Buying house, waiting to exchange

smellysnelly2003

Hello,

I'm having some problems buying a house and would like some advice please.

i am a FTB, had an offer accepted for a property on April 20th. Estate agents said the vendors would go into rented for a quick sale. This turned out to not be the case (probably an estate agent lie but I'll never know!). Initially exhange planned for June 24th then our vendors' house purchase fell through. They then commited to Aug 17th completion with exchange on 10th Aug (hedging bets of buying house vs moving in with family I was told). They then found a house, with no onward chain, but the vendors don't want to move until end of Sept. I reluctantly agreed, under the condition that we exchange by July 29th as I didn't want to be in a situation where somebody pulls out late Aug and I then only have 6 weeks to find somewhere else before my mortgage offer expires.
I'm sure you can guess what's coming.... it seems that July 29th exchange isn't going to be possible due to some problem with the other purchase in the chain.
An important point to mention is that this house is not a dream house - it's simply for my wife and I to stop wasting money on rent, get a dog etc. I am not emotionally attached and there are plenty of similar properties available. I'd rather not lose the survey fees etc but it's not out of the question.
My question is how long do you think I should wait?
Also - are there any pressuring tactics I can apply? I was thinking of setting an exhange deadline of Aug 5th, and for every day the passes after that without exchange, my offer decreases by £500 until the 12th, when it's withdrawn. Does this sound feasible?

Any thoughts gratefully accepted!!

Ryan

FATBALLZ

It sounds like they are taking the p1ss. Your plan of decreasing your offer sounds fine, although if you're decreasing your offer on a daily basis that might screw up their mortgage offer, HSBC certainly weren't helpful when I tried to suggest I borrowed a bit less(!) late on in the process.

The vendor for the place I bought said they'd go in rented if need be, but ended up buying. Fortunately they didn't delay the process, but if they'd started messing about like yours I'd have told them to get into rented or forget it.

Basically you just need to put your foot down, give them a deadline and if they miss it walk away. The fact you are prepared to walk away stregnthens your position greatly.

smellysnelly2003

Thanks for the reply.

I'm just so bored with the whole thing now - especially dealing with Estate agents and solicitors!!