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?

That is exactly what we are doing. Have put us on the mailing list for 11 estate agents in and around our area and our vendors have said they do not want to readvertise for the the next two weeks knowing that we are waiting in the wings (though the EA has told them they should!😡) We had hoped that friends would able to put us up in one of the properties they own but after offering they have now said this will only be possible for two weeks which isn’t really much help. We are looking again but not much around in our area and budget. Hopefully the market will refresh in the next few weeks. Looks like everything is going into storage, and we’ll be staying with my in-laws an hour away. Not great for the school run but we don’t have any other option. At least we can take our dogs.

God I feel for you.

We are at month 6 of buying/selling. 5 months in our buyers buyer pulled out. This was in February, so awful for everyone involved. Why they couldn’t tell us all sooner I will never know. We were also at exchange point.
We got a a new buyer again (as our buyers were then getting flaky/stressed) so we started again.

Hope you get what you want in the end

DeeplyMovingExperience Sun 21-Mar-21 09:48:35
'The house buying process in England is a bloody nightmare.'

The Times newspaper is currently running a campaign to reform it.

OMG. Situation has gone from bad to worse : ( Popped in to see in laws today - conversation through the window type thing - and though they are feeling 'desperately' sorry for us, they have made it quite clear that we cannot stay with them. Apparently (they have decided) it doesn't make sense as it is too far from school for my youngest. They live in a five bedroom, three bathroom, detached house with a large garden etc. The truth is, they just won't put them selves out to help us. Conversation then turned to how e can 'get together' over the Easter weekend. We were incredulous at how blasé they are. My husband is absolutely distraught at their insensitivity and unwillingness to put themselves out for a while to help us. We have one more friend who is over an hour away who said she will squeeze us in for as long as we like, including animals, but it beggars belief that our oldest friends and closest family members are unwilling to support us. Honestly, we are good people, we have adopted two children and all our animals are rescued. We go out of our way to help people - last week my husband linked two people we know with potential employment and I volunteer for an animal charity as well as having my own little business with which I have been trying to spread the love during lockdown. Why weren't we more pushy and demanding weeks ago - we wouldn't be in this mess? Sorry to rant, you have all been so supportive. Just hope we can find a suitable alternative and get some idea of how long this nightmare is going to continue. x

Fuck! I’m so sorry that’s awful.

Sorry you find yourselves in this situation. Any more word from the people at the top of the chain?
A friend of mine was once buying a house, all exchanged and literally on the morning of completion while they were packing up the removal van the people they were buying the house from pulled out. There def was a financial penalty but my friend and her husband basically spent the whole day driving a removal van around london looking for someone to live.
They rented and bought a few months later but she won’t speak about it to this day. People can be so unreasonable but it’s partly the fault of the system here that makes it easy to do.

We are now in a chain of three, top of the chain is deciding whether they wan to go ahead with a purchasing a new build and should have an idea this week. We’re going to carry on with this AND view any properties which come up having broadened our search radius and seriously considered if our youngest can cope with moving schools at the end of year 9. He seems quite relaxed about it. Whichever can happen first is what we’ll go with unless someone commits financially to give us some security in this chain. Either way, unless our vendors agree to complete and then rent or move in with family from May, we’re in a predicament. Still trying hard to find a local rental as we need to hand the keys over on 30th April. My neighbour is going to look after my hens so that’s one less thing to worry about.

What a situation.... really feel for you!

Why doesn’t the new top of the chain go into rented , whilst they look to buy something else?

Well at least you won't feel obliged to care for the in-laws when they're elderly (silver lining).

So sorry to hear what you're going through. Hope you manage to move very soon.

What is your current rental situation? Do you just have a standard Assured Shorthold Tenancy which is expiring on 30th April? Whilst obviously it would be good to be out by then, there are no legal consequences if you really need to fill a few weeks gap before you can move. You don't actually have to leave until the courts have issued an eviction notice and that would take months.

We have actually made the offer to foot the bill - basically hand over a sum of money - which would cover rent for about 4 months to either our vendor or their vendor. We don’t underestimate the hassle factor of moving twice in quick succession (we were an army family!) but I’m not sure what else we can do. This is taking every penny we would have had to do anything at all once moved in but at least we would be there.Having heard nothing back we actually popped in to see our vendors and they hadn’t even heard from the agent today.

Have you actually said that unless someone is willing to go into rented then you’re pulling out? It seems no one wants to do that which is entirely understandable but unless someone does then no one is moving.

As an aside you don't have to move out of your rented and under Covid restrictions your landlord would have to give you 6 months notice to do so, so please don't rush.

Your purchase could still go ahead if your vendors were willing and able to rent.

Then if the top of the chain keep mesing about, your vendors could pullout of that purchase and (as renters) they would be in a good position to find another property to buy, Cash buyers with nothing to sell.

Worth discussing with them. Maybe you and they could make some financial deal together to make it happen; like you helping them with a rent deposit.

OP, we are in almost the exact same situation! We even have a hen.
Chain of four, we are at the bottom having sold our house in earlyJanuary and moved into rented (an Air BnB because we thought it would be about 4-6 weeks, i.e. mid to late Feb) only to find that the tosser seller at the top of the chain had no intention of moving until mid-May, despite having agreed a sale on his property last summer.
We are now told he is buying a building plot and will magnanimously move into a rental while his new house is being built.
(I should bloody well think so too, a new build will take anything from 6 to 18 months!)
But he seems so flaky we take anything he says with a large pinch of salt. This isn't the first time he has changed the story. He now seems to be thinking he's doing us a favour , saying he is pulling all the stops out to get it done by June 30. We shall see.
We have put in an ultimatum on the exchange date and will walk away
If it's not done by then. A great shame for our vendors who don't want to lose their sale and have dropped their price to reflect some of our extra costs. But we can't let this go in indefinitely.

Id tell the people you are buying from you need to move in and exchange otherwise your pulling out. So they can move in with family or rent

We had similar thing the person at bottom of our chain a few days before exchange refused to move unless everyone stumped up for 2 months rent.
It had been a long and arduous chain so everyone in chain stumped up £300 just to get it done FMl

So - top of our chain have been to look at the new build and it's a no go from them and they have withdrawn their property from the market. We met with our vendors for a cup of tea in the garden today and put it to them that it is now down to them to decide if they are willing to rent with a financial contribution from us or intend to stay put. They will let us know on Thursday at the latest. We are expecting a no as they now have no onward purchase AND have been advised by the EA that they have several interested buyers who are willing to offer well over the asking price so who can blame them for hanging on for more money when they have nothing lined up and will have to look again. However, I suppose this could also work against them. We went to see another property today, no chain, completely different area, but we do have friends who live there. Would mean substantial upheaval ie change of school, longer commute for DH but it is a lovely area and house. Wary of making decisions based on an emotional reaction and it has been a very emotional day! I literally walked around the supermarket in a daze and then sat in the carpark crying for about half an hour before phoning a friend sobbing! However, she had offered before and has confirmed her offer of somewhere to stay, with all our dogs and though it is an hour from school, it is doable in the short term. We have an offer of free storage for our furniture etc from someone else and a colleague of my husband will look after our chickens on her small holding so all is not lost. We have made about 20 more enquiries today about rentals and are waiting on a couple of replies regarding the dogs - the budget has doubled but will be just about manageable if they say yes. I have really been reminded this past week or so of what is really important in life and have learned who we can rely on. Kindness goes a long way it seems as the friends who will help us out needed us in the past - not in such a long term and potentially intrusive way and we didn't really think we were doing anything that meaningful but apparently it was and now they want to return the favour and I cannot wait to tell my in laws.........

A house near us had an offer made on it back in September, everything was going ahead but the sellers can’t find their ideal property..
it is a 1.4 million pound house..
If I had a buyer I’d definitely go into rented..
It’s now back on the market... let’s see how long it takes to sell this time...

Oh goodness I really feel for you, what a stress. Can’t believe your in laws! Fingers crossed that your vendors decide to move.

Relieve yourself of the pressure if funding rentals /storage etc. YOU DO NOT NEED TO LEAVE YOUR CURRENT RENTAL

unless and until your landlord gives you notice and gets a court order you do not need to leave. Keep paying the rent. Currently Notice needs to be 6 months and with court backlogs it could be up to a year before an order is made, always assuming the landlord issues proper notice.

Don’t make a bad situation worse for yourself needlessly. Concentrate efforts on finding a new purchase!

You're ignoring the comments about staying put in your current rental. Does that mean you're already at the eviction stage?
Also, I do think it's a huge ask to expect anyone to budge over and let 2 adults, 2 kids, 4 dogs, chickens and everything that goes with that lodge for a while. I don't think friends have let you down by saying no. It would be a massive strain.

The problem was some particular friends said yes first and then changed their minds! Also they have two vacant properties - so it wouldn't have been actually staying with them (in their eight bedroom house ), plus they have hens, dogs horses etc and 500 acres of land. We also put them up for two months in our three bed cottage while they were having some building work completed so I think it was reasonable to have hoped they would have helped us out. We can't stay in the rental and do not want an eviction order against us. But thanks for your input.

Yes but if you stay put there won't be an eviction order against you for a minimum of 9 months, during which time you will probably be much better able to find an alternative.