First time buyers - sudden chain and a delayed purchase

alina92

Hello, we are hoping to get some advice on our current situation, perhaps somebody has had a similar situation.

We put in an offer for our first house at the beginning of February. We are cash buyers and we were informed that there is no chain, as the property our sellers are buying is empty and ready to go. 

Our rental contract was going to end at the end of April, and we asked our solicitor and agents whether it's realistic for us to move in before that date. They were very reassuring and said all is looking well and should be done by that time and that our sellers were planning to move out at the end of April too (he said they're all boxed up at that point). That sounded great and gave us reassurance so we handed in our notice to move out by the 1st of May.

The only thing we were waiting for was our local search results to come back on the 15th of April to which our solicitor had advised us that it will be tight but we will make it if there is nothing wrong with the searches. 

Around the 10th of April we started getting emails about delays saying that there is a problem with the sellers mortgage and they're switching lenders. We patiently waited and once again asked both, our solicitor and agent whether we will still be able to exchange and complete in time. Eeveryoby reassured us that yes it will be possible. 

Fast forward to the 24th of April which was probably the most nerve wrecking day in our entire lives. We were on the phone to our solicitor who said that the sellers are still sorting out their mortgage but it doesn't mean that it won't be done in time. We had no idea what to do, whether we should book a removals agency or where we were even going to live if we couldn't exchange before May. The next day we had a call from our agent who said that we need to wait another 2 weeks and it won't happen in time.

We were devastated of course but at least we had some information and were ready to act. We put everything into a storage unit and went away for 2 weeks, we thought we'll use this time to get a little break before the big move. We booked airbnb in a countryside, packed up, handed in our keys and left.

After two weeks wait, the mortgage offer was finally accepted and in place. We were promised to hear about the completion date in a few days.

There was an odd silence that week so we contacted our agent who explained that now there is a sudden chain that nobody knew about. Our seller's seller has decided to tie their sale to the purchase of another house. We were told that it will probably be another 2 weeks before the sale goes through. There was something wrong with the land registry document so we had to wait for it to come back. The sale was 80% through apparently.

We were angry and confused. We extended our stay for one more week and decided to go and stay with my boyfriend's family afterwards.

3 weeks forward, we're still waiting for the land registry document to come back. Our seller's seller had decided to break the chain at one point, and once again, we were promised to hear about the exchange within a few days, before she has changed her mind. So the wait continues.

We've said that we will have to pull out of this purchase if we don't hear anything concrete this week, as we can't keep living like this. Our whole life is kept in a storage unit, we both work from home so our businesses are affected as we don't have our office and supplies. We have a little puppy so finding any short term accommodation is difficult.

At this point, the seller's seller has stopped picking up agent's calls as they're trying to convince her to break the chain.

We just don't see where this is heading and would really use some fresh perspective.

Thanks in advance.

Redwino222

Take a deep breath.  There was always a chain, it just got one link longer.

there are no guarantees on dates etc until you are actually in.  I absolutely understand the emotional involvement, but you need to try and see it as a business transaction.  You shouldn’t have taken the risk of moving out of your rented accommodation until you had signed contracts etc.  Your solicitor should have advised you against this.

do you really want to pull out?  If you give the ultimatum will you follow through.  It will take at least another three months to find something else and start the whole conveyancing process again.

hazyjo

As above, there was a chain. You, your vendors, and their vendors. That's a chain of 3.

You only offered in Feb. I would have expected it to take around 4 months, that only takes it to now. It really isn't taking that long.

Never hand in notice to leave until you have actually exchanged. It can all change or fall through until that point. Your contract was not going to end at the end of April. It would simply have moved onto a periodic tenancy (rolling).

To be honest, most of this could have been avoided if you'd come here and posted earlier. All of what you've said is entirely common, normal and to be expected.

Patience is the one thing needed when buying property. And unnecessary deadlines are the main cause of stress and 'devastated' parties.

I hope it all happens soon for you. Good luck.

alina92

Thanks for the responses so far. Yes, sorry, should've clarified that I meant that the seller's property was advertised as 'chain free'.

I guess we just made a big mistake moving out ahead of the time. Being first time buyers we just fully trusted our agent and solicitor to advise us, but you're right we should've done a better research. By the time we had to move out there were obviously other people who had signed the contract to move in, so we couldn't do anything at that point. 

We don't want to pull out of course, but finding a longer term accommodation is more realistic in this situation. Most of the short let places don't accept pets and seem to be for house share only.

We're going to try and keep calm and patient, just really hope that nobody will want to miss the stamp duty holiday and that will make things happen quicker.

hazyjo

Just something to remember, they're the seller's agent. Not yours. So they may be saying what you want to hear to keep you on board so they can earn their commission...

Redwino222

The sellers property was never chain free, given they were always buying somewhere else - have I picked this up correctly?  It was the house they were buying that you thought was chain free not the house you were buying?

In any case you can never rely on things moving quickly.  My buyers claimed they could move ASAP, but at the last minute declared they had to wait for their ISA to mature.  Added an extra month.  That’s life unfortunately.

alina92

Redwino222 said:

The sellers property was never chain free, given they were always buying somewhere else - have I picked this up correctly?  It was the house they were buying that you thought was chain free not the house you were buying?

In any case you can never rely on things moving quickly.  My buyers claimed they could move ASAP, but at the last minute declared they had to wait for their ISA to mature.  Added an extra month.  That’s life unfortunately.

Yes that's correct, it's the house that our sellers are buying that was advertised as chain free.

Everything on our part and our seller's part is ready paperwork-wise, we're just waiting on the house their sellers are buying to go through. It's frustrating as there's nothing we can do as the purchase isn't related to us. 

Makes us feel better knowing that these things are common and we're not being fooled around. I guess all we can do is wait.

AnotherJoe

When this happened to my daughter, her and husband actually gave an ultimatum, exchange right now or they pull out. However, the situation was that it was their seller who was delaying it unexpected with an additional purchase rather than the one above that so they were talking directly (via solicitor anyway) to the person causing the delay.

In your case, you could consider putting pressure on your vendor by similar tactics giving them the reason to put a similar ultimatum to their vendor, eg "exchange within X days or deals off".  "or exchange within x days or we require £x off teh price (to allow for at least 6 months rent)" ... but you have to mean it.

In the meantime as you dont have a good accommodation situation (since you partially brought this upon yourselves) there's nothing you can do except start looking elsewhere, because who knows what happens higher up the chain, what might fall through later on, saying "theres nothing we can do but wait" isn't correct, you can threaten to pull out, you can find another place.

Once you've got a new rental lined up, you will be on the hook for a minimum of 6 months rent when maybe you only need another month, or maybe the whole thing will fall through? I'd be steaming mad and not just idly waiting.

Sacher50

I really sympathise with you. On our first attempt at a purchase we informed our landlord way too soon that we were in the process of purchasing somewhere and it all got very acrimonious and messy. 
In your position, especially given you are cash buyers, I would start looking for somewhere to rent straightaway. There is still a reasonable likelihood that your purchase will be delayed or won't go through at all. In which case you would have to find somewhere to rent anyway. Worst case: you're paying an additional 6 months of rent you didn't need to which won't feel like such a big deal in a year's time. 
Equally importantly, I think starting a rental search will give you back a sense of control over the process and reduce some of the anxiety you must be feeling right now. Best of luck to you!

newsgroupmonkey_

Went through a similar position on our second house purchase. After exchanging, the vendor decided that she was going to buy somewhere and wanted a delay. As we had a backward chain (albeit a FTB) we said no.

When we rocked up to move in, she wasn't ready to move out. Apparently, her boyfriend had let her down or something. Chaos ensued with her Estate Agent reminding her that she was potentially trespassing.

alina92

AnotherJoe said:

When this happened to my daughter, her and husband actually gave an ultimatum, exchange right now or they pull out. However, the situation was that it was their seller who was delaying it unexpected with an additional purchase rather than the one above that so they were talking directly (via solicitor anyway) to the person causing the delay.

In your case, you could consider putting pressure on your vendor by similar tactics giving them the reason to put a similar ultimatum to their vendor, eg "exchange within X days or deals off".  "or exchange within x days or we require £x off teh price (to allow for at least 6 months rent)" ... but you have to mean it.

In the meantime as you dont have a good accommodation situation (since you partially brought this upon yourselves) there's nothing you can do except start looking elsewhere, because who knows what happens higher up the chain, what might fall through later on, saying "theres nothing we can do but wait" isn't correct, you can threaten to pull out, you can find another place.

Once you've got a new rental lined up, you will be on the hook for a minimum of 6 months rent when maybe you only need another month, or maybe the whole thing will fall through? I'd be steaming mad and not just idly waiting.

Sorry this happened to your daughter too. Yes, we did say that we're running out of time and we will have to pull out if we don't hear any concrete information this week. The agent said that they're skeptical about putting up an ultimatum to the woman who's delaying the whole thing as the market is so hot right now and all the properties in the chain could go back on the market for extra 20k apparently. Although the stamp duty holiday is ending in June, I'm sure nobody wants to miss it.

Unfortunately we happen to live in Brighton which is one of the most expensive areas in the UK, and renting prices are just ridiculous. We will be wasting 10k for a 6 month rent, and if we only need one or two months it just seems silly, but maybe that's the only option.

Really appreciate your input, you're right, gaining back the sense of control would feel very good at the moment. Luckily we are staying at the family house, but it also just gotten sold, so we can only stay here for another 5 weeks or so until the sale is complete. I'm just fearing that it won't be enough time at this rate for our purchase to go through.

We're calling agents every day for updates, but sometimes getting a small piece of information takes the whole week. Our solicitor has said that there's nothing she can do at this point, as she's done everything she could and we're ready on our part.