When would you consider pulling out from a purchase?

SeasideSally

When we bought our flat, it took about nine months from start to finish (I think, from memory), mainly because the vendors hadn't found anywhere to move to and expected us to wait. We wanted to murder the vendors, but we waited, because we loved the flat.

When we bought our house, the vendors, who had promised they would move out and rent, changed their minds and their solicitor stopped responding to ours until they were ready to move forward. Again, we wanted to murder the vendors, but we loved the house, so we waited.

We're going to be looking for somewhere to buy soon. My husband has told me that he won't stand for delays this time around. But I know that when push comes to shove, if we love the property, we'll wait however long it takes.

A friend's house purchase is still ongoing and has been for eighteen months. It's a rotten business, throughout which patience really is a virtue.

need_an_answer

I think perhaps you are at the moment being a little impatient however I would make sure that everyone is aware that you would hope to be in the property by Christmas,

That is not an unrealistic goal for everyone to work to but they all need to be aware of that goal now rather than you springing it on them 3 weeks or so before Christmas.

I do sympathise with the situation your vendor is in but the momentum needs to keep moving and if a major sticking point is going to eventually be that she hasn't found rented property to move to before Christmas then you may need to consider your options.

I've bought a few properties over the years and the slower ones to complete have always been the one where an emotional attachment exists.


The house before the last one we bought we pulled out after 7 months simply because there was no desire for the vendor to progress the sale as they too were supposedly wanting to go to rented whilst their new home was built...that was 2 years ago and to my knowledge they are still living in the same property with an unfinished new build and no desire to rent.

The house has also remained for sale.

joanars

Thanks everyone! Sorry that I wasn't very clear, my mistake - we really don't want to move before Christmas simply because we won't even be in the country over Christmas! If anything else, it will cause us issues because we will be away for 2 weeks, so ideally we would love to have moving in date by the end of January.

What I meant was we would love to exchange and have specific completion date before Christmas! Moving in is not that important. I have corrected the post. We just want to get things rolling now lol.

But definitely no rush at all - in terms of where we live at the moment, we rent privately and we can stay here as much as we like.

Reading through everyone's posts, we are clearly within the normal selling/buying time frame. We just need to be patient!

AnotherJoe

I would still start looking elsewhere. The odds she'll pull out are not negligible and who knows you may find something better.

need_an_answer

the average is around 16 weeks to completion and whilst you say you can wait that's probably the loose time frame you should keep in mind.

You presumably have a mortgage offer that has an expiry date so that's an indication again of how things should progress....and whilst its usually reasonably easy to extend a mortgage offer you wouldn't want to have to do that multiple times.

Renting privately is always a bonus if you can stay until your new property completes without causing an issue to the LL but again why pay rent for a protracted time simply because no one has a clearly defined moving date.


Maybe I'm the only one that's going slightly against the grain of the other posters but in my mind a clear timeframe is needed to be produced to achieve the move..yes your only part way through the process now but you don't want to be at this same point in 6 weeks time because there isn't the drive to move forward.

lisyloo

the average is around 16 weeks to completion

I'm at the end of a chain of 4 parties, 3 houses.
5 weeks in so far and paperwork (draft contracts) has been done, but I havent heard anything about a survey.


What would be average for that size of chain?
and
When should I expect to hear about a survey from our buyer? (not quite clear on the order things happen).


Not in a rush but woud be good to have expectation especially as I am lacking deputyship from the court of protection and need an idea of when I need to chase them.

joanars

need_an_answer wrote: »

Maybe I'm the only one that's going slightly against the grain of the other posters but in my mind a clear timeframe is needed to be produced to achieve the move..yes your only part way through the process now but you don't want to be at this same point in 6 weeks time because there isn't the drive to move forward.

This is exactly how we feel... we do understand the vendor's delicate situation and are ready to wait but ultimately we are now at the point where we want to start looking at agreeing estimated completion date but realistically it doesn't seem this will happen anytime soon as clearly the vendor is not in a rush to move out. This is our main concern.We don't want to exchange contracts and then end up waiting another 4-5 months to move in.

need_an_answer

joanars wrote: »

This is exactly how we feel... we do understand the vendor's delicate situation and are ready to wait but ultimately we are now at the point where we want to start looking at agreeing estimated completion date but realistically it doesn't seem this will happen anytime soon as clearly the vendor is not in a rush to move out. This is our main concern.We don't want to exchange contracts and then end up waiting another 4-5 months to move in.

Be guided by your solicitor and ask them their thoughts on setting a timeframe that they can then communicate to the other party via their solicitor.

You seem happy to wait if absolutely necessary but realistically the vendor needs to find her onward move before anything else is going to happen about propelling you forward.

I would be asking for a clear indication of her timescales that's certainly not an inappropriate request at this stage.

need_an_answer

lisyloo wrote: »

I'm at the end of a chain of 4 parties, 3 houses.
5 weeks in so far and paperwork (draft contracts) has been done, but I havent heard anything about a survey.


What would be average for that size of chain?
and
When should I expect to hear about a survey from our buyer? (not quite clear on the order things happen).


Not in a rush but woud be good to have expectation especially as I am lacking deputyship from the court of protection and need an idea of when I need to chase them.

The stat I quoted is an average time so some purchases take considerably longer and others can go through much quicker.

In some ways I don't always consider being part of a chain to be too much of a hinderance to getting a purchase and sale completed in 4-5 months based on the fact that the chain is complete and therefore all working together for a separate conclusion that fits in with the rest if that makes sense!

I have bought some leasehold properties in the past where the expectation of an "average" timescale hasn't even remotely been met simply because some managing agents can be very slow in answering queries regarding the selling packs...but having said that property purchase and sale is always driven my the motivation of everyone to complete in a timely manner.
Very often you feel like nothing happens for weeks and then all of sudden its good to go and you are being called in to the solicitor to sign documents and arrange funds!

Where problems can and do occur is if the chain breaks or is incomplete. The OP may well have gone into their purchase being told they were not part of a chain as the vendor was not purchasing but the reality is that potentially there is a chain and the missing link wont be complete until the vendor secures their onward accommodation.

In the OP's situation I cant help but think that the vendor holds the trump card and wont be laying it any time soon or at least not until their onward housing issue is addressed and sorted.

lisyloo

therefore all working together for a separate conclusion that fits in with the rest if that makes sense!

It does if everyone works in parallel, but do some people wait for confirmation that things e.g. survey, are going ok with their seller before they commit their own money to the own survey? In serial it would take longer.

simply because some managing agents can be very slow in answering queries regarding the selling packs

Given that were paying £324 to the managing agent plus £150 to the landlord and presumably they sent out the "packs" regularly then I would hope not. (The flat is a retirement one where people "move on" regularly).


My MIL has been in a nursing home for 14 months so we don't have an ownward housing issue at least.