Help! First time buyer, seller has not found anywhere to live yet!!

barclay4

Hi All,

We are currently in the process of buying our first home and have just found out that the person we are buying the house from doesn't have anywhere to move to yet.

Our offer was accepted 7 weeks ago, we chased the estate agents as we found out from our solicitors 2 weeks after our offer had been accepted that they hadn't received the seller's solicitors details yet, we asked the estate agents to chase this up but it still took the seller another 2 weeks to provide the details. After speaking to our solicitor again yesterday we found out that they still haven't received the contract pack from the seller's solicitors and have been waiting for 2 weeks for this information also. I've spoken to the estate agents a couple of times within the 7 weeks and they failed to mention any change in the seller's circumstances (we were told when our offer was accepted that the seller had found an empty property and would be making an offer that day) After chasing the EA yesterday to ask them to ask the seller to speed up their solicitors they mentioned that the seller is still looking for somewhere to live and in fact lost out on the empty property - This has not been mentioned before!! We didn't ask the estate agents (which might have been a big mistake on our part) as we assumed that they would tell us when we spoke to them and asked for updates that everything was still ok.

Our mortgage has been approved, valuation completed and the bank have issued us the formal offer. We lost money on the first house we had an offer accepted on as we needed to have a home buyers report and a structural survey completed before the bank would value the house, we decided to pull out as the house was structural unstable and clearly not worth the money they wanted for the house. Due to this we don't really want to pull out of this new house as we'd lose probably around £2000 (spent on mortgage applications / surveys etc) and still not have a house!

We are currently living with parents so are not desperate to move just yet but are due our first baby early next year, so we are keen to make sure this moves as quickly as possible!

Are we within our rights to ask the seller to find somewhere quickly, if not we will reduce our offer by a certain amount each week that this continues? If she finds a property with a chain then we could be looking at nearer Christmas before we can move anywhere!

If we'd have known the seller had not found anywhere to live we would have held off on the mortgage application until she had.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

rob404uk

You need to be firm now IMO. If they cannot commit to exchanging in 6-8 weeks pull out. In the future, do not spend any money until there is a clear indication that they will move.

Good luck

Seabee42

The seller may have every intention of wanting to move but cannot find the right home to buy. Clearly in these circumstances you need to be aware that they may not do so.

I would keep looking and given the time scale make it clear to the sellers estate agent that given their lack of progress to move out you are having to keep looking.

Unitoons

It depends how much you want the house.

I was in a similar position and to be fair, this could happen to anyone!

I put in an offer on a house in March and I knew the sellers were still looking. They found somewhere 3 weeks later so everything started to progress.

I was receiving all the relevant docs and things were progressing. After 5 weeks I was ready to sign and when with my solicitor he said he would call my vendors solicitor for an update. I was then informed that the property they were buying had fallen though.

Back to square one 8 weeks after my offer was accepted!

I was disappointed but there was nothing else on the market that I wanted and my vendors stated they were immediately looking for something else so I hung on in there!

They found somewhere within a week and we are about to exchange contracts with a view to complete next Friday!

This whole process is very fragile and no-one can guarantee a move within 6 - 8 weeks so it is unreasonable to put this condition on the sale.
If you walk away and find another property you could find yourself in exactly the same position again.

It all depends how much you want the house and if you are prepared to wait for it.

kingstreet

We advise our clients to spend nothing until the chain is fully formed, so everyone commits to spending on fees at roughly the same time.

kay_1

We put in an offer on a house at the beginning of February, wanted to show we were committed so got our mortgage offer, spent money on valuation etc. Come end of May the sellers still hadn't found somewhere to live. We ended up selling our house and moving in with my parents to 'break the chain' and so we didn't lose our buyers.

Another house came up end of May which we had an offer accepted on so we pulled out of the first house despite spending money on it. We have just completed on this other house and are very happy with our decision.

The first house never did go back on the market - guess they weren't serious sellers! Regret spending money before the chain was complete but you live and learn.

cloo

Sad to say sometimes a vendor might be looking for something that just isn't as easy to find as the place they're selling.

We're a bit worried that it'll take us ages to find somewhere, but unless we have our flat on the market, and ideally sold, no one is likely to accept us as valid bidder. Unfortunately, as we have discovered from keeping our eyes out and doing some viewings over the last six months, not all that many family houses of the size we need come up, so we're aware we may have to disappoint or hold up the buyer. I'm sure your vendors are trying their hardest, but they may just be a shortage of what they want.

BlaEm

Probably not going to add much to what everyone else has said, but it would be worth seeing if the vendor is able or willing to move in to temporary accommodation in order to progress their sale to you. They won't want to lose you as buyers but will understand that even FTB can't wait forever (mortgage offers have an expiry date!).

The problem you could have by waiting is vendor finally finds somewhere they like but in the x months it's taken they suddenly want more for their sale (either pure greed or because what they want has appreciated in value) - so you could end up losing out on your money spent to date, and find that the market has moved so you can't get anything similar you want any more, whereas if you cut your losses now you can find a nice chain-free/chain-in-place property.

Good luck OP - and heed the advice that money should only be spent once the chain is complete.

cloo

Or buyers may not want to move somewhere temporary if (like us) they have a very good mortgage rate they want, or need, to port to their next place