Vendor pressuring us to start conveyancing but they haven't found a property to buy yet

[MadgeMak]

We have recently had an offer accepted on a property we want to buy (we offered full asking price and asked them to take it off the market) and we have a buyer for our property (FTB so no further chain below them). We have our mortgage agreed in principle and a solicitor lined up to proceed once the chain is complete, however our vendors are pressuring us to proceed with conveyancing now despite the fact that they haven't found a property to buy yet, they are saying that they don't want to take it off the market unless we start the process.

Any insight into their thinking here? My understanding is that it is not usual to start the conveyancing process until the chain is complete. We've said we are committed to buying their house, which we feel we demonstrated by not pissing about with an offer and going straight in at the asking price, and we are in a good position as we have a buyer in place for our property, so it just feels off for us to incur costs in some sort of show of faith exercise when they are the ones who are not yet in a position to proceed.

Would they be willing to move into rented if they don't find somewhere in time?

Tell them to jog on, my mum proceeded with solicitors and had to pull out and lose her deposit because her vendors dragged their feet. Say you will commence solicitors as soon as they have a property, CF.

@17thEarlOfOxford

Would they be willing to move into rented if they don't find somewhere in time?

Timescales haven't been mentioned, all they have said is that they are committed to moving and actively looking.

Tell them you'll start conveyancing as soon as they start conveyancing. They are being ridiculous.
Keeping looking at other properties they don't sound like they are very serious.

Do the absolute basics to shut them up- instruction conveyancers, fill in forms etc, give them search fees but tell them NOT to submit searches until you say.

If that purchase doesn’t happen, at least you’ll be lined up to go quickly on your new one.

Thanks all, you've confirmed what my gut instinct was telling me. We are going to say no to start our conveyancing but will leave our offer on the table and see what happens.

I've started the process on the house I'm buying and the seller is still looking. I've told my own buyers I will sell even if I can't buy - I will move to rental if need be as I am moving for my daughter's school so have an absolute deadline (the school is 70 miles away). We all want to take advantage of the stamp duty break so end of June is the goal.
It is a flaw of the system here that nothing is certain - there should be set deadlines and penalties.

I'd be absolutely fine with starting the conveyancing if the vendor agreed to a date to complete by with the agreement that they will sell even if they don't find anything. What I won't do is be kept dangling for what could be months on end, paying for a solicitor, with no end in sight.

This happened to us only we were the ones with nowhere as we'd been let down on a property we'd had an offer accepted on. We asked our buyers to give us a set period of time in which to find somewhere else and if by that time we'd still not found anywhere then they could look for another buyer.

I would make them commit themselves to finding somewhere in say four weeks and if they haven't or made a promise to go into rented accommodation then you will be looking elsewhere.

Yeah this doesn't seem fair. Until yesterday we were in the same position as your sellers OP but wouldn't have thought of asking our buyers to start any conveyancing until we found somewhere, it seems unreasonable to ask you to financially commit to their house when they aren't giving you any signs that they'll commit to you (either by taking it off the market or agreeing that they'll go into rented to get your sale through). Out of interest when you say you've asked them to take it off the market did you make that a condition of you offering full asking price? As that way if they've accepted your offer then they need to be sticking to the condition placed upon your offer. (Round by us it's not uncommon for offers to come with stipulations like that). In fact on the house we bought yesterday we only agreed to up our offer as part of negotiations if the property was then immediately removed from Rightmove and no further viewings were to take place.

Yes we did stipulate that our offer was subject to them taking it off the market. For some reason their estate agent then advised them that in order to be able to position themselves better to prospective sellers it would make them more competitive to insist on us starting the conveyancing. It's all a bit bizarre as said estate agent is adamant with me when I've spoken to him that it's perfectly normal to start conveyancing without an intact chain, which quite frankly is bollocks!

Conveyancing can take forever, the sooner you start the better. Get ahead of the game and then You can pressure them. Theirs could take 3 months, yours could take 4.
If I accepted an offer on my property and the buyers hadn’t appointed a solicitor, I’d think they weren’t serious. I wouldn’t feel happy until I’d heard from your solicitor. They’re not asking you to be ready for exchange, they’re just asking you to get the ball rolling

It might be months until the chain is complete, you could be ready to go by then

We have appointed a solicitor.

Get the to cough up the costs which you would reimburse to them on them finding a property