Aibu to pull out of house chain

[darlingsweetpea]

Im mindful I don't cut my nose of to spite my face but any opinions welcome. The property I'm buying have said they'll break the chain, two weeks before exchange, I contacted the estate agent to update them and they informed me my seller had found somewhere so there were now two properties above me. The top of the chain searches are not back until mid December, estate agent reckons completion first week of Jan, original completion was first week December.

I am considering pulling out as I can't see how the top of the chain will be ready before Feb to complete and my sellers are refusing to uphold their agreement of moving out and why should I wait. The two properties below me are also ready to complete. Should I sit tight and suck it up, or pull the plug?

You're not making sense, write it again and make it make sense.

100% I would sit tight - delays are so common, and although frustrating, it'll be worth it once you're through!

You're 90% through conveyancing. If you pull out, you'll be back to 0%.

So the ones above you were supposed to move out, but instead have changed their mind and are buying instead?

Mine did that at the 11th hour. I told them I would pull out unless they honoured their original plans.

It depends how much you like the house. If you buy another now that won’t be ready until march time at the earliest.

however what’s to say someone below you in the chain won’t pull out now before you if you stay with the house.

catch 22 situation really. Sorry to hear your sellers are kn@bs 😩

Do you still want the house you’re buying? You won’t be able to complete on any other house this side of Christmas either, so pulling out will put you back to square one.

I don’t understand. Where did you think your sellers were going to live if they hadn’t found another house yet?

Anyway, it’s very annoying but if you did pull out you wouldn't find anywhere else now that you’d be able to move into any sooner. If the people below you in the chain are also willing to wait I’d just suck it up.

If the properties below you are prepared to wait, you may be cutting off your nose to spite your face. Even if you pull out now, it's not like you'll be able to find a new property and complete before February anyway even if it is chain free. And if you lose your chain you'll be back to square one.

By all means threaten it to see if they back down, but don't lose the house over it if it's the right place for you.

Surely you have paid for s survey etc. you’ll lose money. You will also piss off several estate agents.

I would honestly sit tight. It was unlikely that everything would be sorted this side of Christmas anyway as people won't want to move so close to Christmas. Completing in the first week of January seems more realistic and a lot more sensible than pulling out and not moving at all before at least march if not later.

If they said they would break the chain are you sure that is not still the case, so they would move out and wait for their purchase.

If the searches are due back in mid December, why do you assume that you won’t be able to complete until February? House purchases don’t have to take that long. My neighbours completed in just under a month from the date they put their house on the market. I know it’s unusually quick, but it can easily be done. Every time we’ve moved we’ve had a week between exchange and completion.

Sorry, I can’t make any sense of your post, but I would say that pulling out will mean that you’ll be moving much later as you’ll need to find a new property.
If you like this one, suck it up, but ask your solicitor to try to chivvy things along as much as possible.

Also if everyone further up has got their mortgage offers and had their surveys done (worth checking), then they should really be able to complete within a week or so of getting searches back. In reality they probably have them all except the local authority search as the others are normally same day.

They said in the summer they would break the chain, so where they were going to live really isn't my problem.

Sit tight.

And yet another reason for replacing the spivs charter that is house sale and purchase in England and Wales, with something the same or akin to Scottish law.

Thanks everyone. I'm going to speak to everyone below me and see what their position is in terms of waiting as the chain may collapse by someone else.

The English system really is rubbish as it takes so long with no security that everyone will.play ball fairly.