Buyers trying to break chain.

[Greatrainplane]

Hi All, house selling has become a headache!!

We’re doing a big move across the country with kids.

We’ve just got the 3 month mark since all offers were accepted and the offer on ours was on the basis that we were in a chain and could take as much time as we needed. The chain is only three houses (chain free at each end). However, despite not being fully ready themselves the buyers have been pushing for 2 months for us to complete and move out. Every Friday we get a request with some reason why this should happen. They still need to issue a statement of truth regarding some access they’re worried about.

Our surveyor has been delayed so we haven’t yet had our survey back (due this week) and we had to renegotiate the purchase price on the onward move so we need a new contract and TR1. We’re waiting for the council to process school applications and our solicitor has made mistakes in some documents so they (and we) need to review everything.

Other than that everything has moved really quick and 3 months is pretty standard (especially considered quick with the pace of solicitors currently).

They announced a few weeks ago that she’s pregnant and they want to move in before the birth in early February. Our solicitor told them that wasn’t possible (and they hadn’t mentioned the pregnancy previously when negotiating). Now they’re saying she’s about to go on Mat leave, they’re mortgage offer ends next month and if they have to apply again they won’t get a good offer because she’s on Mat leave (??). We’re trying to find out the date their offer ends. They’re also saying exchange will secure their mortgage (??). Does this sound plausible or are they just trying to get their way?

We offered to exchange next week but they’re now pushing us to complete in 3 weeks. 5 weeks works better for us. In previous house moves we’ve always felt a bit bullied by this stage - should we hold our ground?

If we were to break the chain and complete the sale first we do have a potential option (family home to move in to temporarily) but it would cost us in storage and extra removal fees. Considering that we accepted their below asking price offer on the basis of the chain and having lots of time would you tell them only if they upped the price to cover this?

I was in a similar situation but the other way around

I bough a house from a person who head terminal cancer and then decided to change their onward property after three months of offers.

We paid full asking prices. We were also not selling but letting our house and had a narrow window to find an tennent it was like brinkmanship.

I was very sympathetic to my seller but I did feel manipulated by the sickness and she would text me or ring and say one thing and then I'd get and email for the solicitor saying I'd agreed to delay by x weeks. I never agreed anything!

We could have potentially lost our mortgage offer and renters. And it would have been another 8 weeks to sort this out

It's a shit process and that is UK house buying.

In the end it took 6 months to move.

@fatgirlswims we feel very manipulated and it’s convenient that the mortgage issues they’ve failed to mention up until now coincide nicely with the desire to be in the house before the birth. We caught them out in a couple of lies and we told out EA at the start that we were weary of them because of this.

Our EA is seemingly now working for them instead of us- won’t return calls but appears to call them a lot, keeps telling us she “feels for them”, and “can understand their issues”, but has not understanding of ours!

Risk it or don’t.

No point moaning about it. The chips will fall one way or another. Are you prepared for them pulling out? If yes stand your ground.

School places and your solicitor making mistakes aren’t their problem , you need to get on hurry up and move .

They are definitely not being entirely truthful about things - being on maternity leave shouldn’t affect their mortgage offer as long as she is returning to the same job at the same pay. I understand they are in a hurry to move but they don’t get to dictate the date, it has to be agreed by everyone in the chain.
I would just keep repeating that you’re willing to Exchange just as soon as all the solicitors say you can. But can’t complete in 3 weeks.

I do find it a bit weird that school offers are involved in this at all - and that you're apparently happy to string it out.

TBH, I'd just get this done, and move into AirBnB for a couple of weeks (and whack stuff into storage) but perhaps you have more stuff than me (I used storage pods for my last UK move and really liked it, and otherwise, I've always managed to have some overlap as the whole 'everyone move on completion day' seems like stress inducing madness to me.

@CleftChin i don’t understand, the kids need a school place, we can’t just withdraw them from education, rules are pretty strict.

We have a large 4-bed, 3 reception room house, 3 sofas alone and a lot of stuff. Storage will be expensive and it grates that they haggled the price down to give us flexibility and we could end up out of pocket now because they haven’t been honest about their situation.

It’s been three months since all offers were accepted and it’s a short chain. They may well have been happy to give you flexibility thinking that they weren’t much fussed between 2 months and 3 months, but now things are still not ready and you don’t have a completed survey and you are indicating that you may be waiting even longer for the council to come back with school places.

If you move out of your current area, you will be off roll at your current school so no one will be chasing your absence percentages, and the LA where you are moving will know they have to find you a place, so you are not breaking any rules.

We offered to exchange next week but they’re now pushing us to complete in 3 weeks. 5 weeks works better for us.

But for her, five weeks is absolutely terrible, as she will be post-partum and have a newborn in a house full of boxes. Maybe they should have mentioned the pregnancy earlier but they probably thought they had plenty of time when they made the offer and she was around 4-5 months pregnant.

There is a real risk that she just decides she would rather stay where she is, have the baby there, and look at moving in 6-12 months.

@Slobberchops1 but school places and solicitor’s making mistakes are all things that can happen in a chain and a chain and time are what they agreed to. We have been working flat out to get everything in place, we haven’t caused delays.

But why are you dragging it out? Honestly your surveyor should have been booked once chain was complete 3 months later is a bit of a pisstake.

I think when people say they're fine with a chain they still expect you to move as promptly as possible and it probably seems to them that you're not doing that.

Get on to your solicitor, 3 weeks should be totally doable

When you applied for in year school places immediately after your offer was accepted 3 months ago, what did the LA say? Some will push the issue back until you have actually moved, so they aren’t finding places for people whose move later falls through.

You want them to be considerate of your children’s schooling but you don’t seem to think you need to be considerate of her about-to-be-born child.

If proposing that they pay half the storage costs would make you happy to complete earlier (say) then propose it. But they aren’t bullying you by wanting things to progress.

I agree that school places shouldn’t really have been mentioned to the buyer as that is not their concern and just clouds the situation. But the reality is the chain is not ready to Exchange yet so you all should just be focusing on that not getting too bogged down in arguments about an ideal completion date. The chain may not be able to complete in 3 weeks anyway if Exchange isn’t done fairly soon. It’s entirely reasonable to insist on a 2 week break between Exchange & Completion to organise removals. Especially if there are people in the chain moving a long distance.

IME your new council will not be interested in school places for you until you exchange. So ridiculous to delay everything for that. Just get on with it.If there are spaces available you will get them very quickly. If you are having to appeal that will take time, but nothing will start until you exchange.

I think an impending newborn trumps your need for school places. Just get on with it!

I agree with that. When we were planning a move into a new school catchment area the school would not guarantee a place for us (naturally) but said they would be able to as soon as they saw evidence we had exchanged contracts.

@@ohsobroody dragged out how? The buyers had their survey done the week before we did! We’re only 3 months in and have done almost everything. We are on to our solicitors (9 emails sent in the last week all waiting for responses), we’ve been chasing removals, chasing solicitors on both sides, chasing estate agents, chafing surveyor, visited the new place this weekend and submitted school applications, had services in to remove lights etc we’re taking with us, sold furniture we don’t need, multiple tip runs. Not sure how this is us dragging this out- the contracts have to be correct and we need our survey and school places, plus somewhere to move to.

i am very surprised surveys were booked in for Jan if offers were accepted mid October

Ah, so you have only just submitted school applications, earlier this month?

Fair enough well at least you're cracking on with the jobs.

It's odd for surveys to be so late that's all.
I think you'll need to move without school places firmly sorted though I'm afraid even in 5 weeks that might not come through.

Amending contracts and Tr1 is a 2 second job I imagine if you try and push them to post partum they might decide to stay put for a while and you'll lose the chain so depends how much you want to move

I didn’t think most LAs processed school applications until exchange. Are you sure you’ve understood the process or did you give them the new address and they are assuming you’ve moved.

If OP has found an undersubscribed school, she can apply and get in from anywhere but has to take up the place within a few weeks. Perhaps that is what she is doing? Otherwise, agree: the LA isn’t going to put pressure on schools to create spaces for someone who isn’t definitely moving.

Have you identified the lights you are taking on a fixtures and fittings form? As they are attached to the house people would generally expect them to be included.

Whatever the school place situation, it’s unreasonable to expect people about to have their first baby to know how that might work, OP.

@SheilaFentiman school
places have been applied for this week because we can’t apply until 20 days before the move. The school has said that if it’s longer they can override this rule and will secure the places for us anyway.

school places haven’t been mentioned to them. The lack of correct contract at the other end, a pending statement of truth from the buyers and the late delivery of the survey have though, plus the lack of available removal companies.