Seller hasnt found a house to purchase - they accepted our offer in November!

veemo

Hi everyone, I'm a long time lurker on this thread so apologies if I dont get this completely right!

My partner and I made an offer on a property in early November, we are first time buyers and we have no chain as we are in rented accomodation.
When our offer was accepted we knew the vendor had not yet found an onward purchase as they were waiting for an offer on their property first. All of the searches,enquiries, survey, etc moved along quickly and we're now at the end of January and we are ready to exchange contracts. Its only now that the sellers solicitor says they still haven't found anywhere to buy so they wont be ready to exchange for a while!

So this means we would have to wait for them to find a place, put an offer, wait for their searches and all the rest and this could add weeks if not months to the timeline. Is this usual for so long to go by with no progress on their side since the offer was accepted? We were led to believe that they wanted the sale to happen quickly since it is on the market due to the breakup of a relationship. I didn't know if its just because we are keen to get into our own place and we have unrealistic expectations! Has anybody been in a similar situation or got any advice please?

Thanks!

lisyloo

Have you asked if they can move into rented accomodation and put their stuff in storage?
If they aren't willing to do this then your choices are to walk away or to wait.


Most people would not have started the searches, enquiries etc. until a chain was in place and proceedable.
Did your solicitor or EA not advise you on this?

vw100

The matter of fact is you can wait for the seller to find a buyer or you can give them a deadline and then you decide if you want to still go ahead or find another property to buy.

googler

IMHO, the system of Buying and Selling in E&W needs change.

Folks in E&W don't agree the entry date upfront, don't agree the contract terms upfront, and don't agree the fixtures and fittings upfront. In short, practically nothing is agreed at the offer stage.

All this is thrashed out upfront in Scottish sales. The system in E&W could be changed, with the will of the people and those in control.

babyblade41

googler wrote: »

IMHO, the system of Buying and Selling in E&W needs change.

Folks in E&W don't agree the entry date upfront, don't agree the contract terms upfront, and don't agree the fixtures and fittings upfront. In short, practically nothing is agreed at the offer stage.

All this is thrashed out upfront in Scottish sales. The system in E&W could be changed, with the will of the people and those in control.

ditto this

Lokolo

You shouldn't have spent any money until the chain is complete. As FTB you may not have know this unfortunately!

Winter is a slow time for house buying. They may not find anything until spring.

PasturesNew

They're taking the mick.

I'm selling - and haven't found anywhere, but I will see my two transactions as "separate, handy if they coincided" but I will sell as a first priority, then buy - and "make do" with accommodation in between if I have to.

lisyloo

One would have thought they would be keen to get things sorted if it's a break-up therefore I'd be pushing or at least asking for them to go into rented.
That might be difficult if they have 6 kids, but I'd certainly be asking what their position is as the property transactions don't HAVE to tie up.

lookstraightahead

Ask them to move into rented or pull out. They're making you stay in rental as they don't want to

walwyn1978

PasturesNew wrote: »

They're taking the mick.

I'm selling - and haven't found anywhere, but I will see my two transactions as "separate, handy if they coincided" but I will sell as a first priority, then buy - and "make do" with accommodation in between if I have to.

This, and it’s what we did. But that’s the minority view not the majority view sadly.

eddddy

veemo wrote: »

We were led to believe that they wanted the sale to happen quickly since it is on the market due to the breakup of a relationship.

These are sometimes the worst circumstances for buying a property.

Potentially...

• Two people arguing about how the proceeds of the sale will be split.

• One or both parties eventually realising that once they sell their lovely, comfortable property and split the proceeds, all they can afford is a dingy dump

• One party wanting to sell-up and split, but the other party isn't so keen - so doesn't co-operate.

• One party is obstructive, just to annoy the other party

And maybe you end up with 2 onward chains, if both parties are planning to buy individually.

Ideally, you need to speak to the sellers and the EA to try to get a clearer view of what's happening.