Vender took 3 months to find a house

[vickyc90]

So it transpires that our vender didn't find a house for 3 months after they accepted our offer and didn't share this information with us.

We are now having to move out of our house next week and the venders searches aren't apparently due back until the end of March.

I know they are mortgage free are we being unreasonable to say take the indemnity insurance (we are willing to pay) and get moving vs wait for the searches.

I feel like a witch forcing the issue but come on 3 months!!

Anyone else been in this situation what did you do? I feel like even waiting for them it will be quicker than offering again but the principle of it is driving me mad

@user1497787065

This is always likely to be the case in England. Buying and selling houses is a chicken and egg situation. You can't view and offer until you have accepted an offer. Houses are being snapped Up quickly and at the moment a buyer is waiting for new listings in hope.

I want to move but can't face this kind of scenario. My house would sell easily but I'm not sure I would find what I would want ( downsizing) so
Could end up pulling out of a sale which is far worse.

I think this is the problem people want perfection in houses instead of compromising in our cases the compromise is the sheer amount of work we need to do. To the point we are having to put our garden furniture in long term storage at £120 a month as we have no where to put it until we have concrete laid.

In our sellers case it's the fact she can't have the paper work she wants if she wants to keep the sale.

I've booked another viewing a new build that we would extend it's the builder selling it I mention our situation and he very happy to meet us out of hours tomorrow and to work for a very quick exchange so we do have options. He is a more realistic seller and has actually already paid his solicitor to do local searches to sell to who ever buys the property.

Honestly I balance risk for a living a moving

If everyone just compromised the property chains would be so much easier.

If everyone just compromised the property chains would be so much easier.

But why should they? Lots of people don't have the ability to move multiple times so are looking for the perfect home for their long term future. Lots of people rely on a mortgage and don't have loads of spare cash to do somewhere up. Why should people compromise on what is probably the biggest purchase of their life and one which will make a huge difference to their quality of life?

Your experience is nowhere near universal. You seem to think it should be, for some reason.

You can’t make her complete without paperwork or somewhere to go and as this thread shows the vast majority of people would refuse to accept your demands. I certainly would.

@HeyDiddleDee

You can’t make her complete without paperwork or somewhere to go and as this thread shows the vast majority of people would refuse to accept your demands. I certainly would.

Erm our buyers are quite happy to do it to us, we are moving out for them to keep it moving I just expect the same back and I no loads who have moved in with family when they were holding up a chain so it does happen. It's called family/friends or air b&b! If you don't want to do that you force the sale on your next property. I'm being reasonable and doing a mix of the two we will wait until she closer, pay the indemnity or the expedited search fee but I won't give her time to leisurely pack, a professional mover could do it in a day I've packed ours in three with a husband who wants to sort before we move.

Anyway see what her solicitors say to her tomorrow. Honestly the paper work isn't worth the paper it's written on anyway now considering any problem is just well you can take an indemnity policy out for that. We are moving to a house that doesn't have building regs for an extension we have an indemnity to keep the bank happy and will have to get a builder in to deal with it. So honestly not knowing what next door have planned for an extension or if she might have to pay for a church up keep or road repair pales on significance to what she is selling.

Her buyer has supplied all the other paper work she is literally sitting waiting on the local authority search which tell you next to nothing

Oh my !! So you have bowed to your buyers demands and your seller won't . Wonder who's the most sensible wanting all paperwork in place.

No one is making you, your buyers have asked and you've agreed.

There is this weird thing called free will, which means that your vendor has a choice as to whether to bow to your aggressive demands or not. You come across as very spoilt, its like you can't understand that stomping your feet won't get everyone in the world to do as you tell them to.

@Fleurty

No one is making you, your buyers have asked and you've agreed.

There is this weird thing called free will, which means that your vendor has a choice as to whether to bow to your aggressive demands or not. You come across as very spoilt, its like you can't understand that stomping your feet won't get everyone in the world to do as you tell them to.

Or the chain collapses which is what I can't seem to get through to her. It's not a case of we just wait it's go now or lose the sale.

Or the chain collapses which is what I can't seem to get through to her. It's not a case of we just wait it's go now or lose the sale.

So you go into stomp feet mode instead of asking if your buyer can get an extension on there mortgage Offer . Just because you have caved doesn't mean she has to .

It sounds like you’ve exchanged on your and are now required to complete. If so, you did that entirely at your own risk and your seller can walk away at any time, for any reason pre-completion. You should be kicking yourself for taking a chance that hasn’t come off not having a go at your seller for working to their own agenda.

You say you're under 2 weeks notice of your buyer's completion date. Does that mean your buyer has formally served a notice to complete on you?

That would mean you have no choice in the matter of completing your sale now. You made a contractual commitment to do so. Your seller has done no such thing.

And there is no way anyone properly advised would exchange without searches or without having exchanged contracts on an onward purchaser. And bear in mind that even once searches are back there may be other issues to deal with including in any chain your seller may be in.

There's no way this is real?

@kirinm

There's no way this is real?

Agreed. There's no way someone is this dim and self absorbed.

If it's fake, at least it's given DH and I something to giggle about in front of the telly on a cold, wet Sunday.

If it's real, looking forward to reading the OP's rant tomorrow when her buyer tells her that their solicitor has advised them not to proceed until all due diligence has been completed and they are ready to exchange on their onwards purchase.

@GoingBacktoSchool123

You say you're under 2 weeks notice of your buyer's completion date. Does that mean your buyer has formally served a notice to complete on you?

That would mean you have no choice in the matter of completing your sale now. You made a contractual commitment to do so. Your seller has done no such thing.

Yup that's the case so we are simultaneous exchange and completion due to COVID. With the date set for the 4th march for us 28th February for them to move in here back in January. After that date was agreed she then offered on a property which wasn't part of the original chain, our buyers rental contract and mortgage offer is up as they and us and her agreed we would move on the agreed dates with a week at my parents and stuff in storage.

She now wants to extend that as she added to the chain! Our solicitor would be happy to take the indemnity insurance and was shocked that wasn't what had been put to her adding to the chain at this stage of the process as her original documentation says she isn't doing an onward purchase.

She can have her searches in 48 hours which will be clean it's a new build and loads of the estate have sold recently if she pays more which we are now offering to pay personally I would take the indemnity the pay out is higher than if her solicitor mess this up. This is quite common in local areas now due to the cyber attack in December stopping some local council offering searches.

Her biggest problem is she hasn't packed anything as she thought she could just delay it!

OP you're still sounding very confused.

If you've already exchanged on your sale where does simultaneous exchange and completion come in and what does COVID have to do with it? Was it simultaneous exchange and completion on your onwards purchase? Sounds like that is the case but now that your seller now has an onward purchase that won't be an option.

No date is set in stone until exchange and your solicitor should have advised you against exchanging on your sale until your onward purchase was also ready to exchange.

Your seller could choose to withdraw from the transaction at any time so a delay should be the least if your worries.

I've had an absolute mare trying to move. I accepted an offer on my house & had an offer accepted on a bungalow that was 'empty'. I thought it would progress smoothly & quickly. Transpired the bungalow had a family member living there who refused to leave. And it needed to go through probate. After 5 months, my buyer gave up & pulled out. I'm now left at square one. I wish people would be honest & upfront, moving is stressful enough as it is with dealing with hidden problems.

@Hermymee

You can’t get a viewing on a house until you’ve sold. You are then usually in a best and final.

It’s taken us nearly 3 months and we have spent the entire time viewing and bidding on properties.

Did you want her to buy something she didn’t want for the sake of you? Especially since she could probably resell easily if you dropped out.

Move in with your parents, be thankful that you can and stop being a brat. So glad your not my buyer!

Not entirely true. As soon as I had an offer on mine, I went out viewing plenty of houses. Not one EA was hesitant because I hadn't actually sold.

@GoingBacktoSchool123

OP you're still sounding very confused.

If you've already exchanged on your sale where does simultaneous exchange and completion come in and what does COVID have to do with it? Was it simultaneous exchange and completion on your onwards purchase? Sounds like that is the case but now that your seller now has an onward purchase that won't be an option.

No date is set in stone until exchange and your solicitor should have advised you against exchanging on your sale until your onward purchase was also ready to exchange.

Your seller could choose to withdraw from the transaction at any time so a delay should be the least if your worries.

Legally we could turn round to our buyers and say no we need to push back extend your mortgage but they have said they will pull out. We can go to my parents so we will progress with our sale as we can buy somewhere else and have another property in mind.

Our issue is our vender wants to push back as she isn't packed top and bottom. Her solicitors could offer faster searches or indemnity to cover the missing searches which we would pay but her solicitors didn't tell her this so she didn't bother starting to pack.

She knew about these dates since December or more her solicitor has and I get the feeling from talking to her today they haven't told her and have said ohh just delay your sale despite knowing that wasn't acceptable to us.

Legally yes we can drop out keep our house and start again.

But in my eyes she should move in with family or take the insurance it's a newish build estate with multiple sales the searches aren't going to raise any issue infact ours cover the same area and we got a Chanciler repair liability (indemnity £6) and the estate management fee.

From speaking to her it's not the searches which are the issue as she would be happy to pay the higher fee she just hasn't packed so in my eyes get a bloody packer in or start throwing stuff in boxes and deal with it later.

You sound like an absolute nightmare. I feel really sorry for your seller.

Just because your buyer has backed you into a corner, you don't have the right to go knocking on her door . It's for your solicitor and agent to ensure the chain holds together.

This must be kind of normal now as you can't get a viewing where I am unless you are under offer already

YABVU. 3 months isn't long. It's absolutely not your vendor's fault that there was poor communication between their (or your?) conveyancer and you. If you think you can demand that they take out indemnity insurance instead of waiting for the searches and/or move out, you are being completely ridiculous. I'd rather lose you as a buyer, without a doubt. If you want this property, you need to sort out the issues at your end.

Oh, and if you 'bought and sold multiple times', you would've known all this buy now...

...as well as knowing how to spell vendor.

I am once again calling bullshit on this entire thread, as the OP has repeated her claim that her solicitor has advised her vendor to take out indemnity insurance on the entire purchase instead of allowing her solicitor to do due dilligance and searches.

No solicitor would ever advise this! And you won't find an insurance company that will indemnify an entire purchase.

OP is a bit bored on a Sunday afternoon and decided to create a little scenario to liven up their sad little life. No way is anyone this stupid and unreasonable.

As a solicitor, Jesus Christ

Hopefully your seller doesn’t report your solicitor to failure to control their client with you just turning up. I would be mortified if a client of mine did that. And worried!