Offer accepted, now vendors are indecisive

PurpleRainbow

Hi, I've been reading here over the last few months trying to navigate through buying my first house and I've seen some great advice given so I'm hoping that someone can help me here. Here's the situation:

We are FTB living in rented accommodation, just under 3 months to run on our lease. We have reason to suspect that the LA will be quite keen to get us to sign for another year or get out. We have had an offer accepted on a house, I think we're paying slightly over the odds and it irritates me that we couldn't find anything below the stamp duty threshold but we love it regardless.

The vendors have not found a house themselves yet, and they don't seem to appreciate that we need to know what they will do if we are ready to complete and they are not. If we either have to move in with family or find another rental at short notice this will be a complete disaster for us and we're not willing to do it. We want to commit to the purchase, but we simply need to build in contingency plans at this stage.

So what do we do now? I've explained everything to the EA and he has assured me that he understands our position but he doesn't think the vendors are going to be forthcoming at this stage. Should we view other properties, just so that we have options if the vendors continue this indecisiveness for much longer? It feels like we'd be being dishonest if we did, but my husband is keen that we have as many options as possible and it seems like our options are being taken away here. I should also mention that all of the other houses currently on our shortlist are with the same EA, so would they even let us view them?

Thanks in advance for any input

moneyistooshorttomention

There is an obvious question here - and it may assist in helping if we knew.

When you say it would "be a complete disaster" for you to move into other rented property or with family as a temporary measure - I am wondering in what way it would be a disaster?

LandyAndy

The LA may be keen to get you to sign up for another year (another fee for them) but you don't have to.

Let the tenancy become periodic.

PurpleRainbow

Okay I'll try and explain that comment as best I can. Basically there isn't much suitable accommodation to rent in the area that we need to live in, and what is available is either of poor quality (moldy walls anyone?) or through a LA who would want a 6 month term at least (I have far too much knowledge on the local letting agents and their tactics unfortunately) which might make us miss out on the house if we were to sign for it as while I think the vendors may struggle to meet our desired completion date, they wouldn't want to wait 6 months.

Moving in with family, or renting in another area would mean I needed to drive my husband to work and pick him up every day, it's a complicated situation that I won't go into but trust me that this would not be good for either of our working lives.

LandyAndy

So let it roll over into a periodic tenancy. The LL has to give you 2 months notice in a very specific manner and even then you don't have to leave. Surely that will give you sufficient time to get things sorted? A poor reference from your landlord, if it came to that, is hardly going to matter much if you are buying.

It's what we did in your position. It was four months into the rolling tenancy when we completed.

Mr_Moo_2

In relation to your purchase you need to let the EA know that you need some commitment from the Vendors (they could go into rental as an example), and that you'll have to move on unless there is progress. Ask them for some other property details and get some viewings arranged to help focus their minds....

icklejulez

Id say 'As the offer seems to be above what you value the property at, it is based on a completion date of 'x/x/x'. For each and every subsequent week the sale does not complete you will be reducing your offer price by £250ish pw to allow for extra expenses being placed upon yourself.

Say you were keen to buy the house however the Vendors should be the ones who accept they need to go into short term rented accomodation rather than yourselves as they placed the house on the market.

I would be putting my foot down. Sellers are hard to come by and the EA should be trying to keep the sale going. Id ask the EA to put your new offer to the Vendor and you would like a reply before the end of the week or you will be making alternative arrangements to start viewing other properties.

icklejulez

Ps Iv always had sales go through in between 6-8 weeks but if you know your rental is ending in 12 weeks Id give them say 10 weeks that will give you time to finish your contractual payments on your rental and a week or so to move your property into the new address.

curedham

When we were looking to buy our first flat I asked my LA if we can extend the rent on month by month basis. And for the flat that we ended up purchasing we asked for a month between exchange and completion. Maybe you can approach your LA to do the same?

LandyAndy

curedham wrote: »

When we were looking to buy our first flat I asked my LA if we can extend the rent on month by month basis. And for the flat that we ended up purchasing we asked for a month between exchange and completion. Maybe you can approach your LA to do the same?

You don't have to ask. It happens automatically if you do nothing else. The LL and LA don't have a choice in the matter. They could, of course, issue a S21 if they were so inclined but that isn't a big deal in the OP's position.

StuC75

Bit pointless in that the mortgage paperwork and details would need to be re-worked as you couldnt then buy for less than what the mortgage was worked out upon.. and £250 off the purchase prices only saves you £25 off the deposit based on 90% LTV anyway. Until you exchange nothing is guaranteed anyway..

icklejulez wrote: »

Id say 'As the offer seems to be above what you value the property at, it is based on a completion date of 'x/x/x'. For each and every subsequent week the sale does not complete you will be reducing your offer price by £250ish pw to allow for extra expenses being placed upon yourself.