After 18 long months, We finally agreed a sale on our house back in late October.
For several reasons we decided to hold off buying another property with a view to renting for the foreseeable.
All was going through smoothly; v short chain of 3. Were looking to exchange within next couple of weeks and as such finally decided to start looking at rentals. This area in particular is very low on choice even more so with a pet thrown in. However a friend of a friend has a suitable house which will accept our dog and is on DS School bus route and so we verbally agreed end of Dec we would take the rental pending exchange. Very relieved as literally nothing else around here.
All was good until last week when our buyer emailed saying their (1st time) buyer was having problems with the mortgage. After weeks of uncertainty our buyer decided to pull out at the weekend and agree a new sale with a cash buyer. She has reassured us saying she will do everything humanely possibly to speed things through including her buyer purchasing searches and leg work already completed.
Whilst I am relieved it looks like everything is still going through I am now terrified we will lose our rental. The landlord has already held the house since Dec with a view to us signing contracts end of Jan; however realistically I can't see us exchanging until mid Feb.
I keep turning it over in my mind..I realise it would be extremely foolish to take on a rental before exchanging but can't state strongly enough how rare suitable rentals round here are.
One suggestion is that we ask for a deposit from our buyers to offset the risk of sale falling through but can't see their solicitor advising them to agree to that.
Are there any other proposals we can put to the landlord without tying ourselves up in a premature contract?
He has been really understanding and don't want to mess him around.
Help!!