What is everyone’s experience on breaking the chain?

Albermarle

The house we are buying need some work done, only cosmetic stuff so we were going to move in with my parents whilst we decorate etc. anyway.

The fact you were planning to do this anyway, would suggest that some time spent at your parents would be maybe not that stressful. Otherwise it would have been off the agenda in the first place.

Also you would not have the issue of lining up a rental property in time.

So looks like the best option, when you have delayed the exchange of contracts with your buyer as long as you think you can get  away with .

With some luck, you might still get to exchange contracts with buyer and seller at the same time anyway.

ManuelG

silvercar said:

How about exchanging with a long completion? That would keep your buyers happy and give you some time.

As a small aside, we did this. If course once we did this my solicitor helpfully told me of all the risks of doing so, if somebody died etc... just to make the wait for actual completion a particularly stressful wait(!)

JC0733

Albermarle said:

The house we are buying need some work done, only cosmetic stuff so we were going to move in with my parents whilst we decorate etc. anyway.

The fact you were planning to do this anyway, would suggest that some time spent at your parents would be maybe not that stressful. Otherwise it would have been off the agenda in the first place.

Also you would not have the issue of lining up a rental property in time.

So looks like the best option, when you have delayed the exchange of contracts with your buyer as long as you think you can get  away with .

With some luck, you might still get to exchange contracts with buyer and seller at the same time anyway.

No, it’s not really a problem living with my parents as they have a big enough house for all the kids and ourselves to have our own rooms but obviously it’s not ideal. We don’t want to disturb them too much and we like having our space. However, financially this maybe our best option. 

And yes, we never know. We may still exchange on our purchase at the same time. It’s just a risk we have to take I guess. 

pretamang

eddddy said:

pretamang said:

we did this and had 2 young children at the time, we just couldn't make the timings work so sold our house and moved before our purchase was ready. We moved into rented for 3 months (had to take a 6 month minimum term but they re-let after we moved out so only paid for 4).

Really worked for us as we moving to a new area and the purchase took even longer than expected. Took a lot of the stress out the process in trying to align timings.

Out of interest - how did you deal with aligning the exchange of contracts for your sale with signing an AST?

1. Did you exchange contracts and sign the AST on the same day?
2. Did you exchange contracts first, and sign the AST later? (And risk not having anywhere to live after the sale)
3. Did you sign the AST first, and exchange contracts later? (And risk the sale falling through, and you still having to pay rent)

To be honest, I think a number of people take option 2, and just accept the risk.

good question: I think it was no3. there would have been a risk of us losing the sale and having the AST, but things were looking good as we knew the buyers were committed and pushing to exchange asap. From memory I think we paid a deposit and signed the AST shortly before moving in.

Had the sale fallen through I expect we would have still moved to rented to break the chain, and put the house back on the market chain free.

FlyMeSomewhere79

We were recently in a similar situation, we had first time buyers sat in rented that were not going to want to hang about, our vendors had very set ideas about the next house they wanted and I had to start pushing for them to go into rented as we got closer to completion. He would waiver about whether he would or he wouldn't and so I gave him the ultimatum that I really wanted his house but we couldn't jeopardise our sale and there was a chain free house on the market that I would go and look at if he didn't give us and the solicitors the confirmation we were asking for. I expressed the fact that if my buyers pull out because our seller is just sat back many months from completing on a house, none of us will sell out houses and they'd all be back on the market, he wouldn't get the bigger home of his dreams either.

We moved in recently and they went in to rented having still not offered on another property 4 months on.

JC0733

pretamang said:

eddddy said:

pretamang said:

we did this and had 2 young children at the time, we just couldn't make the timings work so sold our house and moved before our purchase was ready. We moved into rented for 3 months (had to take a 6 month minimum term but they re-let after we moved out so only paid for 4).

Really worked for us as we moving to a new area and the purchase took even longer than expected. Took a lot of the stress out the process in trying to align timings.

Out of interest - how did you deal with aligning the exchange of contracts for your sale with signing an AST?

1. Did you exchange contracts and sign the AST on the same day?
2. Did you exchange contracts first, and sign the AST later? (And risk not having anywhere to live after the sale)
3. Did you sign the AST first, and exchange contracts later? (And risk the sale falling through, and you still having to pay rent)

To be honest, I think a number of people take option 2, and just accept the risk.

good question: I think it was no3. there would have been a risk of us losing the sale and having the AST, but things were looking good as we knew the buyers were committed and pushing to exchange asap. From memory I think we paid a deposit and signed the AST shortly before moving in.

Had the sale fallen through I expect we would have still moved to rented to break the chain, and put the house back on the market chain free.

I wish our sellers are as organised as you were! 

JC0733

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

We were recently in a similar situation, we had first time buyers sat in rented that were not going to want to hang about, our vendors had very set ideas about the next house they wanted and I had to start pushing for them to go into rented as we got closer to completion. He would waiver about whether he would or he wouldn't and so I gave him the ultimatum that I really wanted his house but we couldn't jeopardise our sale and there was a chain free house on the market that I would go and look at if he didn't give us and the solicitors the confirmation we were asking for. I expressed the fact that if my buyers pull out because our seller is just sat back many months from completing on a house, none of us will sell out houses and they'd all be back on the market, he wouldn't get the bigger home of his dreams either.

We moved in recently and they went in to rented having still not offered on another property 4 months on.

How long did it take them to find a rental? Our sellers are moving into a rental and house was marketed as no onward chain, hence why we made an offer the place despite it needs some work. 

We are worried that they are going to take months to find somewhere to rent and delay everything. 

FlyMeSomewhere79

JC0733 said:

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

We were recently in a similar situation, we had first time buyers sat in rented that were not going to want to hang about, our vendors had very set ideas about the next house they wanted and I had to start pushing for them to go into rented as we got closer to completion. He would waiver about whether he would or he wouldn't and so I gave him the ultimatum that I really wanted his house but we couldn't jeopardise our sale and there was a chain free house on the market that I would go and look at if he didn't give us and the solicitors the confirmation we were asking for. I expressed the fact that if my buyers pull out because our seller is just sat back many months from completing on a house, none of us will sell out houses and they'd all be back on the market, he wouldn't get the bigger home of his dreams either.

We moved in recently and they went in to rented having still not offered on another property 4 months on.

How long did it take them to find a rental? Our sellers are moving into a rental and house was marketed as no onward chain, hence why we made an offer the place despite it needs some work. 

We are worried that they are going to take months to find somewhere to rent and delay everything. 

I had the worry that he'd be picky with rented places but once he officially agreed to go in to rented, we all agreed a completion date for a month later (we were going away for two weeks) and he made sure he moved out on that date, they were a family of 5 too. He did mention about moving into a holiday lodge in a nearby village so whether that's where he ended up. The key thing is setting a date in stone via the solicitors to complete and then they know when they need to be out 

JC0733

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

JC0733 said:

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

We were recently in a similar situation, we had first time buyers sat in rented that were not going to want to hang about, our vendors had very set ideas about the next house they wanted and I had to start pushing for them to go into rented as we got closer to completion. He would waiver about whether he would or he wouldn't and so I gave him the ultimatum that I really wanted his house but we couldn't jeopardise our sale and there was a chain free house on the market that I would go and look at if he didn't give us and the solicitors the confirmation we were asking for. I expressed the fact that if my buyers pull out because our seller is just sat back many months from completing on a house, none of us will sell out houses and they'd all be back on the market, he wouldn't get the bigger home of his dreams either.

We moved in recently and they went in to rented having still not offered on another property 4 months on.

How long did it take them to find a rental? Our sellers are moving into a rental and house was marketed as no onward chain, hence why we made an offer the place despite it needs some work. 

We are worried that they are going to take months to find somewhere to rent and delay everything. 

I had the worry that he'd be picky with rented places but once he officially agreed to go in to rented, we all agreed a completion date for a month later (we were going away for two weeks) and he made sure he moved out on that date, they were a family of 5 too. He did mention about moving into a holiday lodge in a nearby village so whether that's where he ended up. The key thing is setting a date in stone via the solicitors to complete and then they know when they need to be out 

That’s amazing! Ok, I will give this a go too! Our agent just been informed the outstanding enquiries have been answered but still waiting for a boiler certificate. 

I’m gonna try and suggest a completion date via the solicitors and see if they would agree to it. 

Albermarle

 Our agent just been informed the outstanding enquiries have been answered but still waiting for a boiler certificate.

It seems crazy that this is holding things up, what is a 'boiler certificate' anyway ?