FUMING with buyer. WWYD?

[shoopashoop]

I can’t believe this.
We sold our house in May, found somewhere in August due to crazy market. since then it hasn’t been plain sailing due to countless enquiries from our buyer and our solicitors had a data breach which meant it was down for 4 weeks.

Throughout the past 2 months we have stressed over and over again that we need to move before the 15th due to school deadlines in a completely new area. We have looked at the school twice, mentally moved into the house and have been in direct contact with our vendor who is lovely. She has been packing, organising cleaning of the ovens etc as the rest of the chain have agreed to completion date of 13th. Our sale is ready to go and all that was left was to hear back from our buyer about this date. Didn’t envisage any issues as after countless to-ing and fro-ing everything was ‘done’ as far as we aware.

Anyway, still not heard back so although we haven’t been in contact with our PITA buyer, I decided to message them directly and ask if they are happy to confirm the date so we can book removals and get school application done.
To which they respond....

Buyer had no idea about this date and has booked to go ABROAD next week until the end of the month (providing they don’t get stuck there that is). Why would they do this??!!

I will say again that we have proposed this date to our solicitors and estate agent SO many times so either buyer is lying or something has gone very wrong.

I am dreading telling our vendor (although it is not our fault).
But more importantly, what the hell do we do?
We can’t wait that long, plus with the added stress of wondering if the buyer will even make it home or not.

Do we relist? We are in a sought after area and will sell very quickly.
I can’t even respond to the buyer as I am so angry.

If they’re FTB then perhaps they’re just spooked and don’t know what’s possible. There’s hope the estate agent and solicitors can fix this.

It’s so stressful, I’m really sorry OP.

Oh no OP that's terrible for it to go on so long and they then pull out.

A new buyer may not necessarily take ages though - we sold end of last year and took 30 days to get from offer to completion! The speed nearly took my breath away. If you can get a really committed new buyer you could be well away very quickly.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone.
No I didn’t say we would pull out if they didn’t complete by the date. That message came after a quick succession of garbled messages (from then).
Hoping you’re right and EA can turn this around.

Has anyone ever applied to 2 LAs?? New to this also!
We started moving what i though was well in advance of admission deadline for high school. It dragged on for months and months. In the end i had to apply from our old address with the intention of changing address before the appeal deadline. We didnt even make that! So i had to apply for first choice in LA we were moving to and second choice in LA we were living at the time. Luckily we got the school in our new town. Very, very luckily as it is always massively over subscribed but we got in on faith above people on catchment etc.

Sorry that should have said ‘from them’ not then.

Thanks so much @FallonCarringtonWannabe I did think of this option too and will probably be what I end up doing. Just such an anxious wait isn’t it.

@shoopashoop

Sorry that should have said ‘from them’ not then.

Thanks so much @FallonCarringtonWannabe I did think of this option too and will probably be what I end up doing. Just such an anxious wait isn’t it.

It is. I couldn't call it. When i checked admissions from the last few years, (last child admitted - what category were they) some years we would have got in, some years We wouldnt have.

I would honestly change solicitors at this point. Go for someone local and recommended, and give your estate agent a kick up the bum.

I applied for a school in a different LA under the same circumstances. Put new area school first choice & old area second. Applied to old area local authority using the old address. Ended up getting offered schools in both areas. The date we eventually completed was the deadline for changing our address with the local authority. I was on the phone with the solicitor at 4pm begging them to email over proof to the LA, which literally got to them minutes before they closed for the day.

The only way I can see this working for the OP is if her buyer changes their mind, that will give them about 6 weeks after the official deadline for schools before the real deadline when they accept change of address. Or another way is to sign a years rental contract in the catchment of the new school, which would be very expensive. Good luck.