What point do you issue an ultimatum on a house purchase?

[Purplecarrots123]

Apologies in advance as my patience is wearing thin and this is a long saga….we offered on a house in July. We have still not exchanged and the trail of events is below, at what point do we make an ultimatum…..

Offered 5k off of the asking price in July. Was accepted. In early August they came back asking for more claiming another offer at asking price had come in despite it being off the market. We offered a little over the asking price to secure but did tell them no more so if the other party came back with more then we were out as there was a limit to what we were prepared to pay above asking price. They accepted our offer, we do wander if there was another offer….

We were told they wanted to move in October half term 2024, suited us, we powered on with conveyancing as between august and October with a small chain it would be squeaky but if everyone cracked on doable. We were also told initially they were very motivated to move. The truth couldn’t be further from that given we are still trundling….

Their solicitor failed to reply to ours for weeks. We then found out they had offered on a property with a chain with probate at the top. No issues but it stretched the timelines which we said we understood and kept with it based on the probate application had already been b submitted and was underway.

We then find out the top of the chain has collapsed and our vendors agree to break the chain. Confirmed in writing to our solicitor by theirs and also in writing to us by the agent.

4-5 weeks later after a lack of progress on their part we are then told we are now back in a chain as they have found somewhere. Discovered by what was written on legal forms, so our solicitor took it up with theirs as we had not been updated by anyone. we said understood them wanting to not do rented but again we wanted to keep moving and asked for reassurance the chain was closed to allow all to proceed.

We then had them refuse to make any effort to try complete before Christmas and were told by their estate agent in October to not push and tell our solicitor to go slow and not put any pressure on theirs as they didn’t want to complete before Christmas as it was too “distressing” for them. Realistically I think we could have done and our solicitor said a pre Christmas completion was perfectly doable.

We have since been dealing with them dragging their heels, withholding forms, forms filled in incorrectly, refusing a viewing (I wanted to see it again when the fixtures form came through as they asked for money for stuff and I couldn’t remember July tbh!) delaying again by coming back post fixtures and fittings agreement asking for more money for stuff like a bog standard ding dong doorbell and if we don’t pay for it or buy them a new one to take with them they’ll take it with them, give me strength (it’s not a ring doorbell before anyone asks 🤣).

Its now January, almost 7 months since our first offer was accepted - our solicitor has done everything she needs to on the sale of our flat and purchase of this house. We have not exchanged and no date set for exchange or completion and out solicitor is continuously pushing the rest of the chain for dates. At what point might we push to say exchange or we back out? I’m so utterly tired of being messed around, I feel like we have been patient and accommodating but I worry timings may just drag on and I can see a world where we lose our buyer too.

What if the survey/searches shows something wretched about the property/area? Can you pull out without penalty in that instance? It sounds blissfully straightforward, but there must be a catch, or why would we in England put up with this painful, stressful, mad process?

I had similar pissing about on my last sale - in the end said exchange by Friday or I go back on the market and will not sell to you come hell or high water. They exchanged by the Friday. Sometimes you just have to play chicken. I HATE the English house buying and selling system!

You need to push now, or pull out. And be prepared to pull out so start exploring other options. Even in the height of the financial crash in 2008 we sold and completed in 6 months with the chain falling apart 6 times. They either need to accept your offer, proceed and move into rented themselves or lose the sale.

@Purplecarrots123 I just dont understand the englsh system of house buying and selling. we are in scotland and it seems like it is in australia. we dont have chains and the only people who have to wait are the ones who have bought new houses which are still being built.! the other difference in scotland is that the seller pays for a survey which the buyers have access to. saves a bit of money. you can buy and sell in a few weeks here. houses can sell in a day! taken off the market and exchanges made within a few weeks.

For goodness sake! They've known since last summer that they would need to pack- why is it coming as a surprise to them now? They sound bloody awful and I feel for you. I think you probably do need to play total hardball here.

That’s absolute bullshit about the packing. There is plenty of time until the end of Jan. Also, the potential issue with your buyers is not of their making, their mortgage was never going to be valid endlessly, the problem is entirely caused by the time wasters above - and in all honesty if I was your buyer I would be pretty frustrated that you had let it run on so long that my mortgage offer ran out!

I needed to read this thread because I'm in a similar situation. Chain complete in August (only a chain of 3) and we still haven't exchanged! We were initially told it would be early November. We've been asking practically every day since. It is our buyer that's holding it up (FTB) - our new house is ready and we don't want to lose it. I think I'm going to have to give an ultimatum too and possibly remarket it.

My son made an offer in May 2023 and got the keys in Feb 2024
only him and the sellers
to be fair they had no choice but to pull out of the house they were buying as thrrrbwsd an issue with the solar panels which happened in November and they were begging my son to hold on as they were already living in the new area in a caravan in there family’s garden had jobs in the new area

but fair play to them they bought a house exactly the same a few doors away that was being sold 😂 as the owner was going into a nursing home so it needed a quick sale

from when they made that offer it took roughly 8’weeks for it all to go through

We were in this situation a couple of years ago, for us we ended up pulling out of the purchase as it was beyond a joke, I was 9 months pregnant, we'd moved in with my parents so that we would be ready to go and the woman messed us about massively. Our solicitor though did manage to get us 1 month extension on our mortgage offer, so may be worth asking yours if they can do that?

I get this but we have kept our buyer updated and been honest with them what was going on. They have consistently articulated they wanted our property and were prepared to wait. I honestly don’t know what else we could have done given rental is not something that would be feasible and we hadn’t found anywhere else while this fiasco was going on. I feel sorry for our buyer, I really do, but we have tried to do our best by them by being honest and transparent. We have facilitated a viewing every few weeks for them (at their request) when we have spoken to them about what has been going on and given every slice of info we have had.

We went back even harder today and said 24 hours to confirm an end of jan completion, no arguments or we walk away and that 24 hours ends at 5pm tomorrow, that then gives us from 5 to 5.30 to pull out. We both feel pretty dreadful and have had enough but it’s given me the feeling we have a shred of control. And yes, I mean who knew you had to pack when you moved house - absolute idiots! I mean I was just planning on walking out on all my stuff! 🤣🤣

You are not alone. I would advise after this week to issue the ultimatum - it’ll make you feel you are not at the mercy of someone else at the very least and will either jolt them into action or make them show their cards so you can re market to keep it going!

@Purplecarrots123 I've been wanting to give an ultimatum since start of December (I said we would pay for a certain item if we exchanged before Christmas to try and speed things up and even that didn't work!). But my husband is much more calm and patient than me and talks me out of it!

Just wrt to the mortgage offer for your buyers, similar happened to my daughter and her partner (ie their offer was expiring) and they called the lender who extended it for another 3 months.

Seems we are married to the same sort of person!!! I have a replica of that here! You being willing to pay for an item is nearly where we got to with paying for the bloody doorbell if it would hurry them up!

Our buyer has a lot of work to do - it transpires today after our solicitor has worked hard to make all this happen they have not yet done the report on file due to holidays and apparently have more enquiries which they “forgot” to ask for! Looks like our vendors might get more time to pack afterall! There is now only 3 weeks for them to raise enquiries, us to respond to them (apparently a list of 40 with everything from wanting a water bill to various documents), do all the reports plus exchange and complete. Lordy I might lose the plot with the pressure of this!! You couldn’t make this up now!

I've just spent the best part of 2 years selling a flat with no chain and a really patient buyer, due to them having a terrible solicitor, who asked the same questions, again and again plus added leasehold difficulties.

Our estate agents have a marvellous chain chaser who updated us most weeks, otherwise I'd have gone batty. I got the solicitor gin at the end.

Buying and selling in England and Wales is a really terrible process.

It just gets like trench warfare, so hard when to decide to pull the plug.

Omg! How have they not done that in months?!

Id still look at other houses. And Id also probably go back and say you want the £5k off. I’d say prices have dropped and it’s taken so long.

And no way would I be paying for any fixtures and fittings. I did that with some curtains and regret it 10 years on! They weren’t even going to fit their new house. Wish I hadn’t paid them.

also packing! What? That can be done in 24-48 hours with a packing service!

I last bought and sold in 2014 and it was nothing like this mess it seems to be today. It was a breeze all done in 28 days. We nearly have enough for a deposit to buy again and I'm thinking it's got to be Scotland. Sounds way too stressful

If it’s the buyers solicitor causing the delay now, the same buyer whose mortgage offer expires at the end of Jan, then that buyer needs to tell the solicitor to email their enquiries to yours tomorrow morning. If you are selling a house, the answers should be straight forward enough for you to answer straight away. You’ll know if you’ve got any requested paperwork or not, your answers will be yes, no , don’t know, here’s the paper you requested or no I haven’t got it. Most of the additional enquiries will be unnecessary, as anything important will have been in the original documents .
The buyer needs to put a rocket up the arse of their solicitor so that they do send over any questions immediately.
Do your buyers understand that a new mortgage offer might be on less favourable terms AND they might have to pay another fee? Have they spelled that out to their solicitor?
They also need to be ready to exchange, as in, have lodged their deposit with their solicitor, and they need to be ready to sign the contract as soon as the report is done.
The thing is, if they are not ready to exchange this week, it will make a mockery of your ultimatum to your seller, and leaves you with no leverage at all. I m sure you know all this, you must be so frustrated!

I wouldn't go ahead with carrying on this farce without seeing the interior of this house again as in those 7 months the owners could have not bothered to maintain it/keep it clean and in a good condition as they've found a buyer (you) therefore they no longer need to keep it looking good.

This in a nutshell. Our buyer has made us look like total idiots and fools. My normally placid patient husband has tonight lost it. Our estate agent has been told to read our buyer the riot act tomorrow and our solicitor has been told to shove the other solicitor as hard as she likes. Ours branded todays nonsense “highly disappointing”

our sale is a leasehold flat and we are getting the enquiries first thing. tonight we have sat and pulled all the documents we can and are available to be ready so we can turn things round asap and send it back to our solicitor who has said she will then prioritise tomorrow so we can never be blamed for holding this up. Hooray for an extra patient boss who has told me to crack on with what I need to do on this tomorrow in work time so I don’t crack up!

I don’t believe they will be ready to exchange this week, our buyer said they want to exchange a week before completion, with the completion date being end of Jan. we are going to be lucky at this rate to achieve that. It’s a total and utter farce and we are so unbelievably annoyed.

You're not alone. I am nearing the 1 year birthday of my 3 person chain (there are reasons it's had to go on so long), and discovered today that my vendors have only today got around to paying for the management pack that my solicitors need and takes weeks for the management co to turn around. Plus there are still enquiries outstanding that were sent in November. We're aiming for end Feb completion so we still have time, but it's baffling to me how anyone can be so slack. To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the solicitor rather than the vendors that is just dawdling, but I'm definitely picking up my chasing activity from here on in.

We had this as buyers previously, the vendor hadn't organised the management pack and the chain was about to collapse.
When they did order it we called and begged for a quick turnaround and it was done within a day.

I know you are having horrors with your buyer now but whereabouts did you get to with your vendor? You issued an ultimatum two days ago to complete end of Jan with a 24 hour deadline - have you heard back from that? I appreciate your solicitor may now not want to chase because of your buyers dicking about but no chasing should have been necessary anyway - they should have responded immediately without prompting?