Sellers haven't found found a house yet

[GoingDicey]

Hi all -- what do most people do in this situation?

Long story short, we have been working through the various purchasing stages over the last 7.5 weeks to complete the survey, get the mortgage offer, enquiries, etc. We're now 95% done (waiting for one search to come back). We started pushing the vendor over exchange and its come to fruition that she has not found a house yet.

Naturally we are a bit disappointed as exchange/completion was a big point of negotiation when the offer went in and it was sold to us as the seller wanted to move very quickly. In fact, the plan was she would be moved out this month.

Now, we still have to wait for her to find a house and then wait in her chain. This wasn't the deal at all, but obviously nothing is binding until exchange. We're not chained but we were very keen on moving in and starting 3 weeks worth of renovations (our hope was to be all set up well before Christmas). Now its looking like we'll be lucky to even move in by December.

What's a reasonable response/course of action from a buyer in this situation?

Mmmm, sounds like she's not very motivated to move. Bad of her to be stringing you along like this. think you should cut your losses and start looking again. The advice is never to pay for a survey etc until the chain is complete.

The only thing you can do, short of waiting, is to speak with the agents and see if they seller can move out to temporary accommodation whilst she finds something to buy.

Yes the seller is within her rights to do this unfortunately. You never know how many of the promises to 'exchange quickly' are engineered by the estate agents.

This happened to us.. we hung around waiting for a couple of months but our sellers just weren't finding anything they wanted to buy. We ended up pulling out and buying something else. (Very glad now, incidentally!!)

@CornishMaid1 - actually when we put the offer in, the agent said that she would move to rented accommodation. I guess we can test this a bit.

@Ker100 - how long is a reasonable amount of time to wait for them to find something? Given that we're coming up on just about 2 months, should we give them another month?

we had this and after hanging around waiting for the seller to find something else we removed ourselves and found another house, i think we would still be waiting if we hadnt, took 8 weeks from start to finish to buy this house, (in rented and cash buyers) 5 months down the line from first offer she has withdrawn the house from sale so we would have lost out on this house as well sometimes you have to walk away, if she wont go into rented

It depends on how much you want this house and how much you want to stick to your original plan!! You can call her bluff and give her a date to exchange/complete or you will pull out - but then you may lose the house. You can engage her and make HER set a date to leave..

I think you've been more than reasonable if you are ready to exchange - and that's from someone who ALWAYS moved out, either renting or with family so her buyer wasn't inconvenienced.

I guess it's completely your decision.. we needed to move as we were in a horrible rental so didn't hang around that long.

It's just whatever you feel comfortable with/how much you love the house.

Start making appointments to see other things. If it’s a buyer’s market you could risk saying you will either pull out or not pay the agreed price if she doesn’t stick to the agreement about moving out. TBH if she hasn’t find anything in the time you’ve been getting ready to exchange them you could be hanging around for a very long time. I’d look elsewhere.

I would push for them to move out if that's what that said. I do see it a lot of people wo say it and then change their mind. The trouble if you give them another month to find a property is that they will then have to get it through so your one month will be nearer three.

If they had found one that would be one thing but play it that you need to move and that way the sellers have plenty of time to find the perfect property rather than rushing.

If you offered based on a quick exchange/completion then I would reconsider your offer, but of course this is quite likely to make the seller kick off. I would talk to the agent and point out you were told x about the seller and it seems that is no longer the case, can they clarify what the situation is with her going into rented etc. If you don't get a straight answer I'd be looking elsewhere. You can always keep this one on the back burner - after all, you've spent all the money on it - but what happens if she never finds anywhere?

To be clear, I wouldn't be quite so bolshy over a seller who hadn't found anywhere if they hadn't said they'd go into rented and promised a quick completion.

Unfortunately people say anything at the time the Offer goes in
I would start viewing other properties

I'd insist on the seller moving into a rental or wherever. If it falls through, I'd be sure to know what's going on in the chain so you don't end up in this situation again.

I have a feeling that a lot of agents say their clients will go into rented when they have no intention of doing so. I would speak to the agent asking them to check on her willingness and try to set a date. If it doesn’t sound promising I would start booking appointments, including with that agent so they know you are serious.

We were sellers when the market was very slow after the property slump a decade ago. The first-time buyers we accepted an offer from eventually had to give us an ultimatum which was fair enough. Because of all the uncertainty there were very few houses for sale and none of them were really right.

Our buyers gave us notice that if we didn't have an offer accepted in a chain that could get going within the next 4 weeks they would be walking away. It made us stop hankering after the perfect forever home and go with a place that was OK. It was the right thing to do.

Oh no, how incredibly annoying and frustrating for you! I wonder if your seller is the same dithering fool person who posted on here in the last day or two saying that she was thinking of pulling out of her sale because she couldn't find a house to move to?

Don't offer your house up for sale if there are such huge conditions attached to selling it people!

Sympathies op. I hope their agent is able to put a rocket up them.

Agree that your next step is to speak with the EA to come to an agreement on a deadline for her to have found a house and have it under offer (4 weeks). If she is unable to achieve this then the agreement is that she exchanges 4 weeks after that and goes into rental. You need to set the pace and deadlines now.

Currently this would take you up towards the end of November when people then traditionally remove their homes from the market over Xmas....and decent stock is not back on again until the spring - so this could mean you are not in your home until summer 2020.

Brexit will add more chaos to the mix.

She is not a motivated seller (who cares why) a deadline with focus the mind to comply or not. In the interim have a plan B. Keep looking - especially with properties being sold by same EA. That will add momentum.

There are loads of motivated sellers out there desperate to sell and dropping their prices - plenty on this forum - go find one of them.

It's incredibly unfair - but it's the system as much as your buyer.
Turn it around and consider if you would make you and your family homeless just to accommodate someone who was waiting to buy your house when you couldn't find anything to move to - quite possibly not?

We had something similar on first house we offered on. Sellers promised to move into accommodation if they didn’t find somewhere in time as they knew we were also selling our house. 2 months went by, our buyers were putting pressure on us to move into rented (as they themselves were in rented and had given notice stupidly before we had even exchanged!) So when we asked sellers when they would go into rented they changed their minds saying they wanted to find their dream home first. Fast forward a sit down meeting that took place between us and sellers organised by sellers estate agent (I know very odd and very awkward!) and after said meeting we withdrew our offer. Funnily enough the estate agent arranged a viewing on a house 2 roads away, put offer and here we are! Nearly 4 months in our new home and the other sellers have had 3 different buyers in that period all have withdrawn and it’s back on sell.

As others have said cut your losses now and go and find a seller that WANTS to sell.