To pull out of house purchase?

[SheeceRearsmith]

Wasn’t sure where to put this but here goes.

We are in a small chain - our buyer (first time buyer), us and our vendor (buying a new build which isn’t yet built).

All contracts are signed and ready to exchange and we and our buyers have agreed a completion date. Our vendor said all along that he was flexible and would happily move into an Airbnb on completion. He is now trying to find a rental property in a very difficult market - each house seems to be wanted by 5+ people. He was accepted for a property a couple of days ago but lost it as the landlord chose another tenant over him for reasons unknown.

Ourselves and the buyer are ready to exchange. Our vendor will only exchange when he has found a property and will ‘work towards’ our agreed completion date. This date cannot be changed for reasons financial and practical on both our and our buyers side.

I don’t want to risk losing our buyer and am considering pulling out of the house purchase. I am incredibly sad at the thought of doing so but unsure of what else to do. I feel like to wait night jeopardise my sale.

My kids are settled into childcare in our new area and I have a new job. We’re currently living with family and popping back home every few days. It’s been really tough on us all. I’m just wondering what other people would do. Please be kind - it’s been such a rollercoaster.

Hi all - promised an update so here it is.

We exchanged with our buyer today, to complete at the beginning of next month. Our buyer was approved for a rental property yesterday but won’t exchange until his references have been cleared - which I think is fair enough as that’s what I would wait for also. He doesn’t know that we have exchanged with our buyers - a move we had to make otherwise we would have lost our booking with our chosen removals company and if we moved any earlier then we would have an early mortgage settlement fee to pay. Saved ourselves £3k!

As we are definitely not returning to the town in which we lived it doesn’t feel like so much of a risk to have broken the chain. Just keeping everything crossed now for a swift resolution with the seller. Will keep you posted and thanks again for all your advice!

Congrats on your exchange OP!

Thankyou! I woke up this morning for the first time in weeks felt like I could breathe properly. The physical effects of stress are so apparent when the stressor is removed! Now to sort out the purchase…

Thought I would update you all to let you know that we exchanged last week and complete tomorrow! Due to breaking the chain and exchanging with our buyers beforehand, we put all of our stuff into storage and can officially move in next week. Can’t wait to pick up the keys tomorrow!

Nice outcome.

Oh excellent! Well done OP and enjoy your new home!

@SheeceRearsmith

Apologies - I don’t think I out in my first post that we have no intention of pulling out of our sale - we’re more than happy to go into rented ourselves if it means we still make our sale and don’t let our buyers down.

We sold and moved into rented because we;d been messed around by vendors so many times. It puts you in a very strong position. We ended up getting a gorgeous house at a lower offer than some others because we were chain free. I'd recommend you proceed with your sale regardless, move into rental and keep looking while he dithers, then pull out if you find somewhere better that is chain free.