Seller agreed to break the chain and then changed their mind at exchange

Bryony84

We are stuck in a horrible situation at the moment and wondered if anyone can offer any advice? We are in a chain of 6 (or so we thought) and were due to exchange on Monday, and then on Friday with a completion date of Feb 5th. Months ago it was agreed that the house 2 up the chain from ours would break the chain because she is a single elderly lady making a cross country move to live near relatives and could move in with them until her purchase was finalised. This was in writing and we continued with mortgage applications and conveyancing work on this basis. As of last week this was still the same and we have email confirmation that this seller had provisionally booked removals for next week. As of yesterday we were informed that the 'top' of the chain now doesn't want to break the chain! The issue is that the FTB at the bottom of the chain had their (already extended) mortgage offer expiring on Jan 31st and have managed to get the bank to agree to a couple of days extension but they must exchange this coming Monday and move at the end of next week. Any advice on how to approach this to avoid the whole thing falling apart would be much appreciated.

anselld

There are limited options....
(1)  the ftb gets a longer extension
(2)  the "elderly lady" changes her mind again
(3)  someone else in the chain from you upwards agrees to break the chain and move into alternative accommodation.
Of those, the only one you can do yourself is break the chain.

AnotherJoe

See my post here from yesterday (you may need to go back to start of thread)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78016490#Comment_78016490

Though seems to me you are in an ultimatum situation anyway. Does the top of the chain understand this?

My experience is that unless you make it very clear to delayers, they thinks a magic fairy will appear, for example in this case, another mortgage extension. So, somehow you need to ahve soemone maybe EA make it crystal to top of the chain they will lose their sale.

lookstraightahead

Could you break the chain?

Bryony84

I think the weak link are the EA dealing with the house we are buying and also the 'top' of the chain lady. Our EA are on it and are absolutely fuming about this situation (they represent the other 4 houses in the chain). I don't think the other EA are being 100% truthful about the situation, based on the contents of emails over the last week or so versus the information from yesterday. We obviously have no direct contact with the top of the chain except through the EA. Unfortunately the FTB cannot get a longer extension, this was the maximum the bank were willing to do before they would have to do a whole new mortgage app.
We have a 2 and 4 year old, 2 cats, a fish tank and a business that I run from home so breaking the chain ourselves would be extremely difficult as there is no-one we could stay with easily. The people were are buying from are a couple on their own but I highly doubt we would persuade them to break the chain as they were very clear from the start that they were moving to buy that specific house so I doubt they would be willing to complete on theirs and delay their purchase. It's a big mess!

lookstraightahead

To be fair everyone will have their own specific reasons for not breaking a chain. We have always broken a chain with kids, businesses and everything, in order to help ensure a sale, as unfortunately people change their minds. If no one will budge then I suppose it's between losing your sale or breaking the chain.
Hard at this point though. 
Hope something works out.

lookstraightahead

Feel sorry for the FTB as well

numbercruncher8

Maybe given the pandemic the lady doesn't feel safe moving in with other people? Seems a bit irresponsible, assuming she is of shielding age. If you were not allowed to go over and see relatives for one day this Christmas, surely you are not allowed to move in with them and spend every night there.

If the change of mind is safety-based it may be very difficult to persuade them back.

p00hsticks

numbercruncher8 said:

Maybe given the pandemic the lady doesn't feel safe moving in with other people? Seems a bit irresponsible, assuming she is of shielding age. If you were not allowed to go over and see relatives for one day this Christmas, surely you are not allowed to move in with them and spend every night there.

If the change of mind is safety-based it may be very difficult to persuade them back.

Or perhaps, given that she's moving long distance, which would involve a change in GP's,  she's concerned that if she moves now she's going to miss out on getting a two stage Covid vaccination ?

Thrugelmir

If there's no material changes. Then the FTB shouldn't encounter issues with reapplying. An inconvenience yes, but far from the end of the world. 
There maybe far more to the story. An elderly lady moving cross country in the middle of the Covid pandemic to stay with relatives raises all sorts of potential issues. 

Bryony84

Totally get this but covid has been around for a long time and nothing has changed in that respect in the last week. My understanding was that they were moving her up there for her safety, she cannot upkeep the property she is selling (it's a very large house and gardens) and has no family nearby to help. All through the process they've been saying that they want to move her asap and last week we were advised by their EA that they had provisionally booked packing and moving services for the end of next week. There is definitely far more to this than we've been told but it's the lying and withholding information that really infuriates me.