Offer accepted, vendor quick move = October.

KingMob

Am I being unreasonable here?

FTB and have spent the last 3 months trying to find the right property for me, made 4-5 offers and generally been screwed around by EA/vendors. Thought I had finally found the one for me, EA told me vendor looking for a quick sale, we agreed a price, vendor told me he has a property lined up and could move quickiy/slowly. Spent the last week haggling price and he's now come back to say he wants to do some work on new property and may move into it in September but it might be October. This does not seem quick at all. EA tried to put a spin on it by telling me solicitors basically shut down for the summer.

My current rental agreement ends in July, been here 8 years but the landlord has sold the place to a group and the EA now dealing with things are totally useless. I could potentially get an extension but I don't want to start down this route without an end date in sight. Putting everything in storage and couch-surfing for a bit is an option but 3 months or more will just be too disruptive.

G_M

KingMob wrote: »

....EA told me vendor looking for a quick sale, we agreed a price, vendor told me he has a property lined up and could move quickiy/slowly. Spent the last week haggling price and he's now come back to say he wants to do some work on new property and may move into it in September but it might be October. This does not seem quick at all. EA tried to put a spin on it by telling me solicitors basically shut down for the summer.
You can't believe anything you're told. 'Quick sale' means nothing till it actually Completes quickly.


My current rental agreement ends in July,
So you've been served notice? Is the notice valid?
Or is that when the current fixed term ends?


been here 8 years but the landlord has sold the place to a group and

the EA now dealing with things are totally useless.

irrelevant

I could potentially get an extension but I don't want to start down this route without an end date in sight.

why not go periodic?

Putting everything in storage and couch-surfing for a bit is an option but 3 months or more will just be too disruptive.

Read:


* Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

bowlhead99

Assuming it takes you a couple of months to do your survey and searches and resolve all the concerns you may have about the property after doing all that, you could feasibly be ready to complete in late July.

If the vendor doesn't want to move out in August and perhaps not even September, your simple choices are to go away and offer on something else and hope you can get possession of that in August/ September instead, or just to wait it out with this place, knowing that in September the vendor might just change his mind on a whim and decide at the last minute not to sell to you after all. That's life.

You mention your seller fancies doing some work on his prospective new place before moving into it. Unless you've misunderstood, that implies that

a) he doesn't need to complete the sale of his old house to you to be able to afford to complete on his new place and take possession of it to be able to start doing work on it. Which means he may not be on a hurry to sell or may get cold feet if a better offer than yours comes along in the next several months; or

b) he is going to take your completion monies, use it to complete on the new place and move into rented or in with friends/family while he does some decoration/ renovation on the new place - you won't care because he needs your money to get his hands on the new place so you'll get vacant possession in September even if it takes your seller until October to compete the work on his new place.

You might find that actually the uncertainty of September/ October is because although he's found a place he likes, he doesn't know when he'll be able to get it off his prospective vendor ; there's more than just the two of you in the chain.

If you don't fancy a wait, no harm in looking around for other things to offer on, telling him your offer was based on it being a quick sale and as there seems no prospect of completing the purchase from him until late September there's no hurry to commit to surveys etc in May. Of course with that tactic you run the risk of someone just coming along and offering a pound more for his property and/or being more committed thus causing him to give up on you.

As a side note the your rental situation, do you have an assured shorthold tenancy? If so, if you don't move out in July it will just roll over from rental period to rental period ; and while they could choose to serve notice on you instead to get a new tenant (e.g. they want to charge a lot more rent), it can take months for eviction proceedings to go through the courts and you'd probably be fine for August, September and October.

KingMob

Thanks for the replies.

Current fixed term ends at the end of July. I've been renewing on 6 or 12 monthly basis since 2010. Rolling contract would suit but not sure if the new EA who has taken over my current rental would go for that. They took over responsibility 2 months ago and even getting updated bank details for them has been a lot of work.

The vendor has offered to take the property of the market and genuinely seems happy with my offer. I believe he has been progressing his new property, so unsure if he's trying to set a reasonable expectation or is aware of something that hasn't been communicated to me. One potential concern is he runs a business from his current property so the Sep/Oct timescale may be tied to that. I'd feel more confident if I hadn't been told quick and now that October could be considered as quick.

Getting frustrated viewing and making offers. Made my first offer on a different property 6 weeks ago and the vendors still haven't made a decision (have given up on that one). Have viewed a few chain free/empty properties which I could progress but concerned that time to find/get offer accepted/do everything else is going to end up being a similar time scale.

G_M

KingMob wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

Current fixed term ends at the end of July. I've been renewing on 6 or 12 monthly basis since 2010. Rolling contract would suit but not sure if the new EA who has taken over my current rental would go for that.

Sigh!


Have you read the link provided yet?

bowlhead99

KingMob wrote: »

Current fixed term ends at the end of July. I've been renewing on 6 or 12 monthly basis since 2010. Rolling contract would suit but not sure if the new EA who has taken over my current rental would go for that.

9 times out of ten, it doesn't matter whether they choose to "go for it" or not. You don't have to move out after the 6 or 12 months is "up". You can just sit there (well, keep on going out to work each day of course) and it's still your home. The EA, to make some admin fees for old rope and to guarantee ongoing income for the landlord, will probably want you to "sign up" again. But you don't need to sign up for another tenancy because you already have one.

Check your contract: there probably isn't anything to say you have to leave after the minimum term and generally if it's silent on what happens after the minimum term you just stay there meeting your side of the contract terms you can just carry on doing that. Follow G_M's link to see.

KingMob

Sorry, should have pointed out I'm located in Northern Ireland. Will double check my tenancy agreements but I don't recall anything that sounds like a CPT/SPT being mentioned at all.

G_M

KingMob wrote: »

Sorry, should have pointed out I'm located in Northern Ireland. Will double check my tenancy agreements but I don't recall anything that sounds like a CPT/SPT being mentioned at all.

Double sigh!



In that case ignore everything I've written.


Different legal system.

ThePants999

Well, yes and no. The exact details may differ, but NI still has the same basic idea that (a) tenancies automatically become periodic after the fixed period ends and (b) they can only be ended by the tenant or a court. So the basic advice still applies: just let the tenancy lapse into a periodic one, as there's a decent chance that either (a) you won't be evicted even though the EA prefers fixed periods, or (b) you'll complete before the landlord gains possession.

OP, these are landlord-centric, but they paint the basic idea:
https://www.housingadviceni.org/advice-landlords/process-ending-tenancy
https://www.housingadviceni.org/advice-landlords/possession-action

KingMob

Thanks everyone, seems to now be a moot point now.

After being told the vendor accepted my offer yesterday was told today that he's got a viewer tonight who has offer 1k more. Whole thing sounds more than fishy and the EA's behaviour today has been more than enough to make me walk.

On a more positive note, after getting some local advice a move before end of July is back on the cards.

As well as the law being backwards here, finding some real cowboy estate agents here in NI.

EA 1 - 6 weeks after offer, can you wait 12 weeks until the vendors decide if they want to sell. Oh, do you mind if they continue to do viewings.

EA 2 - We have an offer that no-one can verify but vendor will accept X. X offered, vendors wants X+10%, two days later X+£100 been offered would you go higher. Property unsold after 1 year.

EA 3 - Impossible to buy a house in NI during the summer as all the solicitors migrate to warmer climates. Offer has been accepted/sale agreed, less than 24hrs later, offer 1k higher made/viewings this evening.