Time to complete the chain

m4x1ne

Hi everyone

I'm a FTB and had an offer accepted on a property 3 weeks ago. We were told at the time of the offer that the vendors had somewhere they wanted to buy, but that if their offer wasn't accepted then they'd definitely consider breaking the chain and going into rented. They neither had their offer accepted, nor have any intention to go into rented. I'm learning to not believe everything I'm told by EAs!

They still haven't found somewhere to buy themselves, and I'm struggling to figure out what a reasonable period of time is to wait for the chain to complete. I need to be in the new house by August latest (obviously making SDLT holiday would be preferred by a mile) and from what I've read online that's pretty unlikely to happen, but I'm not sure whether the 8 month timelines I'm seeing are really representative of what's going on or not. Does it seem plausible that the chain could complete and completion on the house could happen in the next (a) 2.5 months (for SDLT holiday) or (b) 4 months (by August)?

AdrianC

2.5 months? Possible but unlikely.

4 months? Eminently possible if the chain comes together and gets a wiggle on.

8 months would be unusually long.

In your boat, I'd certainly continue looking.

fishfingerbutties

Saying they would consider going into rented is not the same as saying they would happily go into rented - the rental market in a lot of places is pretty crazy. 

Even if they find somewhere tomorrow, you don't know how much further the chain would have to complete. And if they did say they would go into rental, August is probably going to be pretty tight.

So you have options:
- Accept you won't move by August and hold tight
- Say you are withdrawing your offer if they don't agree to go into rental
- Find a property with no onward chain

m4x1ne

Thanks @AdrianC & @fishfingerbutties. Will continue looking for something chain-free/chain complete. I'm still glued to Rightmove, but really love the house we have our offer on and am hoping that it somehow can still work out

AdrianC

And that's about all you can do.

The simple fact is that the ball is in your vendor's court. They have a simple three-way choice.
1. Find somewhere.
2. Break the chain.
3. Risk losing their sale, because you can't wait for them.

m4x1ne

It sucks atm, because they had 2 good offers (one was ours) within a few days of being on the market. FTB houses with gardens are moving really fast where I am, and to be honest I'm not sure how valuable my partner and I are to them, especially given that they haven't got an onward purchase themselves. Unless I've completely misread things, they could probably get a replacement buyer pretty quickly!

juliedee4663

To be honest, 3 weeks for your vendors to find an onward purchase at the moment is nothing. We have been looking for 3 months and still haven't found anywhere because the market is so crazy at the moment.

amandacat

It's really difficult at the moment because very few houses are available for sale and the rental market has gone crazy and it is hard to find a rental. I would imagine that is their difficulty.
However, there is nothing wrong with asking the EA to ask them what their plan is now. I once waited for a house I loved while they searched for an onward purchase, after patiently waiting for 3 months they decided they couldn't find a house they liked and took it off the market. Definitely keep looking in the background for other houses. 

pg7865

Interesting to read this post.   I'm in a similar position but am the seller.   Offer accepted but cannot find a desirable home that I can afford. There's very little stock and when a decent property comes on the market, it is a win just to get a viewing.  At least we were upfront and said it would be a chain from the onset.   It very difficult for us to rent as would invoke early repayment charge.     We're quite stressed about not stringing the buyer along, but at the same time, we don't think we're being overly picky.  It's a big decision and the market is too hot for my liking but happy to keep looking but not sure for how long.



Would any posters here hazard putting the number of months/weeks they've taken to get an offer accepted on a new house after their house was put under offer?   I'm on week 5.

Thrugelmir

Some years back took 8 months for our chain to complete. All sorts of issues can be thrown up during the process to cause delays. Finding a property is often the easy part for those involved. 

fishfingerbutties

pg7865 said:

Interesting to read this post.   I'm in a similar position but am the seller.   Offer accepted but cannot find a desirable home that I can afford. There's very little stock and when a decent property comes on the market, it is a win just to get a viewing.  At least we were upfront and said it would be a chain from the onset.   It very difficult for us to rent as would invoke early repayment charge.     We're quite stressed about not stringing the buyer along, but at the same time, we don't think we're being overly picky.  It's a big decision and the market is too hot for my liking but happy to keep looking but not sure for how long.



Would any posters here hazard putting the number of months/weeks they've taken to get an offer accepted on a new house after their house was put under offer?   I'm on week 5.

You've done the right thing, too many say they will go into rental if they can't find anything with no intention of doing such thing, several posts on here recently about this. I'm about to list mine and being quite clear I'll be finding an onward property as moving to rental just doesn't make any economic sense to me.

Fingers crossed something comes up soon for you.