Sold subject to finding a place

matthangzhou

Hi everyone,

We've just had our offer accepted on our first house. However when the estate agent came back they said it was accepted subject to the vendor finding a place. Can they do this?

We specifically asked the vendors prior and they said they were happy to move in with parents. However when I confronted the estate agent and she went back to them they said they'd rather not move twice. Understandable but we've been living at my parents for 6 months now. It could take ages for them to find a place. I don't want to lose the place but feel like they're taking the p@£s.

Advice going forward?

phill99

I would be inclined to go back to the estate agent confirming that your understanding was that the vendor would move in with patents and that if this is no longer the case then you may be forced to withdraw your offer. Or you say that you expect exchange within 6 weeks and completion 2 weeks after, or you may pull out.

You need to put the pressure on them or they will give you the run around.

Mrs_Z

I would definitely put some kind of time frame to make it clear how long you are prepared to wait. We started looking last spring, and did specifically not want to put our house on the market as I knew the search could be a long one. Well, it has taken us almost 1 year to find somewhere, once we did, we put our house on the market immediately and received an offer after the open day. Now we need to get confirmation that our vendor has found somewhere - I will give it 2-3 weeks and then press for an undertaking for them to be prepared to move into rental or the deal is off.

DRP

agree with phil, If it were me, I'd be pretty p***ed off at this point and would be tellign them the offer was made on the basis of them moving out asap.

However - it all depends on how committed you are to this house , versus how irritating your current living situation is.

At least this is very early in the process, you haven't spent any money or wasted time. Keep looking at other houses - until you find a suitable alternative you have nothing to lose by not pulling out (just don't spend any money on solicitors, surveys etc)

Seabee42

Normally I think I would agree but in quite a lot of areas there are real problems with no new properties coming onto the market. Its causing issues because if you have no place to buy why sell and take yourself out of a rising market.

I can only suggest patience.

CLAPTON

matthangzhou wrote: »

Hi everyone,

We've just had our offer accepted on our first house. However when the estate agent came back they said it was accepted subject to the vendor finding a place. Can they do this?

We specifically asked the vendors prior and they said they were happy to move in with parents. However when I confronted the estate agent and she went back to them they said they'd rather not move twice. Understandable but we've been living at my parents for 6 months now. It could take ages for them to find a place. I don't want to lose the place but feel like they're taking the p@£s.

Advice going forward?

the process is fairly normal


depending upon the market people either wait for an offer on their own property before looking for somewhere to move to (slow market)
or find somewhere first then market their own (buoyant market)


it seems that only recently has the custom of moving back to mum&dad or renting for a temporary period become fashionable

Dan-Dan

Its the oldest trick in the book to encourage offers

trailingspouse

This is exactly what happened to us this time last year. The vendors had told us, when we went for our second viewing - their words - 'Don't worry, we haven't found anywhere yet, but we'll rent somewhere until we do'.

Once our offer was accepted, they announced that they'd found somewhere and wanted to complete on both houses on the same day. Blow that for a game of soldiers!! I went straight round to their estate agents, and explained that 1) we'd taken them at their word, and if we couldn't rely on what they told us, what else had they been telling us that wasn't true? and 2) if they didn't get things sorted we would have no option but to pull out (it would have broken our hearts to do this, but they didn't need to know that, and sometimes you have to play hardball)

It's worth remembering that the vendor's estate agent doesn't get paid until completion, so it's in their interests to 'help' the vendor to move out.

movilogo

Make sure you don't spend any money (i.e. survey, searches etc.) until the chain is complete!

D00gie72

What you do will depend on if you are prepared to walk away from this property. The vendors will probably need a reasonable amount of time to find something, like others have said there does seem to be a shortage of properties coming on the market at the moment. Think about how long you're prepared to wait - then tell the EA your time frame. Bear in mind that where-ever your vendors find to move to - that owner is likely to need to find something too - and so the chain goes on.....

Only do this if you are prepared to withdraw your offer if they haven't found somewhere. Also don't pay for any searches or surveys yet - wait until the chain is complete.
Good Luck

Yorkie1

+1 for Doogie's post.

Although I can understand your disappointment, in reality - unless you're in a bubble / fast sale area such as London - most sellers only start looking for their next property once they've accepted an offer on their existing property.

Unless this position is a deal-breaker for you and you're happy to start looking for another property, I'd be patient. Instruct a solicitor but tell them not to do any work yet. Make sure you know which mortgage lender you want to use but hold fire on applying to avoid costs.

Make sure you tell the EA exactly why you're doing this, so that you still appear to be a committed buyer.

I'd give it a couple of weeks and then contact the EA to find out where the sellers are up to with their search. Have a length of time in mind by which you will walk away anyway.