Buyer threatening to pull out. Help.

[Suspiciousmind20]

Can any one advise please?

My mum has accepted an offer on her house. Buyers have had a survey etc but because she hasn’t had an offer accepted on a new house for her yet they are threatening to pull out.

Her solicitor has asked if she wants to proceed and she has said no because she hasnt found anywhere yet.

How far can she proceed before finding somewhere? I think she would be better instructing her solicitor to proceed because she will still have control over the exchange date?

She can instruct all she likes, but no buyer will take it seriously if she's "still looking".

@Suspiciousmind20

I’m not asking about the rights or wrongs but if she can instruct her solicitor to go ahead without having an offer accepted but knowing there is a last resort safety net.

She can, but it’s a pretty lousy thing to do if she intends to progress and pull out at a late stage.

By last resort safety net, do you mean moving in with you, or stopping the sale?

Once solicitors are involved, the buyers will have legal fees to pay. They’ve already paid for a survey. If it gets very late and the bank are looking for them to draw-down the mortgage, there are additional costs such as insurances that the bank will want to see are in place.

From the buyers’ perspective, I can see why they’re getting cold feet here.

In their shoes, I wouldn’t be progressing with this purchase. They’re going to end up wasting a lot of time and money for your mother to potentially turn around a few days before they expect to get their new keys to say she’s not selling.

I had sellers do this to me two years ago. They decided not to sell but didn’t let me know as they were hoping to do a last minute gazump. I was out of pocket to the tune of several thousand.

As a result, my tolerance for shoddy sellers is zero and I wouldn’t stick around for someone who isn’t committed to getting the sale completed ASAP.

If by safety net you mean she can pull out of the sale - yes she can do that up to the point of exchange when it becomes legally binding. But you say she can move in with you as a last resort to avoid loss of the sale so don’t really understand what the issue is. She would then be a cash buyer and in a better position to purchase. If I was the buyer and knew she didn’t have somewhere to go after waiting two months already I’d be setting a pretty short timeline for exchange of contracts and walking away pdq if that didn’t happen.

@Suspiciousmind20

Looking for a couple of months but couldn’t get viewings until she’d had an offer. Now can’t get somewhere because they are going so fast.

I'd pull out too.

How much longer do you expect them to wait? She'll have to go into rented or pull out. Why would they proceed with paper work when they are basically banging their heads against a wall?

Surely things can still proceed providing she moves out by the buyers desired completion date? Could she move in with family while she looks? It's either do that or take the risk of the buyers pulling out and having to find new ones. How desperate is she to sell?

Safety net being stuff in storage and moving in with us but we don’t want to do that ideally.

She absolutely won’t pull out. She’s selling up to be closer to us. It’s just hard to find somewhere at the moment.

Then the seller will have to pull out. They can’t force your mother to move unless they have completed on the property and now own it. They are obviously trying to apply pressure in the hope she will either rent or move into something acceptable.

We’re in a similar situation. Trying to move after accepting an offer. Hardly any properties available in the area we are looking. Found one and bid, then the vendor wanted more, so offered more and they decided to go with other people. Nothing we could do! I’m pretty convinced our buyers will just pull out if we don’t find another house soon. But there’s nothing we can do! 🤷‍♀️

To be clear. I’m not blaming the buyers for threatening to pull out or asking about the rights or wrongs of any of it. My mum is honest and being honest and had no intention of pulling out. The question is about the process only as I don’t fully understand it.

Thank you for the advice.

So if she won’t pull out she has to proceed and work within the maximum timeline the buyers set. She just won’t be able to delay to try to have simultaneous sale and purchase.

FreeBritnee

Sorry to hear that. The housing market is still insane at the moment.

I think they might pull out but I think she will get a new offer pretty quickly. It just is a pain if it all has to start from scratch again.

Best to proceed. Will be easier to get a house when you can prove you're keen and ready to go i.e. already sold your own house. Some estate agents won't even let you view other houses.unless you've sold your own

Has anyone spent any money yet?

I wouldn’t get off the property ladder at this stage even if it’s temporarily. House prices are due to increase in some areas by 40% over the next five years. I wouldn’t risk it.

It's not so much a pain for your mother as she hasn't found an ongoing purchase, it's way more a pain for buyers.
As your mother does have a place to move to (you), then I think she should proceed. Then she'll be in a better position when looking.
Nothing is binding on either side until exchange, and a conversation about timescale is reasonable- do the buyers want to be in by Christmas for example? They may well be getting pressure from their own buyers.
I pulled out of a purchase after waiting three months for the seller to find a place (though initially I had been told he would go in to rental), and in the end bought a house where the owners had already moved.

@maofteens well, exactly. Plus OP’s mum hasn’t spent any money so far but her buyers will have done

Not necessarily. Our buyers haven’t done one thing yet as they know we haven’t found anywhere.

They did want to be in by Christmas but if they pull out and start from scratch that’s highly unlikely anyway as it’s mid November.

I think my mum should proceed, knowing there is the safety net of moving in with us at a push, as I don’t think there is anything to lose, for her. She hadn’t because she was worried she’d be forced to move out but it seems that is not the case and in theory either party can legally pull out right up to exchange, although it would be morally wrong. So she would never be in the position of being forced out. That’s her fear. I guess it’s then up to the buyers to state their terms and how much longer they are willing to wait?

If she's willing to move in with you then she needs to make that clear to the buyers. Not say 'well if I haven't found somewhere by Christmas I'll move in with daughter but if I have then you'll have to wait another 6-10 months while the upward chain proceeds'
If she moves in with you she'll be a cash buyer and more attractive to sellers so she'll be better able to find somewhere.

Yes she can pull out up to exchange, but if she is going to do that it’s pretty shitty to string the buyers along- either she’s prepared to move in with you or she isn’t.

If it’s dependent on her finding somewhere else (even if she decides to temporarily move in with you whilst that’s going through) then she should be honest with the buyers before they spend more money.

The buyers would probably be happy to continue on the basis that she will definitely move in with you on an agreed date. You would need to negotiate this date with the buyer.

If this is in England then nnothing is legally binding until you exchange contract, so what your mom can do is refusing to exchange until she has found somewhere AND that place is also ready to exchange. So her fear of being evicted is baseless.

However if you look from buyer's point of view, in order to proceed they will have to pay for legal fees, surveys and searches, which normally go to a few thousands. All of this with the knowledge that the sale may not go through at all if seller can't find a place. They may also have need to move in a certain timeframe (expecting baby, relocation, need a study room for wfh etc). As such it will be unfair for them to wait for an uncertain amount of time.

You can try to talk to them and express your mom's willingness to sell, to see if it calms them down a little. They may be willing to wait if the house is attractive enough. But I suspect they will at least stop all the procedures from their side in order to avoid them incurring more costs, until she finds a place. They may also lurk around Rightmove for alternative options in case your mother can't go ahead - I certainly did when my purchase head for month 4 with no ends in sight.

As a buyer I'd be happy if the seller said they were definitely moving in with family. But talk of last resorts would make me very nervous. I think you need to decide with your mum whether this can be a genuine concrete plan rather than thinking about it as a safety net option.

Agree, your mum should only inform buyers that she will move in with you if you are certain that this can happen.
My seller initially agreed to move in with family for a quick sale, further down the line when I had incurred costs with surveys etc they decided that they would now be waiting until they found somewhere. Words are cheap in my opinion and some people will agree to anything to get the sale.

The problem will lie if she finds a house now you have no idea long it can take from there. Problems crop up all the time some house can be over and done with in w few months like ours. Or our one before took a year to buy.

This is what I don’t understand about the current requirement by our local estate agents that you have an offer before you can view. We won’t do that because properties we like only come up every couple of months and we know we’d end up with furious buyers pulling out. When we last bought 10 years ago we viewed other houses, made an offer on one that was accepted, pressed go on our own house going on the market (photos etc were ready) and sold in 5 days. It was all so easy and nobody had to hang around.