Should we pull out of purchase - vendors taking the p***

[Anevilintervention]

We offered a while back on a house which ticked many of our boxes and really liked, but didn't love, it. Our offer was accepted at 20k over asking. Our vendors went back on the market about three weeks ago as they were worried about losing their onward purchase as their own vendor (top of chain) was unhappy that the person at the bottom of the chain hadn't found a buyer yet. We waited about as tbh there wasn't much else at the time that we were interested in.

Anyway, bottom of the chain announced today that they have their buyer and the chain is complete however, when our EA called over to our vendor's EA to tell them the good news, they were told that our vendor has decided to stay on the market for the time being as they have a few more viewings coming up and want to see if they can 'get a better offer'. In other words, have their cake and eat it!

We're pretty annoyed at this as the chain is finally, after months of waiting, complete and everyone is in a position to set a moving date etc. We're now debating whether to issue an ultimatum first thing tomorrow - take the house off the market or we walk away. There are a couple of other houses just coming to market which may meet our needs just as well as this one, so other options seem to be out there at present.

Would it be bad form for us to pull out, or is it our vendors who have the bad form?

Did you say "that's good. We'll cancel our viewings of other properties in that case."

This sums up my feelings. We started this process 10 months ago and we're just done with it now and want to move on. Unfortunately the new house is on with our own EA so can't really view covertly, tempting as that may be!

Original Poster - Why don’t you go and view the house 5 doors down - that might work better for you? The vendor sounds like an absolute tosser and is definitely not someone I’d buy a property from.
You’ve not signed any contract yet so you are free to do what you want without any cost implications.

Unfortunately the new house is on with our own EA so can't really view covertly, tempting as that may be!
Why is that a problem? If it was on with the existing vendor then I could understand that it might trigger alarm bells but not if it's on with your EA. They would be pleased - one push will ensure two lots of commission.

Honestly, if I was OP’s buyer and I heard that, just as I found a replacement buyer and the chain was completing, she pulled out of her purchase, I would start looking around too!

I've just noticed that the house we are supposed to be buying is still sitting on RM. Am getting anxious that they're still accepting viewings! Their EA contacted me on Friday to say congratulations etc and then sent a link to upload identity info etc to. Surely they wouldn't do that if they were still marketing would they?

Can you get a friend to call and ask if they can view the house. Then you will know if they are accepting other viewings/offers etc.

Don't read too much into that. RM can take a while to update. My house showed as for sale for about a week after my offer was accepted.

My friend phoned to ask about a viewing and was told by an apologetic EA that it was sold & they had updated RM but the site hadn't been updated

"Not in the UK"

Why is it virtually no one on here can say what ruddy country they are in !

England not UK

Not in England. I assumed Scotland given the offer over, and I know chains are formed a bit differently there.

I agree with staying put. Who knows what issues you’d cause by changing vendor now? Good luck with the rest of the process!

Are you proceedable? If so I'd give the ultimatum because you're worth more than a potential offer they haven't received yet.

Get a friend to phone and ask for a viewing.

That's a good shout on getting a friend to phone the EA. They're closed today so if RM hasn't updated by tomorrow morning I'll ask someone to call for a viewing. Also, yes it's Scotland we're in so chains etc work a bit differently. Offers over aren't as crazy as they once were, I'm in a very sought after area due to the schools but still had to reduce the price on my house and accepted under its value, as are a lot of other local places apparently. This is an area where homes would go for about 70k over asking historically.

Update on thread:

Our move didn't go to plan in the end. Our vendor pulled out of the process ten days before the moving date, they were being threatened with redundancy so decided to stay put and our own buyer pulled out a few days later after finding somewhere else. We lost heart and came off the market, thinking we would maybe wait until next year to look again.

Yesterday the house a few doors down from where we should have moved to (the one on for sale with our EA also) came back on the market after going under offer back in June. I really regretted not viewing after our house move fell through, so we decided to view today and we loved it!

We'll be getting our solicitor to put a note of interest in so keep fingers and everything else crossed for us!

Good luck!

Aww, I hope this ends well for you!

Good luck op!

All the best. Sometimes these things happen for a reason! It seems to me that many people end up with a much better house as a result of a house purchase that falls through.

Good luck