Estate agent won’t do a sale of memorandum

[Elz58]

We’re in a chain, our seller hasn’t found somewhere to purchase yet. We had an offer accepted about 3 weeks ago, he’s being proactive in viewings, but hasn’t found the right house.

His estate agent won’t issue a memorandum of sale until the chain is complete. They say this is to save us any extra costs if it falls through.

I don’t think this is uncommon, but aibu to ask them to reconsider? First, I’m worried it’s a sign he’s not fully motivated. Second, if he does finally find somewhere (or even better moves into rented) we’ll be right at the start of the conveyancing process for buying his house. It takes ages to pull together all the forms, paperwork on the house (gas safety certs etc), and I’d rather that process was started.

It doesn’t cost us any extra in conveyancing fees even if it falls through. So I’m not too sure why they’re saying that…

A memorandum of sale can be done very quickly & also isn’t that meaningful. It doesn’t prove anything about your sellers commitment.

I understand you are keen to feel things are progressing but honestly, this is not something to worry about.

Thanks for this. It’s not so much the memorandum of sale itself, but what it triggers. We’ve just gone through the first part of that process - getting the contract pack ready by digging out warrantees, boiler stuff, contents form - and it takes ages.

I think you’re worried about the wrong thing.

The EA hasn’t issued a MOS because your seller has yet to find a property to buy, that is the issue that will delay your move.

Personally I would still be looking at alternative properties because they could take months to find a suitable property to buy.

I had one house sale where no MOS was ever issued (lazy estate agent). And another where the estate agent wouldn’t issue one until she was “happy with my finances” - she wanted more financial information than I’d given to my own solicitor and mortgage company. By the time she issued it, we’d had the surveys done the queries were back, I had my mortgage offer in hand and deeds signed and we were basically ready to exchange.

The MOS is just something the estate agents do to make it look like they are important to the sales process - they aren’t, once the price has been agreed.