Clarifying Sellers Position

Snow_Phoenix

We have not brought a property for a number of years so are a little out of practice and the market appears to have changed a lot since my husband or I last purchased one. 

We have had an offer accepted on a property and we are currently chain free. Our seller has indicated to the estate agents they would be willing to move into rented as they want a quick sale should they need to, though this has only been reported to us verbally. At point of offer the estate agents were not sure of the sellers circumstances or position so needed to clarify this after we had made our offer. Even then the estate agent had to call them again after they had accepted our offer as the seller had another commitment at the time of accepting so the estate agent was unable to this discussion with them. 

Based upon the verbal report do we start instructing our solicitors to carry out searches? I know I have reading other posts it suggests not doing this until the chain has completed? I understand some searches can have a time limit on how long they are valid (6 months) so we don't want to find out a few months down the line we are part of a chain which has not yet completed and it will move over this time period so they need to be repeated. I am also aware from reading around some searches can take a very long time to carry out so do not want to delay anything unnecessarily. 

Is there anything we can ask to get from the sellers/estate agents to clearly clarify their position? I am also aware we have had our contract from the solicitors and they suggest by signing it and making the initial payment this is taken as instruction to start carrying out searches, so am not sure if we need to instruct them otherwise until the sellers position is clear. 

Any advice would be welcome. It may be that I am just overthinking the whole situation. 

user1977

Snow_Phoenix said:
Our seller has indicated to the estate agents they would be willing to move into rented as they want a quick sale should they need to, though this has only been reported to us verbally. 

Either you believe them or you don't - it's not going to become any more binding if they say the same thing to you in a different medium.

K_S

@Snow_Phoenix This is not a comment on your particular case but generally speaking, based on experience, vendors will often claim (at the offer stage) to be open to "move into rented" or "move in with family" if needed but balk when it actually comes to doing so, especially if it's a family with kids.

It may be worth probing a bit more to understand their position and timelines but you'll have to make an educated guess as to their intentions.

Snow_Phoenix

Thank you for the replies. I thought this was the case but no harm in asking in case there was something which could be requested. 

We will see if we can get further clarity on their position. 

eidand

I would not spend a dime until the chain is complete. Also, assume they won't move into renting whatever they say now.

t1redmonkey

I went to view a place where the vendor was doing the viewing a couple months ago, they told me they wanted a quick sale and had plans for temporary housing so I could proceed regardless of whether she found a place to move to or not.  I offered and had it accepted.  Then didn't hear anything for a couple of weeks after that, only for the estate agent to call me and say the vendor was no longer willing to move until she found something.  I pulled out in the end as her position was still the same several weeks after that.  I'm just glad I didn't spend money on a survey or searches while I was waiting.

eddddy

eidand said:

I would not spend a dime until the chain is complete. Also, assume they won't move into renting whatever they say now.

That's a bit of a tricky approach.

If the seller says they're going into rented, you seem to be suggesting that the OP should say...

"I don't believe you're going into rented, so I'm not going to instruct a solicitor."

"I'll only instruct a solicitor when you admit to me that you're not going into rented, and you have a complete chain above you."


I can see it's a tricky situation, but that might not get things off to a good start. (It's possible that the sellers really would go into rented. I went into rented once, in similar circumstances.)

simon_or

OP, there's no problem with instructing solicitors but don't transfer any money for disbursements or instruct any work until the vendor finds a place and the chain is complete. Vendors and agents will say all sorts of nonsense to make it sound like it's chain-free when it's not.

In the meantime, I would keep looking, you might get a better buy and perhaps even one that is chain free!

donutandbeer

We moved to family member’s house because we couldn’t find anything (lost to chain-free buyers a few times even though our offers were the highest and our buyer was FTB). We tried very hard to find something but always knew that if we can’t find anything in time then we will be chain-free at some point and that will surely help. If our buyer didn’t believe us therefore didn’t instruct solicitor and do all the work, then we would not have completed yesterday. 
 
That being said you do hear about vendors changing their minds a lot (although probably they were never sure about it and it’s the estate agent that mislead you). Don’t really know what buyers can do about it. I guess I will try to talk to the estate agent and see if I can figure out how sure the venders are about moving into rented/family. But ultimately you have no control over…

Brie

Our EA kept telling our buyer we were willing to go into rented despite us repeatedly telling them it wasn't an option.  They kept insisting we would lose the buyer - which we nearly did as things took forever but we just couldn't consider it due to having an elderly cat.  Also we were selling 2 properties have having ongoing problems with the other buyer and didn't know if or when it would be resolved.  As it was we did go to a hotel for a few days while the cat had a spa holiday of her own (cattery which she loved) as we ended up with about 4 days difference in the sell dates.

AlexMac

I don’t think you should assume bad faith on your sellers’ part, so if it was me , I’d instruct my solicitor to proceed at normal pace ( Assuming the Agent HAS issued the “ memorandum of sale” to you, the seller, and both your and the seller’s solicitors as this confirms their acceptance of your offer and who is handling their conveyance).

Thereafter you don’t have a lot of control: I assume you chose an efficient local solicitor who responds to calls and emails and doesn’t insist on doing everything by snail mail? Let’s hope the sellers did too, rather than some remote, cheap conveyancing factory, lol!

You can’t easily gee up the vendors nor their solicitor ( that’s the agent’s job so keep on their case). And yes, do ask the Agent to clarify if the sellers really are willing to move into a rental but accept that you’ve no power (other than to walk away) if they don’t. It will take an average three months at least, 

And returning to my original opening optimism, in all my 8-10 purchases over 46 years, I’ve never had a tricky seller!  Good luck