing for me is to put my cat into a cattery... I know this might sound pathetic to some.... but I really hate the idea of her being kept in such a small space for quite a while..... unfortunately all of our friends have dogs....!

thanks everyone! conny

BobProperty

Can't say any more than what's been said. See if you can contact the vendors and ask what's going on otherwise it's pester solicitors and estate agents on Monday.

lilyann1

Unfortunately nothing is a done deal until parties have exchanged money on exchange of contracts!!!!
Our sale and purchase was going so smoothly it was unbelievable and all parties were speaking to each other and had agreed on terms and date to exchange and date of completion.Half an hour later, the day before exchange the bottom buyer backed out???? We wonder if it was because he was being harrassed,so be careful. I know you have to give notice to the landlord but we had this and ended up paying rent for one month and the mortgage for one month when we moved here as we didn't want to be homeless in case it fell through.Ask him to stay on as he may not have new tenants lined up yet.
Good luck

Bossyboots

lilyann1 wrote:

Ask him to stay on as he may not have new tenants lined up yet.
Good luck

The OP has already said that new tenants are moving in on Tuesday.

lilyann1

All you can do is speak to EA and solicitors on Monday and get them to discuss your predicament with the sellers.Other than that try to speak to the sellers,but you have to keep it very pleasant or people could back out then you'd have a real problem.