Moving house

[Maisie1291]

Hi we sold our house in September and we bought another house the day after which the offer was accepted on, our buyer is a cash buyer and everything has completed on that side of things, our purchase we are waiting for some enquiries and then everything is done on that, my solicitor gave us a estimated completion date end of November, found out that the people we have bought our house off haven’t even found anywhere to move to, when we went to view the house they told us that we wouldn’t be kept waiting as they were going into renting, but now they aren’t even sure if they are renting or buying, we told our solicitor that we wanted to be in for Christmas, the vendors have said they won’t be able to move until at least January, don’t even know how they can say that when they haven’t got anywhere, not sure what they are playing at but we are worried that our buyers are gonna pull out if they are left waiting for too long so not sure what to do, is there anything we could do to get things moving along for us all it does anyone have any advice?

Thanks in advance

Get the agent involved - they don't get their commission until the sale completes. Ask the EA what the sellers are thinking as you had been assured that they would vacate and now you risk losing your buyer. Put some pressure on. Also get your solicitor on the case.

Options are realistically wait, or pull out. If the seller is wanting to buy they'll be really hard pushed to get in by Christmas and if they're hoping to buy you're unlikely to persuade them in to rented unless that's what they want anyway (which they clearly don't otherwise theyd just do it).

I also think it's doubtful that you'll find a chain free property if you resume looking now, so chances of completing a new sale pre Christmas is very slim.

No one likes this option - but when we moved last time we moved into a rented flat. At least we had all the money in the bank and we were good to go - not as good as a clean exchange / completion , I know but just a thought

Ugh I feel your pain. We offered at the beginning of August. Our vendor had an offer accepted 2 weeks later. Those people up the chain have not had an offer accepted 2.5 months later. When our vendor showed us around she said she wanted to move ASAP. Speaking to the agent today, she's now saying she can't move into rented and is looking at other properties but if any of these have long chains it could be months more. I'm so gutted, we're ready to exchange and I was hoping to move before Christmas. I'm keeping my eye on new properties to the market and will jump if any good chain free ones come along.

Is it easy to change your mind and go for a no chain other property as if the delays are a lot longer we may have to think about doing that

Your sellers may be struggling to find anywhere due to lack of available properties to buy or rent.
We cancelled our sale in October as there was nothing to view let alone offer on. Our buyers were happy to wait and even if they weren't there was nothing else for them to buy. The market isn't the best so perhaps your buyers will wait until after Christmas rather than start again.

It's easy to pull out of a purchase, by difficult to find no chain properties.

• but not by

All you can do is wait, or find somewhere else. It is sensible to keep the offer accepted on this property but as your solicitor to stop work until your vendors find somewhere. In the meantime keep looking and viewing no chain houses. You don’t need to tell anyone. It’s fairly easy to ‘start again’, most of the time the mortgage can be transferred to the new property subject to a new valuation/survey. Plus the legal work has to be redone.

Also never believe a vendor who says they will rent. They never do.

@Orangecrisp - ha ha - I take your point but we did

@BasiliskStare so did we as a matter of fact but we gave up on three houses where the vendors lied about it the estate agent said they hear it every day!

Oh, I feel you . So stressful when you are in a chain and there is nothing you can do when you are waiting for someone else. We were in a similar situation where we had a eager cash buyer for our house but the house we wanted to buy fell through and we couldn’t find anything we wanted quick enough. So we decided to go into rental and just took our time and waited for the right house to come along. Best thing we did as it made us more desirable when we were bidding against others who were in a chain. It’s so much easier being chain free as the pressure is taken off and you are less likely to rush into something you otherwise wouldn’t have even considered.

Good luck

I have had the same problem recently. I was the seller - I was prepared to move into a rental but there wasn’t one and nothing to buy so the sale ended up falling through as my buyers wouldn’t wait.

@Orangecrisp - moved into rented property ( v small ) but helped us downsize as we realised we could live in less space but Oh my goodness it helped when as buyers we did not have a chain.

Everyone has their circumstances - but this helped us. It's a bit of a bugger having to move twice and put things into storage - but like childbirth - you forget it after a while & we are v happy where we are - so in the long run - it worked out.

And @lovecoffee1- I think we were similar to you . Actually I rather liked renting a little flat - it changed my perspective and the house we have now is so much smaller than I thought I wanted - but it works and we are happy. Best decision we could have made