Advice please - seller won't move out

[Frenchie86]

I'll try and keep this brief, but after a bit of advice please. We had our offer accepted on our dream house a few months ago, ready to exchange early in the year. All seemed to be going well until it wasn't. The couple we are buying from are divorcing, and started proceedings fairly recently as I understand it. Exchange date came and went, they couldn't and still can't agree on the splitting of some assets that are nothing to do with the house. Wife has moved out and wants to sell the house and deal with the rest later. He doesn't want to leave until she agrees to his terms (using the house as a bargaining tool). It has already dragged on for months, we lost our buyer, and looking for other properties but none match up.

So my question is, should we maybe try and entice him to leave by offering a bit more money (what we would've saved on the stamp duty holiday for example) or is that risky as he'll think we have more money and he can just put the price up. Any other advice welcome!

Sorry I've no advice on this but if it's money related I'd rather give the wife some so she can settle with the husband. Rather than give the stubborn prick more money

Another house buying is crap story - something desperately needs to be done in England re house buying process!!

I wouldnt offer any more on the property but I would keep looking at other properties, sounds like this one isnt going to complete for a long time.

Look for another property.

Leave them to it and find another property to buy.

Thank you, yes the laws really need to change as it was all good to go originally! We are actively looking but not many houses coming on the market for that price bracket where we live, so we kind of want to keep this one on the back burner in case it takes us months to find another one and then they suddenly decide to go forwards!

@AngusThermopyle hehe I wish we could but she's already signed and moved out so the issue is on his end from what I can tell, though I see what you mean, she might then give him what he wants!

I think you're doing the right thing by still looking at properties. Don't drop out of this sale unless you have somewhere you love already lined up.

I’d tell him that if his delay causes you to miss the stamp duty deadline you will be reducing your offer accordingly. And tell him that prices will drop anyway following that date so you might drop it even more, and he will find it hard to find a buyer meeting your current offer.

Buying from people who are
separating unfortunately sometimes means you're stuck in the middle between their power struggles. I'd set a timescale that you're happy with for exchange and say that you'll withdraw if it's not exchanged by then - assuming that you would. It's a real pain as they probably will get it sorted some time but it sounds as though one of the sellers doesn't mind the delay.

I would threaten to pull out. It might focus their minds if they think they will lose you

I have dealt with separating couples three times when buying and selling and each time it fell through. I would avoid this situation.

Thanks for the advice everyone! Several people down the chain threatened to pull out but unfortunately it did nothing. I don’t think they would care at this point if we threatened to do the same. I wish we had some sort of leverage but I think they probably would be able to find new buyers if we dropped out, it’ll just be a faf for them!