Seller Taking Too Long: Advice Needed

adamjoanahome2

Hi,

We have an offer accepted on a house we really (really) love. The offer was accepted in June 2024. We weren't quite ready to move so to make life easier on all parties, we set a target completion date of January. (This allowed my wife and I to get married, sell our flat in London and then find temporary accommodation with a 6-month break-clause)

It is now February and they are dragging their heels. They haven't actioned their solicitors and haven't found a house. We are told by the agents they are constantly out viewing properties and putting offers down (several), but they keep getting rejected. 

It's obviously incredibly frustrating. We have just found another property and we are considering putting an offer down, but it would be my second choice. Our sellers have just been informed by our agents we are looking elsewhere at other options.

My question is, should we now give the sellers a "deadline"?. For example, I was considering paying something along the lines of "If you do not have an offer accepted on a property in 4 weeks, we will withdraw our offer". (Still deciding how many weeks that should be).

Or is this completely pointless to give a deadline?

Is there a more powerful alternative to get them moving that someone can suggest?

TheJP

I dont see how a 4 week deadline or a threat to pull out or a threat to reduce your offer will magically make them find the house they want. They are being active but are not being successful, all you can do is wait or pull out.

It sounds like you were wanting a delay to the sale, now you are ready you want your cake etc...

Voyager2002

Could you afford to increase your offer? A bit more but with a firm deadline, so that they might be willing to move into rented accommodation to meet the deadline...

Hoenir

When did your own property sale complete ?

gm0

England

It's all you can do. Set a conveyancing realistic deadline. End May perhaps completion. Mid-may exchange.  Applying some pressure for the transaction to be real and to move forward. 12 months on.

Your view is they need to find a house and/or rental. And move this along.  Solicitor instruction and preparing for exchange and your due diligence on their sale demonstrates progress and costs are incurred to both. 

They may of course say yes to a new date - with no real intention of going into rental and will welch if they don't land a property in time and just hit you with a further delay if in flight.

Possibly it's a known delay - for a house they have landed too late. "Sorry - it's July 15th or nothing now - it is what it is" (still avoiding a very short rental inbetween). Or perhaps it is a year and they are in fact no further forward with their theoretical plan to move. "Nothing found - sorry - cannot exchange" (Actually it's will not because won't do storage/rent).  I have seen this take 18 months.  Sometimes a couple are not actually aligned on moving at all, timing, or destination but this doesn't surface other than via "Not finding anything suitable" and mucking other people about. Conflict avoidance going on at their house.

Absolutely nothing is stopping them doing that to you.  *Whatever* they say when you propose a new date.

But you being the accepted offer - keeps this loved option alive for YOU.  As the prime - or as a backstop for you while you look. So provoking them to collapse the transaction entirely now and remarket may not be your optimal plan.  They are not committed. But nor are you.  But currently you are somewhat exclusive, have the option, and are perceived as waiting in rental.

Nothing stopping you finding another house and buying it while they are mucking about - so they come back - and their "buyer" has disappeared.  Ah sorry - you told them you were looking at other options since January.  No tears.  Didn't exchange.  It would be polite to tell them once you exchange on something else.  If you find something you love more.

Nobody is *actually* committed to anything pre-exchange.  And a lot of people lie - outrageously.

A vendor let me do due diligence and pay for a survey on a house they had already "sold" (accepted offer) to someone else - kept me around as a 2nd string buyer in the run up to the exchange with the primary.  Furious.  Cost me a grand.  But there was nothing I could do about what I considered very unethical (if legal) behaviour. 

On the plus side I found a better house for the same money shortly afterwards and have been very happy in it. 

Do keep looking.

eddddy

If they haven't been able to find a place in 8 months, I suspect that they have unrealistic expectations and/or they might have decided that they don't really want to move after all.


If you were really cynical, you might wonder if the sellers have decided not to sell, but are playing a game with you, to avoid paying a fee to their estate agent... 

• If the seller tells their estate agent they've decided not to move and they're withdrawing from the sale, the estate agent might try to charge them a fee

• So the sellers just wait until you get fed up and withdraw from the purchase. If you eventually withdraw (instead of them), they don't have to pay the estate agent a fee

But as I say... that's taking a very cynical view of the situation.

Debbie9009

Op, very few sellers would accept an offer in June with a target completion date of Jan, they have probably only just started looking for their purchase.  So it could be that there is nothing on the market that they like in their price range, or they have seen one or two possibles but want to make sure there isn’t anything better out there before they commit. 

As they have waited so long for you, they may feel they can now take their time to find their onward purchase.

You are are liberty to issue whatever deadlines you want, just make sure you are prepared for them saying, but we waited several months for you, so if that’s how feel, go ahead and pull out.

saajan_12

Pointless and arbitrary. 
They know that having waited this long, if it takes them 4 weeks and a day, you'll still buy. Or 2 days, or a week. 

I'd just start looking at other properties and make it clear you are doing so, meaning they need to find somewhere faster than you find an alternative.