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?

No it doesn't! It sounds like it is OP's oart kf the chain that is holding things up!

I don't understand how you're applying for school places before exchange of contracts. Most local authorities insist on having confirmation of contract exchange before they'll consider offering places.

In which case tell them that if they need you out in 3 weeks then they have to pay the extra storage and removals costs. How much do you want to sell your house? It’s not about winning against the buyers and EA. Yes it is galling to be manipulated and lied to however you need to keep focus as the prize here is, or at least should be, your new home.

Is th whole deal off if you dont get the places you want? if not just get on with it, you can find school places once you are there.

i'd be running if i was your buyer

You can also move without school places. My DB did this because he had to move to take up a new job. Ideally he and his wife would obviously have wanted the children to start school immediately but they moved to an area which was quite oversubscribed and initially struggled to find places. As they were clearly doing their best to sort it out, no-one made a fuss about the children being out of school for a few weeks.

"Only" 3 months in. You should be done by now if it's a simple 3 chain sale. Madness that you've only just done surveys. Chasing removals? Just book them.

You sound like you're delaying massively. Move into the family property and be done.

Your EA should be doing the chasing, they need to earn that percentage! They liaise between solicitors and other EAs in the chain, that's their job.
I'm surprised you think school places are part of the process especially, as others have pointed out, councils aren't interested until contracts have been exchanged. That's my experience anyway.
Some empathy towards your buyers! A first baby AND a house move in the same month, I would be beyond anxious and also with a mortgage offer coming to an end I think you can see why they want to hurry things along.
Your move sounds like ours, large property to sell and a move across country. Please keep your removal company up to date, it's obviously a three day move and you don't want everything starting to fall into place and they are the ones who can't make the dates.

I think 3 months is still pretty short - both my house purchases have been 2 house chains, the first took 8 months and the second 6 even though on paper they should’ve been quick, but issues kept cropping up and delaying. Both times I ended up moving heavily pregnant, I didn’t consider that to be the seller’s problem either time - shit happens and sometimes conveyancing takes far longer than you want, that’s the risk you take moving while pregnant.

OP, your children's school is not their problem and them having a baby is not your problem. I think the main issue is you accepted a lower offer on the condition that they would be flexible with time but they aren't really flexible. They either underestimated the time it would take or deliberately lied to pay lower and thought they would get away by playing the pregnancy card. Either way you go back and renegotiate eg they pay full asking or pay for extra cost and inconvenience due to storage/ moving into temporary accomodations etc.

I will also have a word with your EA and remind her that they are getting commission from you, not them.

Never chase solicitors by email!, they are usually very busy juggling multiple files at a time, they do a bit to one, then to another etc. - phone up and keep phoning or drop by the office.

I deal with solicitors all the time, they are all very inefficient at answering comms or doing work unless you keep on top of them.

And this is a vicious circle too - some removal firms will want to see that their client has exchanged so that they have certainty of completion date before they commit time and turn down other bookings.

ETA sorry I meant to quote a PP re nailing a date with the removals firm

That’s because they’re trying to do the work. I thankfully don’t do resi work, but even my commercial clients - if they each email or phone twice a week then on over a hundred files it’ll take me hours a day just to update people which is time I then can’t spend doing the substantive work.

The bit that would erk me is the survey. What is it with people leaving surveys until months down the line these days? We instructed our survey within 2 weeks of offer accepted but the people below us in our chain waited until everything else was done. I just don't get it. Surveys can throw up issues that then require further tests or even price renegotiations. Why wouldn't you get this started as early as possible?

@YourAzureEagle my entire life is emails, thanks! (Different area of law but I spend my entire day communicating with clients. We have more than one client and residential conveyors will have a couple of hundred).

Does their mortgage company know about the maternity leave?

When I had my mortgage offer and all the conveyancing had been done and I was just about to sign the final papers, I had another paper to sign confirming that nothing had changed since the offer, and that there were no reasons I knew of that would change my income (including diagnosed illnesses, potential redundancy, etc etc). Even if their offer hasn't expired, they might still have to sign that and they could be in trouble anyway.

So, yesterday was eventful.

Our seller’s EA, who is lovely, chased everyone and it turns out our solicitor has been on extended leave and didn’t tell us (we had no idea because her assistant had been intermittently contacting us), the buyer’s solicitor wants a statement of truth but instead of writing it themselves (which apparently they should) they’ve told our solicitor to do it, she doesn’t know what their issue is and isn’t getting answers which is causing delays and taking her away from dealing with the other outstanding issues. The husband is happy to complete mid to late Feb but it’s his wife who wants end of Jan. The solicitors have been discussing this and agreed end of Jan isn’t possible.

The EA also called me with concerns about our EA. They had a call where it was apparently made very clear she was not working for us and was wholly invested in meeting the needs of the buyers. She made a few comments that the seller’s EA thought were inappropriate and so she asked us to remove her from sale as they felt she was jeapordising the chain. In addition she lied about the date the mortgage offer ends because “they’re having a baby and that date works better for them”. The offer actually ends end of Feb so we have time. Our solicitor also stepped in, copying everyone in to tell the EA that setting a completion date was not within her remit and could she please leave this to the solicitors. The EA manager is now working for us instead. The manager felt the buyer’s hadn’t been truthful throughout the process but feels there is lots of time and will call them today to calm them down.

I noted people seemed to get fixed on the school issue with one asking if we were “playing the system”. The area we’re moving to has 5 primaries that are excellent. We visited on Monday and the head told us to apply yesterday, there’s no condition that says we have to have exchanged first, she will reserve the places for us as she deals with it rather than the council. Taking the kids out of school for weeks is not an option considering our jobs. School visits were delayed due to availability of the schools to show us around and the fact the survey wasn’t back.

The survey was not done in January. It was done beginning of December with a surveyor recommended by the EA. The surveyor has since been ill and occasionally stopped communicating. The survey came back yesterday and was mostly OK.

The survey wasn’t booked straight away because the lender highlighted issues with the valuation and we spent weeks renegotiating the purchase price, plus issues came up with the searches. As I’ve already said, the buyer only had theirs done the week before ours (the survey they weren’t going to have and then did).

All outstanding documents will be completed, hopefully, in the next few days and then everyone has said they’re happy to exchange. The EA thinks this will calm the buyers. This purchase, for several reasons, is an emotional one for them, as there’s a reason they want this house rather than look for another. Due to availability of removals, our preferences and circumstances with the seller mid Feb is being pushed for completion and we’re waiting for the buyer’s to respond.

@Greatrainplane sounds really stressful for all of you! Hope you get sorted soon and the move goes ahead smoothly

House sales/moves are awful with out taking in to account long distance and school moves. Good luck!

We phone daily so they want to get rid of us as fast as possible.

Haha I see the strategy there. I don’t do fixed fee work, but bill hourly, so if every phone call is one 6 minute unit, it costs the client £25. They soon realise I’ll update as soon as I have an update and that chasing just distracts me from doing the work and directly costs money.

They are absolutely within their rights to want to move quickly. They aren't doing anything wrong. You are within your rights not to be ready and that's fine too. Obviously there is a risk that they will get fed up and pull out. It's up to do whether you do everything you can to move stuff along, or take the time you want and risk needing to get new buyers.

I agree with this! We had an offer accepted on the house we were buying on November 5th. We've been moved into it for 2 weeks now!
Sounds like you're dragging it out to me!

I had this. My buyers buyer, pregnant, about to have their mortgage offer expire. I was prepared to put my house back on the market as couldn't move out any sooner. My buyer decided to keep theirs and break the chain. Everyone is getting the house they want, it seems, just not everyone is getting in their house as soon as they wanted. I held firm as I had no other choice.

How is this info helpful to OP? 🙄

If you’d read my latest update you’d know we didn’t book the survey in January and that we haven’t been “dragging it out”.