Who gets the final say in the chain?

Hannah_Lam

Further dilemma to my story, just been told by my vendor's estate agent that we are in a chain now despite when we originally had our offer accepted we were told that they would look for a house once he gets all the money. My interpretation meant that the house would have had to be completed for him to have the money. Apparently they've just put an offer on house and is awaiting for the offer to be accepted. This has kind of screwed us up as we are deemed for £3k penalty for early redemption if we don't move into the house as soon as the sale of our flat is exchanged and completed.

I'm dreading that by August I am still in this situation, is there way whereby we can ask the vendor to vacate the property whilst they are still sorting out their house purchase ? As we are nearly ready to exchange on our sale.

Grateful for any advice !!

Doozergirl

Hannah, it sounds like the usual case of a vendor saying what they think people want to hear and then causing problems for themselves.

I don't know how far down the line you are, how much money you have spent etc, but you could try to force them to exchange by a certain date (a sensible one agree to by your solicitor, not one pulled from the air) and pull out if they won't agree. Whatever you do, do not make empty threats; people stop taking you seriously.

I'd arm yourself with a bit more information like whether there is a chain above them also. Based on the number of people (and therefore the time it is liable to take), you might decide whether to look elsewhere.

drummer_boy_2

Addiscomber wrote: »

To my mind this sort of carry on shows that the HIPs thingy that the government are so helpfully lumbering us all with will not help to speed things up at all.

Addiscomber I couldn't disagree with you more, this is exactly where HIPs will help the process, very often in my experience its the little niggles that can stop exchange of contracts

Addiscomber

drummer_boy wrote: »

Addiscomber I couldn't disagree with you more, this is exactly where HIPs will help the process, very often in my experience its the little niggles that can stop exchange of contracts

As regards the issue of planning/building regs documents, then yes I agree.

But,

helping_hubby wrote: »

I just had a call from my estate agent, which I'm pleased that she's updated with the progress of this, but she's still not been able to get hold of the people at the top of the chain. And she's spoken to the solicitors and they've not been able to contact them either. The solicitors have sent a letter. The estate agent has been to thier house today and dropped a letter through the box. The estate agent claims she has left messages at their work, on mobiles, on home phone. And still no response.

as far as I know, there is nothing in the HIP to stop someone going out of contact for whatever reason. If they had gone on holiday mid negotiations it would be only courteous to let people know that,

and

helping_hubby wrote: »

The top of the chain people promised to sign their contracts on Tuesday. They didn't. Yesterday (Wed) I was told they were looking hard for somewhere to rent and that they would drop their contracts in on the way home. They didn't.

We were told they'd do it today. They didn't.

What are they playing at? We're seriously getting to the point where we think they dont want to sell their house. Any advice?

and

helping_hubby wrote: »

Today we had a wierd phonecall from the estate agent saying that it's OK now the people at the top are looking for rented, not into buying(!). We then had a call from our vendor and it turns out that Mr and Mrs top of chain had found somewhere that they wanted to buy!!!!! Our vendor got wind and said he;d pull out so now they've said they'll rent.

What the hell are they playing at! How can people be so annoying?

what exactly is there in the HIP procedures to stop someone keep changing their mind about what they intend to do? That is so selfish when it affects several other sets of people. If I was the top of the chain I would agree to move out to keep everything in place, and use the interest on the money to cover storage, and renting if I couldn't lodge with family.

We have never been top of a chain (and unlikely to be until have passed away - when I won't care anyway :rotfl: ), but when we sold our previous house our purchasers were ready a long time before our vendors looked likely to be, so we sold and went to live with my mother. The effect being that we became the bottom of any new chain that we became involved in - a much stronger position to be in. Our vendors clearly recognised that, because things speeded up no end as they were afraid that we would buy something else. We ended up camped with my mother for only a month, just as well with 2 children of 5 and under

drummer_boy_2

Addiscomber wrote: »

As regards the issue of planning/building regs documents, then yes I agree.

But,


as far as I know, there is nothing in the HIP to stop someone going out of contact for whatever reason. If they had gone on holiday mid negotiations it would be only courteous to let people know that,

and


and


what exactly is there in the HIP procedures to stop someone keep changing their mind about what they intend to do? That is so selfish when it affects several other sets of people. If I was the top of the chain I would agree to move out to keep everything in place, and use the interest on the money to cover storage, and renting if I couldn't lodge with family.

We have never been top of a chain (and unlikely to be until have passed away - when I won't care anyway :rotfl: ), but when we sold our previous house our purchasers were ready a long time before our vendors looked likely to be, so we sold and went to live with my mother. The effect being that we became the bottom of any new chain that we became involved in - a much stronger position to be in. Our vendors clearly recognised that, because things speeded up no end as they were afraid that we would buy something else. We ended up camped with my mother for only a month, just as well with 2 children of 5 and under

Hi

I agree with you, I am just saying that I do not see how the introduction of HIPs in June will hinder the current (archaic) house buying process. I work with clients in the house buying process and place their conveyancing requirements for them and know from experience that the only way you will get answers is to persevere until you get what you need. Persionally I wouldn't suggest making threats is a good route to take, I often feel I get answers by sticking to the agenda, not only that I don't think I would want to be in a chain that involves several people and feel the additional fear and frustration when these comments are made

Hannah_Lam

Thanks to you all for the advice.
My situation is we have a FTB buying our flat however our seller originally told us that they would look for place as soon as they get the money from the sale. My interpretation to this is you won't get the money until we've completed and the keys are in our hand, their estate agents have updated us since saying that they've made an offer on a house but is awaiting for an acceptance. I just feel that we've been misled big time at this rate we won't complete until summer, if that !!! We don't want to pull out because we really like the house but nor do we want to homeless once we've completed the sale of our property hence we want to know if we have a right to demand a completion date on the house purchase. I swear after this I will never ever sell and buy again !!#

H

Doozergirl

You don't have a 'right' to demand anything. If you demand they sell to you before they buy this other house, then there has to be a consequence. Either they do as you ask or they don't, in which case, what are you going to do?

Thinking about it, i'm not entirely sure you were misled, I think you may have misunderstood. Most people would say that they would rent, or move in with family in the interim. For me, that is incredibly conspicuous by it's absence Perhaps your interpretation is that they don't have the cash in the bank, perhaps theirs was that they wanted the guarantee of an offer before they looked, iyswim. How long ago did they accept your offer?

If there is no chain above them and the property is freehold, then you will probably make it in time for summer. Longer than that, it's really is a question of the length of a piece of string. If you are waiting, then you just have to sit back for a good month and let them get on with their conveyancing. Pushing them into their new house really won't work; conveyancing takes as long as it takes and it's the solcitors who drive, not the poor sods buying and selling; hence the amount of stress involved in the whole process!

drummer_boy_2

Regarding your rental arrangements have you thought about asking the landlord whether or not you can continue to stay on temporarily, just a thought

helping_hubby

Hannah_Lam wrote: »

Further dilemma to my story, just been told by my vendor's estate agent that we are in a chain now despite when we originally had our offer accepted we were told that they would look for a house once he gets all the money. My interpretation meant that the house would have had to be completed for him to have the money. Apparently they've just put an offer on house and is awaiting for the offer to be accepted. This has kind of screwed us up as we are deemed for £3k penalty for early redemption if we don't move into the house as soon as the sale of our flat is exchanged and completed.

I'm dreading that by August I am still in this situation, is there way whereby we can ask the vendor to vacate the property whilst they are still sorting out their house purchase ? As we are nearly ready to exchange on our sale.

Grateful for any advice !!

What's a £3k redemption? Sorry, I don't quite understand. Have you already exchanged with your buyer?

Hannah_Lam

Doozergirl wrote: »

You don't have a 'right' to demand anything. If you demand they sell to you before they buy this other house, then there has to be a consequence. Either they do as you ask or they don't, in which case, what are you going to do?

Thinking about it, i'm not entirely sure you were misled, I think you may have misunderstood. Most people would say that they would rent, or move in with family in the interim. For me, that is incredibly conspicuous by it's absence Perhaps your interpretation is that they don't have the cash in the bank, perhaps theirs was that they wanted the guarantee of an offer before they looked, iyswim. How long ago did they accept your offer?

If there is no chain above them and the property is freehold, then you will probably make it in time for summer. Longer than that, it's really is a question of the length of a piece of string. If you are waiting, then you just have to sit back for a good month and let them get on with their conveyancing. Pushing them into their new house really won't work; conveyancing takes as long as it takes and it's the solcitors who drive, not the poor sods buying and selling; hence the amount of stress involved in the whole process!

I understand what you're saying, our offer was accepted on the last week of January 07. I guess he was only protecting himself as the previous pulled out on him whilst he had done a survey on the house he was buying but he himself had to pull out because he didn't have a buyer.

Tbh we really don't want to pull out of this house as we both really like it and see ourselves staying here for a long long time and also since the Jan, the house prices have shot up in the area we are buying so I'm more worried that they are going to the dirty on us.

I think I'll keep quiet til the month of this month but end of April I will be questioning on what is happening as we are still waiting for our sale to go through. You are absolutely right, its normally the solicitors that are draggin their heels just like our buyer's solicitor, my estate agents have difficulty in contacting them as they never respond to phonecalls.

Have a good easter

H