A very quiet buyer?

RubyRedRidingHood · 22 June 2018 at 11:56AM

Hi All

We agreed the sale of our house back 8 weeks ago and offered on a new house that same week. Now I admit to being a little bit of a control freak and have basically been in touch with our solicitors, mortgage advisors, our estate agents and our vendors estate agents on a regular basis, sending in paper work, giving and getting updates and generally checking everything ok. We’ve had a few issues with our vendors onward chain and we are now at a point where they are still looking and we are thinking we may end up moving back in with parents until this is resolved. But we are left feeling very nervous about the sale of our house as there has been little communication from our buyers. Our EA got a call the other day from the purchasers solicitors to say that they weren’t going to do searches and survey until the chain was resolved which we completely understand and are doing the same ourselves, but we’ve been trying to find out from the purchasers for weeks what they ideally want the time frame to be, offered reassurances regarding the chain but they are just not responding at all. Our EA is now suggesting that if the purchaser doesn’t confirm everything is ok and they are proceeding that we put the house up on the market, and at this point i’m not sure what more we can do? Can I have your thoughts please, are we right to be worried? Am I overreacting? Would you be inclined to relist?

Many Thanks
Ruby

G_M · 22 June 2018 at 12:02PM

RubyRedRidingHood wrote: »

........ We've had a few issues with our vendors onward chain and we are now at a point where they are still looking......

...... the purchasers solicitors to say that they weren't going to do searches and survey until the chain was resolved....

but we've been trying to find out from the purchasers for weeks what they ideally want the time frame to be,
.....

Pointless to discuss timeframes if there is a chain still incomplete.

So your buyer says "Would like to move in August." (or Sept whtever). How does that help? The chain might come together or it might not.

Hoploz · 22 June 2018 at 12:13PM

You need to make a decision and communicate it clearly to the EA.

Decide whether you wish the buyer to proceed, and you will vacate when they are ready .....
OR you wish them to wait until the top of the chain is complete so it's all done simultaneously.

It seems to me there might be some confusion, with the EA assuming you want to keep the chain and therefore he is advising the buyers to hold off.

Or it could be that due to the incertainty the buyers have been looking elsewhere and given up hope on yours.

RubyRedRidingHood · 22 June 2018 at 12:18PM

Hi G_M

Thanks for your reply. I guess we wanted to know timeframes so we know whether the purchaser is willing to give us a little more time for our vendors to resolve their issues, or if that would cause issues with our sale and therefore we would look to complete our sale and move back to our parents whilst our vendor resolves their sale. We don!!!8217;t want to mess our purchaser around but we have no idea of their expectations as there is little to no communication coming back from them.

the_quick · 22 June 2018 at 12:27PM

I was advised last time by mortgage adviser, no to do anything till chain is complete. Possibly your buyer thinks the same.

glentoran99 · 22 June 2018 at 12:30PM

you aren't in a position to sell so I don't understand why you want to push your buyer

RubyRedRidingHood · 22 June 2018 at 12:32PM

Thanks Hoploz

Unfortunately we don!!!8217;t know who the buyer has communicated with to find out about the issue with our vendor as they had agreed a purchase which fell through around 6 weeks into the process and then offered on another property but after a week of negotiations they are not proceeding. We only found out about them delaying the searches after we told the EA about the vendors situation (we were led to believe by the vendors EA that the negotiations with the other property were pretty much a done deal... until they weren!!!8217;t!) It would just be nice to have a conversation with the buyers and understand where they are coming from and let them know where we!!!8217;re coming from instead of radio silence.

We have said to EA to advise our buyers of our intention to complete the sale regardless of the chain, (which they have done) & that was at the start of the week, but again we have heard nothing back.

RubyRedRidingHood · 22 June 2018 at 12:37PM

The_quick, yes I can understand that completely and I agree with holding off the searches and survey, I!!!8217;m just more concerned that we!!!8217;re not getting any communication from them to confirm they are still happy with the sale, how long they are willing to wait, if they aren!!!8217;t willing to wait we would complete without our onward purchase to ensure the sale

RubyRedRidingHood · 22 June 2018 at 12:42PM

Glentoran99 thanks for your reply. We are in a position to sell as we are willing to rent or move back in with parents and we have advised our buyers this is the case. We don!!!8217;t want to rush the buyers at all, if anything their patience is greatly appreciated if they are happy to wait, but we don!!!8217;t know that they are happy because they aren!!!8217;t replying to our EA they are just quiet

cloo · 22 June 2018 at 12:57PM

The people who bought the first place I sold were pretty quiet too - it doesn't have to mean anything's up.

TamsinC · 22 June 2018 at 1:02PM

I would, in your situation, give an ultimatum - you need to know what is happening - so either they let you know time scales so you can organise going to live with your parents (cos that makes you chain free) and you expect a reply in the next week OR you remarket the property. There is being quiet and there is taking the Mickey. Get you EA to ring their solicitors and tell them the chain is resolved as you will be moving in with your parents - you are now effectively chain free. And maybe give them a deadline too - say you want a completion date of say mid August - that gives them more 8 weeks to sort out searches, enquiries etc. That might be the kick up the derrieire they need.