Seller refusing to move

[Tash72]

Really looking for some advice from anyone with a similar experience. Due to exchange on a house last Friday, only to discover that the top of the chain (4 of us) aren’t willing to move. They’re not pulling out of their sale but not willing to move into a rental and have not found a house to buy. They were going to buy a new build when we made our offer and then pulled out, but we only found this out a month ago and we’re then told the EA was helping them to find a rental to bridge the gap. They have now said that they will not rent! Our solicitor and our vendors’ solicitor and their vendors’ solicitor were completely unaware of the situation hence the phone call to say exchange Friday afternoon. We actually had to make the call to our solicitor to say that this wouldn’t be able to go ahead. We have been ready to exchange since beginning of Feb and have been very patient. We are in a rented house, only five mins from where we used to live and five mins to where we’re supposedly buying having sold in a year ago. We rent a farm cottage but have to be out end of April. There is no chance of extending, no family close enough, 4 dogs, hens, an older teenage son who gets to work on his bike and a younger one at school 20 mins away, husband cycles to the office when not in lockdown and we have one car. I cannot believe how anyone can leave it until this point to announce they are not ready and willing to move and expect us all to hang on indefinitely. There doesn’t seem to be any consequence or financial penalty for them at all because they have not officially pulled out so no incentive to move. We had our offer on the property accepted in October, and have had to extend our mortgage offer. These people want to sell but want to move when it suits but have no plan or timescale and did not make the chain aware of this until we are all committed, searches and surveys completed and of course now we don’t have time to find something else as we will be without somewhere to live in five weeks. Our vendors, who seem very nice and decent people are in their 70s and all packed and ready to go after 25 years in their house and need something easier for them to live in now due to mobility etc. Feel so sorry for them too. Do we pull out to make those at the top realise the consequences but let people further down the chain know that we’re back in if someone is willing to budge?

Thank you everyone. Sorry to vent. We are decent and honest people and have done whatever we can at the request of others and it is so disappointing and frustrating to be in this position. BTW have just found the property of the person who doesn’t want to budge, flipping ‘eck, I wouldn’t want to budge either. If it were in the South East it would be £3 mil easily.

@Nith

I don't understand why you're not exchanging?

Presumably because both parties need to be willing to exchange and OP's vendors aren't, given that their own vendors are equally unwilling.

Surely the whole point of exchanging is you then have a contract to complete the sale on a specific date

Exactly. No-one in the chain wants to commit themselves to selling till they know that they will be able to move into the house they are buying.

If, for whatever reason, the person you are buying form does not exchange on that date then there are financial penalties for breaking the contract.

No, there aren't. There is no obligation unless and until people exchange.

Sorry, that last pout was supposed to say if they don't complete not exchange.

OPs vendors were willing to exchange though, until OP told them that their vendors vendors weren't going it vacate. If she'd not known or not said anything then her exchange would have happened and then she would have been more protected.

I think you should presume this sale isn't happening and start looking for another house asap.

If the top of the chain really want to sell (or if either of the others are keen enough to rent) then they will come back to you.

Make clear to your solicitor that he's to put the purchase on hold and not to let that on to the EA. Then tell your vendors EA you are out. They won't want to lose the sale so will start chasing hard- it will either work or it won't.

What an frustrating situation.

*OPs vendors were willing to exchange though, until OP told them that their vendors vendors weren't going it vacate. If she'd not known or not said anything then her exchange would have happened and then she would have been more protected.

Well, no, that shouldn't happen. All of the solicitors would check up the chain to see if exchange could happen and to agree the completion date. Assuming the people refusing to move hadn't instructed their solicitor to exchange, then this message would've passed down the chain and exchange couldn't happen. It would be reckless / negligent to exchange on a sale without checking the position up the chain for the onward purchase.

OPs vendors were willing to exchange though, until OP told them that their vendors vendors weren't going it vacate. If she'd not known or not said anything then her exchange would have happened and then she would have been more protected.

That's really not how it works, nor is it what the OP says. OP's vendors and everyone else thought the top of the chain were sorted until Friday when it became clear that they had not made arrangements.

You have my sympathies. Our OP pulled this exact same trick on the day we were due to exchange. Like you, we’d also moved into a holiday home on a winter let. Sadly nothing else has come on the market since.

Would the other person in the chain (clearly not you or the elderly couple) consider renting? Although it’s not easy given that the rental market has gone bananas in rural areas. It sounds as if the people one below the top need to apply some serious pressure or look for another onward purchase. The people at the top sadly are not serious about moving.

@donquixotedelamancha

OPs vendors were willing to exchange though, until OP told them that their vendors vendors weren't going it vacate. If she'd not known or not said anything then her exchange would have happened and then she would have been more protected.

That's really not how it works, nor is it what the OP says. OP's vendors and everyone else thought the top of the chain were sorted until Friday when it became clear that they had not made arrangements.

Well yes, in a normal situation I completely agree. But OP says it was her that told her solicitor, and they told the other solicitors, not the other way around. That's what I don't understand!

OP said this Our solicitor and our vendors’ solicitor and their vendors’ solicitor were completely unaware of the situation hence the phone call to say exchange Friday afternoon. We actually had to make the call to our solicitor to say that this wouldn’t be able to go ahead.

The awkward vendors solicitors must have spoken at some point to their buyers solicitors about the Friday exchange with no issues raised, the date must have come from somewhere? Like NoWordForFluffy said - it wouldn't have come from the bottom of the chain, that would be madness!

Fuck - name change fail, sorry!

Your vendor or someone further up (ideally whoever is buying from those thoughtless idiots) ideally needs to fall on their sword and rent then.
While you can't make anyone do that I would be asking them to close it asap.

After advising them they need to close the chain if top end won't, I would take deep breath and start viewing other properties again.

I worry about this happening to us!
We are just about to go on the market and expect to sell quickly. We went on the market because we'd seen a couple of houses we liked, but our offers (over the asking price) weren't successful - partly because we haven't sold yet, but we also weren't the highest offers.

There is now nothing on the market which fits our criteria. Nothing has come on in the past couple of weeks. We could potentially sell ours and rent until we find somewhere to buy - but there is also nothing to rent either! And that's without taking into consideration the fact we have cats and a dog

So whilst I'd hate to collapse a chain, sometimes it's not as easy as renting, and I'm certainly not spending £600k or more on a house that doesn't suit our needs.

I really feel for you. The house buying process in England is a bloody nightmare. Our recent move took 13 months. Our buyers were a nightmare, and the vendor got so angry with us he let the house go to wrack and ruin. It was the most stressful experience ever.

The 'wont move' lot are pissing three other households about and that is disgusting.

Op - if you are in an English rental and you didn't give the notice, you don't have to leave. Is that a possible while you look for somewhere else? The only other solution is for the buyers of the top house to go into rental.

@WeatherwaxLives

So if OP had not said anything would her vendors have exchanged and then it would have been their problem or their vendors problem to sort? That's how I'm reading it and why I don't understand why OP has got involved in a sale further up the chain.

Because it's a chain and usually all exchanges happen on the same day, so that no one is left homeless. This is basic house buying and selling stuff. Yes, you can break the chain and we have done this before and gone into rented, but people aren't obliged to do this.

Hi OP, I really feel for you.
I've been in a similar situation but I was selling and buying. Was due to exchange that week and had a call to say my vendors were pulling out-they had changed their mind. I know that's not quite the same technically, but I think you've got to assume this could be the case.
I had to move. I had been commuting with two kids as a single parent for 18months. So I decided to continue to sell and went into rental for 6 months whilst I found a new house. It cost me thousands. Lost fees (I was liable even though we hadn't exchanged-some solicitors don't do this), searches and then 6 months rent. Basically £6-7k. The vendors were not liable for anything and despite seeming very nice people, didn't offer anything.

I think you have to find out this week if someone further up the chain is prepared to go into rental to save the chain. I'd be putting the idea forward that the people at the top foot the bill. Or even all of you contribute.
Yes you obviously want to keep the house you are buying, but you've also go to be prepared that this won't happen. It's heartbreaking I know. But it's a possibility that I would be trying to come to terms with now and coming up with other options for rental close by and looking online for other properties.

Good luck

How stressful for you.
In my situation a few years ago my vendors agreed to go in to rented to proceed to a quick sale as I was a cash buyer. At the eleventh hour they refused and it was as if we had never had the agreement about this.
When I sold my own property I agreed to go in to rented and would never have dreamt of going back on my word.
Let us know how you get on.

The chain is not complete if the people at the top don’t have somewhere to go.
Your EA is at fault for making you believe the chain was complete.
Anyone can break the chain, the people underneath those currently at the top could move into rented = chain complete.

I'm not sure I've understood this chain correctly, but surely if you rent and your vendors are packed and ready to go, then YOUR vendors can go into rented - their sale to you goes through, you can move in, and you're free of the rest of this (incomplete) chain while your vendors are also free to either hang in there if they want the proper above them, or they have all the cash from their sale and can shop around. It's crap what's happened further up the chain, but sounds like it's a communication failure and needn't be your problem. If your vendors won't go into rented, they can hardly complain that the other people won't!

When my husband and I were buying our home, after a wait of eight months for our vendor to find a house (we were bottom of the chain) suddenly there was an access issue up the chain that was going to cost £20,000 to sort. Rather than have it all collapse, my husband, a straight thinking lawyer, said we should all make a contribution. Which we did, saving the chain. No one benefitted from the £20,000 it was going to some church or other than had belatedly started to be difficult about access, and the prices we were all paying (over £1m) made it worth it.
My current chain is open, but I have assured my vendors i will sell, even though I too have pets and am moving to London and certainly do not want to get stuck paying £££ for a six months rental there. My vendor has said she will go in to rental of she doesn't find a place. But anyone can change their minds. Add in the stamp duty extension and it makes it all even more crucial. The government really needs to overhaul the system.

So very frustrating for you. But the chain is not complete and the top EA would know this as would the relevant solicitor.

I can’t possibly understand how you had a proposed exchange date going up the line when the top had pulled out of their new build and then rejected renting.

You mat be lucky if the next person down in the chain is prepared to go into rental otherwise the chain is going to collapse as people will pull out. It’s all a thoroughly horrible process.

Thanks again for all your comments. I absolutely agree that we need to think about moving on and looking elsewhere. If we don’t hear anything conclusive by Wednesday ie exchange this week, we’re seriously going to go and start looking again. Thanks everyone

I think that unless someone further up the chain is prepared to break the chain by going into rented, then your only option is to pull out and try and find somewhere else to rent which is difficult when you have animals. Perhaps just by making your intentions clear, it will get things moving, but I don't think you can just hang on.

I do hope things work out for you and it would be good to know what happens.

It’s a disgusting trick to pull, messiing with peoples lives like that 😡
My DD is in a similar ( hopefully not as serious) situation.
She’s the bottom of a chain she was told was three - her, her seller and the top of chain, who they were told was already moved out into a new retirement flat (85 years old with a massive 5 bed house). Everyone should have been ready to exchange / complete this week, DD had a call from her/her seller’s agent on Thursday saying supposed top of chain was now buying somewhere else 🤔 and searches were not back yet. Supposed Top of chain not moved out, even though DD’s seller had viewed a virtually empty house, so they told her anyway. The actual top of chain is refusing to buy indemnity so exchange can go ahead so everything is now dependant on searches coming back ok. The agent knows nothing about the previously unknown top of the chain, they are trying to find out today apparently.
DD has to be out of their rental by April 3rd. My worry is that this 85 year old is either taken ill or drops dead before exchange happens. DD’s sellers can’t go anywhere, they have 3 teenagers and no local family to put them up, no air b&b anywhere near so they wont break the chain.
DD is also a teacher and wants the easter break to get settled in.
It’s infuriating.

Options:

1. ask the vendor of the property you are buying to move in to rented so you can continue with your purchase.
2. pull out, find a new house (no guarantees that the chain on this new house will be complete or that you won't end up waiting just as long to find and buy the new house).
3. Keep on with this chain, extend you tenancy and mortgage.
4. Keep on with this chain, whilst simultaneously looking for a new property and seeing which finishes quickest.

Personally I'd do 4. It's a business transaction.

And just to add, even if top of chain does find somewhere to buy next week - there is no guarantee that that will complete the chain. It could be months until your chain is complete.