Break the chain?

[Movingstressangst]

Hi! I'm a first time poster, long time lurker, but please excuse me not knowing the many, many acronyms of Mumsnet!

We're in a bit of a tricky situation with our house move, where our buyers want to move asap, but our sellers aren't ready. Our options are:
Yabu) don't move next week, almost certainly lose buyer, have to stay where we are. We really love our purchase house, and obviously this would be a blow to our buyer and very unfair on them.
Yanbu) Move out and in with family next week, have to pay early repayment charges on mortgage (would be refunded if purchase completes in 6 months), risk missing stamp duty holiday, and we put ourselves in a vulnerable position, as we have no leverage if our sellers are taking ages. We're lucky that family are happy to have us, but would be for an indefinite time period, and 3 of us would be WFH.

Wwyd? Any views gratefully received 😖. Myself and DP are both utterly failing to make a decision (we're not good decision makers at the best of times!)

Any reason why your buyers can't do option (b)? It's more their problem than yours.

If it was me I'd definitely go with option yanbu. Always think that selling is the more stressful part - so much relies on having the funds to progress with purchase.

How long are your sellers expecting you to wait? They shouldn't be expecting you to wait 6 months surely? Can your solicitor give them a gentle shove?

The buyers have said throughout that they wanted asap. We already pushed them a few weeks past the date they originally wanted, to try and keep the chain going, at which point they threatened to pull out. Of course, it's hard to know how serious they are, but I don't think they'd accept us reverting back to "you just have to wait", when we'd set a date of next week (which was fine until our seller's purchase was delayed)

Our sellers haven't given us details on how long they're expecting us to wait. They've just said next week is no longer possible for them, and they're going as quickly as possible. We've had a lot of conflicting information about where they're up to with their purchase. We've asked solicitors to chase for more info, but not getting anywhere, and the days are disappearing in the meantime!

And thank you diplodocusinermine, I totally agree about the selling being the worst bit. The thought of getting our house tidy enough for viewings all over again fills me with horror!

I would be giving the sellers an ultimatum. Give them a deadline or the sale is off.

Meantime, sell your house and move in with family and start looking at other houses.

I wouldn't mess your buyers around, it's not their fault.

But that's from the outside looking in. I don't know how straightforward that would be for you.

On further thought I'm with Dizzy. Looks like the best route.

Thanks all. You're right that it taking longer than 6 months is hopefully relatively low risk. It's just the fear that if our purchase fell through, our honest preference would be to stay where we are. If we move out, there's a risk we could end up with neither house. But there are no guarantees in life I guess! We have to hope that our sellers will honour the sale now we're this far in.

@DizzyPigeon

I would be giving the sellers an ultimatum. Give them a deadline or the sale is off.

Meantime, sell your house and move in with family and start looking at other houses.

I wouldn't mess your buyers around, it's not their fault.

But that's from the outside looking in. I don't know how straightforward that would be for you.

This! Why do your sellers get to shrug and go "Meh, dunno," but you can't?

Well, if you'd rather stay there if you don't get that house then you could go to the buyers, explain the situation. Say that you are giving the sellers an ultimatum, and what would be the latest they would accept for completion.

Then use that date as the basis for your ultimatum to the sellers.

That way hopefully you have the buyers on board for as long as you need. If the sellers mess you around then they lose the sale, but you get to stay where you are.

You need to be logical.
How much stamp duty are you in theory saving? (I say in theory cos it seems to have created a rise in asking prices)
How much is your early redemption fee?
How much of a pain will it be to move in with family?
Don't feel bad about anyone else. It's not your doing at all.
What are the figures?

Hi.

So we're saving about £7k in stamp duty (and the house was listed pre announcement, so is a lower price than we could get now), early repayment charge is £3k, moving in with my family is great for me (less so for DP ), will mean an extra £700 of removal costs and £150 a month for storage, but family also don't want any rent.

I'm leaning towards us taking the risk and doing the move...

Definitely what dizzy said. And yes, give the sellers an ultimatum. You seem to think that by selling your house you have no leverage with them. You do. You can walk away any time.

We had this. Our buyers were being pushed so pushed us. I pushed our sellers because their sellers were slow. Our sellers moved out early so we could move in and therefore our buyers and our buyers buyers complete.

Your buyers aren't going to find anywhere else by next week are they?

Yes, we tried the avenue of pushing our sellers to move into rental, but they won't budge .

The buyer wouldn't find somewhere else by next week, no, but we've already gone a few weeks past when they originally wanted, and they've been quite reactive, and I think they could well see a change in date as messing them around too much and cut their losses.

Personally, I couldn’t make a proper decision unless I knew exactly what was going on with your sellers.

Are they wobbly and not sure about moving? Funds problem? Issues with their purchase?

If they’re unsure about their move then no, I wouldn’t take the risk. If they are having an actual problem in the conveyancing process and need a set amount of time to resolve, then I would potentially move to family.

Press for info. Make it clear the transaction depends on it and you need to know what the score is. I don’t ever remember a time personally, where an ultimatum has worked on me so I wouldn’t take that approach myself.

In those circs I would not move to break the chain.
Your buyers are in the same chain. And will be in a chain probably in many house purchases. If you also sold at the same time, your price is probably a bit lower than they could get now as well.
If you lose your buyers you may well find another quickly. If you don't want to move at any cost, find out precisely what the hold up is. Make sure that is communicated to your buyers. Reiterate that you are keen to move as much as they are. If they walk, tell agents to put it back on asap.
Last house sale I had, similar pressure on me
I just said that no doubt I could 're sell our house in 2 days to the agent. They piped down.

We moved in with family and paid early remortgage fee.

It was so worth it for the house we bought.

We paid for storage and hired one of the vans with the lift trays and moved everything out ourselves over a 3 days.

How's this progressing, op?