Advice on exchanging contracts when the vendor is going into rented

[TiredMule]

This may be a stupid question with a simple answer, but our vendors can't find anywhere to buy and so have said they will go into rented. They want to exchange before Christmas and complete after. This is fine by me but dh doesn't understand their reasoning. My concern is what happens if after we exchange they 'change their minds' and decide to continue searching for a house to buy. Can they do this? Obviously after exchange we'll be tied into 10% of the total but they won't as they aren't buying. What happens in this situation?

Also dh is doubting the whole thing now as our agents are playing mind games, long story but they are telling us that our vendors aren't serious about moving and are telling us not to pay any money out and to keep looking.
Bit of back story of huge rivalry between the 2 agents and the fact that our vendors had their house on with our agents originally and rejected an offer the same as ours a few months ago and then changed to their current agents and they then accepted our offer. There is very little on the market around here so all agents are almost literally fighting anyway, let alone with the back story.
My inclination is not to believe anything our agents (or any estate agents!!) say, as I think they are just trying to get one over the vendors and agents by selling us another house. Hope this makes sense!

What would you think?
We need to sort the survey and searches but now dh wants to hold off. I'm not convinced that's a very good idea, to put off doing anything.

Very confused as to what we should do! Any advice very welcome!

Sounds very normal to me.

They probably want to exchange before Christmas and know the deal is done and dusted in effect, relax over Christmas then move out afterwards on the agreed completion date.

They can't pull out after exchange anymore than you can. Without forgoing a large amount of money anyway.

On exchange of contracts they sign a contract which prevents them going back on the deal.

I would just progress as normal if I were you.

Thank you bowlersarm, that is what I thought. I think it's all to do with the agents 'war'. God this whole business is stressful

They wouldn't be able to change their mind after exchange, but they could do before exchange!

But then that is the same with any purchase on any house really. Anyone's situation can change (ie job loss, death in the family, or simply a change of heart) which could make them withdraw from the sale.

I don't think you have any reason to think this will be particularly difficult because of what they are saying. Some people do like to move in to rented between house sale and purchase, to give them a bit of breathing space and the advantage of not already being in a chain when the right property comes up for them to buy.

Hope I haven't bored you!

Good luck.

We sold and moved into rented recently. My understanding (someone will correct me if I'm wrong I'm sure) was that once you exchange, you have to set a date for completion. You can leave a bigger gap between the two, but you can't leave it open ended, and like others have said, once you've exchanged you are committed. It was really quite stressful once we were coming up to exchange as nothing was coming on the rental market that we liked, and we knew it took a while to sort credit checks etc for the letting agency. Happily, something came up in the nick of time. This might be why they want to delay until after Xmas.

Perhaps see if you can set firmer timescales, and discuss with your solicitor?