Found dream home, but they won’t move!

[Pinkblueoryellow]

We had an offer accepted in November. Unfortunately, the owners haven’t found anywhere they want to move to and so we are holding the chain up.

DH seems to think they will pull out.

I wondered if anyone could advise or had been in this position?

I probably should have provided a bit more background @Guttedbuyer @bellac11

My vendor is a single person in their mid-80's, who has lived in their home for over 45 years. They had secured a 1-bed older persons flat to downsize to, so there was nothing complicated about it, other than the vendor being completely overwhelmed.

I just wish my vendor had mentioned that they never planned to move at all in month 1, instead of after 7 months of conveyancing work, in the peak of the Covid purchasing madness. This all happened on the eve of exchange/completion, and 2 weeks before the expiry of my mortgage offer.

I say "my vendor", but actually I haven't heard from her since sending the letter, so she's probably comfortable with the decision sigh

Ohhh @Starseeking that is awful, truly a nightmare scenario. I can imagine how frustrated and sad you must be. I am praying for you that she has a change of heart and you can move before your mortgage offer expires!

My mortgage offer has already expired @eatentoomanygrapes. Luckily when I spoke to the mortgage company, I just need to find a house to slot in for them to value so they can issue a new offer, so it shouldn't be too much hassle.

Unfortunately there's been 2 interest rate rises by the BOE, and possibly more to come before I complete on any house. This means I've lost out on porting my old very good mortgage rate across, as well as nearly £10k in early repayment fees.

@eatentoomanygrapes

Ohhh *@Starseeking* that is awful, truly a nightmare scenario. I can imagine how frustrated and sad you must be. I am praying for you that she has a change of heart and you can move before your mortgage offer expires!

"My vendor" actually called me today having received my letter a few days ago. I got so excited once she identified herself, thinking she was going to say it's all back on, only for her to say she's definitely not proceeding with the sale. I didn't have the heart to ask her any questions (as I doubted it would change the outcome), so I just wished her all the best.

@Ff10n

You can't force people to sell their home just because you want to buy it!

Well why put it on the market then?!

Sorry to hear that Star

At least it allows you to draw a line under it and move on in your head.

So rubbish though.

We were in a similar situation to OPs vendors. At the top of a chain with everyone else ready to proceed and chomping at the bit to move but nowhere for us to go.

Having been in a chain that had already collapsed once and spent ££ on solicitors fees and searches we were keen not to hold everyone up so we moved into rented.

It takes a couple of weeks once you've found somewhere to sort the paperwork but it was actually pretty straightforward in the end and I'm really glad we did it as it broke the chain and put us in a great position when a house we liked did come up a couple of months later. Rentals are hard to come by and yes you do have to be less fussy than you would buying somewhere but it's pretty short term and worth it to get a step closer to your dream house. Just throwing it out there for the folks saying they would never move into rented!