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Original poster

Help! Trying to buy a property as FTB + having a nightmare

18 replies

FTBYAY · 17/05/2021 21:41

My husband and I are first time buyers and made an offer on a property, which was accepted, at the start of Feb this year. We love it & we really want this to be our home BUT...

Our offer was made on the understanding that we were not in a chain and we could all move quickly. We've been ready to exchange and complete since end of March however we found out towards mid April that we are actually in a chain (YAY no.1!)

Our sellers are moving into a rental property, the rental has tenants who are buying and waiting for their chain to complete which is in...probate (YAY no.2!) and the landlords are happy for them to stay indefinitely until it comes through (YAY no.3!)

We have no idea if the probate has even been applied for and we're no further forward in finding this out.

And to further complicate things our sellers have used the address of this rental property to secure their first choice school for their reception age kid (YAY no.4?!) and apparently there is very limited rental properties of that size in the same catchment area so they are stuck.

We don't have kids so we don't know whether this plays in our favour and they might need us to stick with the sale? Their estate agent also told me today that the market is so crazy right now they are in a position of strength as if they were to re-list the property they'd get 30k more (YAY no.5 / is he trying to put the fear into me?!) he was basically suggesting that if we pulled out then it was us who would be disadvantaged and not the sellers.

We had wanted to propose a stamp duty allowance (we'd be willing to wait past the end of June if they paid our SDT) but his comment about the prices above makes me wonder if there is any incentive for them to agree to this, so our hope at the moment is that they need us for their kid's school place - is this possible?!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

OP posts:

Livingintheclouds · 17/05/2021 21:50

I think it's not right (or even illegal) to misrepresent where you live for school. They do not have possession of the flat. They do not resident there. They don't even have a lease!
If the E A I'd going to play hardball I'd be minded to suggest that a phone call might scupper their child's chances of enrollment.
Meanwhile you have to pay more rent (presumably). Start the search again, if they get some movement in the meantime fine. And ask them to go halves on the stamp duty loss but suspect you'll get a negative.
I've just pulled out of a purchase for similar. EA told me seller would go into rental - not true. After waiting almost three months I've pulled our for a real chain free property.

ThisIsStartingToBoreMe · 17/05/2021 21:50

Whats the rush?

readytosell · 17/05/2021 21:53

Sounds like a big headache all round to me.

But ultimately it depends how long you are prepared to wait. Personally I'd be back looking out for somewhere else to buy.

milinhas · 17/05/2021 21:59

I don’t understand how/why they think they’re moving into a rental which is indefinitely tenanted. They clearly aren’t any time soon! If you’re in any kind of rush I would walk away from this one - it’s going to take a million years.

bakingdemon · 17/05/2021 22:00

Say you need to meet the stamp duty window and otherwise you'll pull out and collapse the chain. You can't wait around indefinitely.

Poppiesway1 · 17/05/2021 22:01

Re: delisting and getting more money. This is true (for where I live) currently houses are selling before theyre even live on the market. EA are putting them up on London sites prior to right move and local site / people registered on their books looking to buy. A colleague recently sold her property.. nothing special, 30’s semi. It went for 30k over the already extortionate asking price.. there was a bidding war over the house by people who hadn’t even looked around it, but were buyers from London wanting to move here (South Norfolk). If you got a good price I’d hold on if I were you.

Soontobe60 · 17/05/2021 22:05

The sellers are in a very dodgy situation, they have given false information on their school application form, and this in itself is very wrong. They don’t directly need you for their school place, they need to be living in the property they put down on the form. You pulling out now will impact on them significantly as they will have to put the house back on the market. I’d be a bit concerned that they actually have no intention of moving and have tried to pull a fast one in order to obtain a school place.
Tell your solicitor to let their solicitor know that unless they are able to complete before the cut off date for the stamp duty then you will reduce your offer by the amount of extra stamp duty you will have to pay. Don’t deal with the EA - they're just after their money!!

Original poster

FTBYAY · 17/05/2021 22:06

They did make an offer an another rental property within the same catchment area last week but the offer wasn't accepted (v popular area)

I think they have taken some risks with hinging their first choice of school on this rental property address and now feel tied to it. I would never try to scupper their chances of getting it, I'm sure that is just as important to them as buying their house is for us - we're just wondering whether our ability to wait (which we can) if they can cover the stamp duty would be an incentive to them based on this school place?

We're obviously not going to wait forever but can definitely wait a bit longer (without additional financial strain to us) before we need to accept that this probate chain we find ourselves in may just go on and on...

OP posts:

Soontobe60 · 17/05/2021 22:07

Actually, considering as they had to complete the school application by January, and they only sold the house to you in February, they’re definitely pulling a fast one!

Soontobe60 · 17/05/2021 22:08

@FTBYAY

They did make an offer an another rental property within the same catchment area last week but the offer wasn't accepted (v popular area)

Except what they’ve done is illegal and will have deprived another child living in the catchment area of a place at that school.

lms2017 · 17/05/2021 22:11

We had this , we just called their bluff and asked the estate agent to view another property even one we wasn't interested in just to make them think. It all hurried along pretty quickly after that x

Original poster

FTBYAY · 17/05/2021 22:12

I'm not a parent - totally appreciate what you are saying but I have very limited context as to why they made this decision so I'm choosing not to judge.

OP posts:

gigi556 · 18/05/2021 09:14

This is very odd. The school place thing isn't your problem and seems a bit of a red herring. They can't have used any address other than the one they are in for applications which were due in January. Places were allocated in April. If they've lied on their application thats down to them and also... if they've got away with it so far is the school likely to find out? I'm guessing the house they want to rent is owned by friends. Sounds odd. The only thing I would say regardless is that.... it is a sellers market and I totally believe what the EA has said about relisting the property. Obviously it's all area dependent but they probably could relist and sell in a day for more money. It's very competitive and you may struggle to find something else. Maybe keep yourself invested and start looking around for something else?

Original poster

FTBYAY · 18/05/2021 09:28

The whole situation is bizarre. I didn't think about the fact that they may know the current renters, that could make sense.

Really appreciate all of your thoughts + advice!

OP posts:

fairydustandsparkle · 19/05/2021 08:51

If you’re FTB you’ll be exempt from stamp duty even after the SDLT holiday has ended surely?

user1471538283 · 20/05/2021 17:20

If the sellers want to keep you they can pay your rent or some of it. The whole point of renting is to break the chain.

Whilst properties are flying about a third are dropping out so they would be wise to keep you on side.

Original poster

FTBYAY · 20/05/2021 20:05

A third?! What a terrible statistic!!

We have radio silence at the moment, so we're v much in the dark as to whether we're making any progress.

OP posts:

24GinDrinkingOnceTheKidsInBed · 21/05/2021 18:35

This was us 3 years ago. Offered full asking price as was told it was no onward chain.

Offer in august 2017- October came around and still not even close.. then told we’d be in for Christmas.. wasn’t.. then told it would be January.. wasn’t.. then got paperwork to say the sellers has brought a new house and it wouldn’t be ready until the spring (April/May) - I was absolutely livid.

I email estate agents and said we were promised no onward chain and so far waited 6 months and they expect us to wait another 4?! No chance.

Told them we were viewing other property with the view of pulling out and certainly wouldn’t be keeping our offer of full price at this point.

Conveniently picked up the keys 2 weeks after my shitty email.

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