What shall we do? FTB needs help!!!

lmac22

When we put an offer in on the property we are currently buying it was advertised as 'no chain'. The sellers are a young couple who said they were looking for a house but were in no hurry and would move back in with thier parents once our sale had gone through. We are in rented so we thought fine, no chain and a quick sale. How wrong could we be...

Signed the contract three weeks ago, are exchanging and completeing on same day (solicitor said this, as FTB we just agreed). We proposed a provisional date for 23rd August (this friday). Have heard nothing from solicitor until today who informs us sellers are not in position to complete as they have found a house and are waiting to hear from their sellers solicitors.

We are livid, we understand people will say anything to sell thier houses and maybe we were niave in believing them but we just feel they are messing us about.

We are in rented and have to be out by 23rd Sept or we must renew for another 6 months!!

What can we do? We spoke to the sellers EA explaining we have to be out by Sept 23rd and they need to speak to the sellers to advise this.

We are speaking to our solicitor tomorrow. Basically shall we just say we have to be out by 23rd Sept or we will have to pull out and renew our rent to try and give them a scare into getting things moving?

Plus if they do decide to complete with us can they do this, then move back with parents then complete with their sellers once his property is ready (new build) or does the chain all have to complete together?

tomstickland

I wouldn't pull out or threaten to pull out. Ultimately they know that you can come up with some other arrangement if you have to. Plus buying costs money and do you really want a bit of silliness like this to prevent you from buying a house you like?

I would explain the situation to them and the solictor and see if you can negotiate some sort of deal.

Bossyboots

No the chain does not have to complete together but it would mean your sellers moving their things twice which might not appeal to them. Less appealing though would be the thought of losing a buyer so close to completion so you do have some bargaining power. You really seem to have little choice anyway. They should be told that unless they exchange with a completion date prior to 23rd September you will have to renew your tenancy and withdraw from the purchase. As you have another month, perhaps a compromise would be to exchange now so that you know your purchase is safe but leave completion for a few weeks, up to the maximum time you have available to give them a chance to complete on their purchase.

Bossyboots

tomstickland wrote:

I wouldn't pull out or threaten to pull out. Ultimately they know that you can come up with some other arrangement if you have to. Plus buying costs money and do you really want a bit of silliness like this to prevent you from buying a house you like?

I would explain the situation to them and the solictor and see if you can negotiate some sort of deal.

Have I read it wrong. I read it that if they fail to complete by 23rd September they have to renew their tenancy or lose both properties and that they have to renew for six months, meaning they would have to pull out of the purchase. The only other option would be to renew the tenancy and complete in six months time but that seems an extremely long time to have to wait.

lmac22

If we have not completed by the 23rd Sept our two options are to pull out of the sale and renew our tenancy contract for 6 months (something we really don't want to do and to be truthful we won't do) or store our belongings and move into hotel, B&B etc and pay out a lot of money until our sellers are ready to complete.

I think what we will have to do, as suggested above, is basically say we have to complete by the 23rd Sept at the latest or we will have to pull out and renew our tenancy, hopefully this may give them a scare so near to completion that they may loose us as buyers. We have got the argument it was advertised as no chain so hopefully that will go in our favour

tomstickland

Point I was making is that you could negotiate along the lines of "if we can't move before the 6 month rental contract needs renewing then we want some financial help to cover the extra costs."

lmac22

Yeah I was thinking that too, but would just rather not have the hassle of storing our stuff, living in B&B etc. If worst comes to worst however i guess we will go along that line of negotiating costs.

Thanks