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?

OP, I'm a firm believer that the home for you is out there somewhere. It may be the new place in the new area. Do you have someone you trust to go and view it and give you their opinion. It sounds positive from what you've said and would be a fresh start.

The house we have now is the 3rd one we tried to buy but it's ended up the better fit for our needs longer term.

Once again.

You do not have to leave the rental. It would become a rolling tenancy from month to month.

Your landlord has to give 6 month's notice before they would even think of eviction proceedings so you actually have 6 months from when they give you notice.

Can you please at least acknowledge that you have taken this on board from at least 3 other posters?

for all those suggesting she stays in current rental -if she stays put & they start eviction process might this not affect or come up on the application for mortgage?

@mumwon Under covid restrictions they cannot start eviction proceedings until the 6 months notice has expired. They have not served notice to leave yet. Therefore she does not need to leave in April she need to leave 6 months after the notice is given. So at todays date (if the served today) she would have until the end of September before they can even think about eviction proceedings.

It seems to me like the OP doesn’t want to put her landlord in that position and create a bad relationship-not that she’s ignoring the suggestion to just not move out and wait to be evicted! Perhaps you could talk to your landlord though and see if there is any wiggle room?

I don’t know where you are, but where I live houses sell like hot cakes and the agents always say you can replace a buyer in a matter of days, so people treat buyers really badly. Having an offer agreed, rather than selling a house, is the difficult bit. If it’s the same near you this means 2 things:

1. If you threaten to walk, the people who aren’t budging might not care because you can easily be replaced.
2. The vendors who aren’t budging might take absolutely ages to have an offer agreed on the house they want. They might not even be 100% set on moving - some people have in their minds “I’ll move if I find the perfect house” which creates unrealistic expectations and a vendor that isn’t likely to move.

Sorry to sound negative, but you have two choices. Bed in for the long term and be patient, with no guarantees that the top people will move (but YOUR vendors might choose to buy a different home, in which case it’s sorted). Or walk away, find something simpler.

If you need to, ask your estate agent what sort of a market you're in and how easily buyers can be replaced before you make any threats to walk. If someone threatened to walk away from my sale, I don’t think it would stress me in the slightest - I’d let them go and find someone new. But like I said - it depends on how easy it is to find buyers where you are.

So.... I spoke to Citizens Advice and it appears we can be evicted because of the type of tenancy agreement we have. And our vendors have now withdrawn their property from the market as their vendors have also done this...only to put it back on at £50k more! Feel so sorry for them as I think they were all neighbours and friendly in their small village. Anyway, they have agreed that when they regroup and sort themselves out they will give us first refusal and we have taken out an endemnity to extend the validity of searches etc. And then, out of the blue a rental appears which we thought might be the house of someone my husband worked with once upon a time. Made contact and it wasn’t his house but knew the neighbour who knew the owner etc etc and put us in touch yesterday. Unexpectedly available as they were planning to move in this month but next posting was changed last week and is too far away. It also turned out the owners are friends of friends so we’re in, dogs, hens and all, and it is MUCH nicer than the house we were going to buy or where we live now. Great location, neighbours with hens, dogs etc, familiar place and friends there already and we’ve got it until early 2024 if needed. Hopefully we’ll be sorted by then once the madness calms down but I literally cried with relief. We can move in any time from next week. I just cannot believe how lucky we are. Have sent a very large bouquet to the friends who said they would have us if necessary because I absolutely know they would have done. Disappointed in the house buying situation obviously but maybe it just wasn’t meant to be and quite a relief to be out of it tbh. Our youngest will be doing his GCSEs in 2023 so perhaps we will go for the dream and move to North Devon. Have a great weekend everyone. Thank you all for your thoughts, advice and moral support. Good luck to those of you still on the wheel.

So pleased for you! So sad to hear what the vendors at the top have done. They’re within their rights of course but morally they shouldn’t have accepted the offer from the second people in the first place if they weren’t 100% happy with the offer. What a huge stress on what sounds like an elderly couple. So great that you have come off unscathed. Congratulations

Whoever you spoke to at the Citizens Advice is mistaken (polite version of talking complete bollocks). They need to update themself on the current Covid regulations which prohibit evictions unless there is rent arrears unless that is yiur situation which I would assume not otherwise you would not pass mortgage credit checks.

Good news you have found something that works for you BUT Please don’t sign a tenancy agreement for 3 years without a break clause in every year- otherwise if things change for you and you want to leave before 2024 you might be liable for the rent for the whole term

@SeasonFinale I entirely agree. I cannot think what “type” of tenancy agreement does not require an eviction order to get tenants out

Oh I love a happy ending! That house purchase just wasn’t meant to be.

Tenancy agreement is good with a break clause after six months so I think we'll be ok. x

@Tash72

Tenancy agreement is good with a break clause after six months so I think we'll be ok. x

So therefore they cannot evict you. They can give notice. But this will be 6 month's notice. So as I said before you have at least 6 month's grace from when they give you notice. If the Citizen's Advice have said differently they have given incorrect advice. The break clause merely allows them to give notice at that point.

If you are planning to move to a different property next week I assume you have given the appropriate amount of notice to your current landlord too, or are you ignoring that too?

You’ve really been through the mill. Glad you have a bit of security now!

If the OP was in a rental house attached to a job, they would have to leave when the job post ended, or if their landlord also lived there they could be evicted with short notice.

What a relief OP! And now you know which friends have your back in times of trouble too.

Hi OP - we went through exactly what you have been through (except we were in the position of your vendors) and ended up moving in with my parents a month ago to protect our sale to our buyers in rented. In the end, the top people decided to go into rented after many threats from the rest of the chain of pulling out but there was a problem with their sale (to our vendors) so we pulled out of our purchase, found another place which suddenly came up on the market, skipped searches and survey as we are cash buyers and exchanged on Thursday after 2.5 weeks!

This has been the most stressful periods of my life (and we have been through some other utterly crap house moves, redundancy etc) but I'm happy now with the house we've bought. These things happen for a reason and this new rental place sounds brilliant for you. Good luck!

OMG! You are not going to believe this. We moved last weekend and handed over the keys to our last rental today after a week of cleaning, sorting out the garden, trying to unpack in our new place etc. We had a call this evening from our would be vendors to say they have found somewhere, want to make an offer but EA want to know how ‘proceedable’ they are as there is quite a bit of interest. We are tied into 6 months in our new place, but that aside, we are not jumping for joy. So confused! Really love the house, loads of potential, great price but thinking that once we’ve finished the decorating etc will we actually have a life there? We have only been here in this village a week, and have already had welcome cards from both immediate neighbours, an invite from those across the road who have some socially distanced beer garden thing going on with allocated time slots 😂 and had drinks this evening with some other neighbours. The pub is being refurbed and is a real village hub and DH has an office 20mins cycle away. Loads of people have dogs, hens, cockerels, goats, ponies - even in their gardens. We already love it. BUT anything that comes on the market here is going to be more expensive, probably affordable for us still but it won’t be pretty! Thinking at the moment that perhaps it was fate that the last place fell through and perhaps this location is better long term, more possibilities for friendships etc especially once the youngest leaves school (Y9). Need to decide by midday tomorrow! 😳

This is exactly what I was complaining about last month.

They will not allow viewings unless you are proceedable (ie. sold your house).

Which leaves the people at the top of the chain (the ones with the biggest purchase & less likely to compromise) to be the ones to go house hunting in a very short period.

Inevitably this happens.

They need to turn it round the other way. FTB finish chains rather than starting them.

I’ve only just found this thread.
What a rollercoaster!
I don’t know how you haven’t just died from the stress op.

Believe me, I have visibly aged! Have just had an order in for 10 handmade lampshades and I am so looking forward to sitting down with the radio on, getting on with my sewing and blocking everything else out!

I'd stay where you are because it sounds marvellous.