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Original poster

Buyers trying to break chain.

112 replies

Greatrainplane · 14/01/2025 06:06

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?

OP posts:
Original poster
Greatrainplane · 19/01/2025 08:23

@Blueberry911 ”cruising”?? You describe the above as cruising! I describe it as bloody stressful!

OP posts:
BeavisMcTavish · 19/01/2025 23:26

Greatrainplane · 19/01/2025 08:22

@Lavenderflower 26 phone calls to estate agents, solicitors and schools last week, school applications completed and confirmation of places last night, 9 emails to solicitor the week before and 15 to them this week, 4 calls to surveyor and 3 emails to surveyor over the last 3 weeks, cross-country visit to the house to measure-up last weekend and visits to 3 schools (and an expensive overnight stay in a hotel for the family), review of survey and 4 follow-up emails this week plus 3 evenings of staying up until 1am to review all documents again yo make sure all documents are correct after finding errors, 6 visits arranged and conducted with removal companies and 6 follow up emails to confirm removal company and review of t&c’s, arranged company before Christmas to visit last week to remove all electrical items we’re taking with us, spent the last 8 weeks clearing out the garage, 3 lofts, understairs cupboards, multiple tip runs and visits to charity shops to donate.

This is just what we’ve been doing over the last few weeks but we’ve been working at this pace since we accepted their offer because of the pressure they’ve been putting us under, all whilst working full time on demanding roles and looking after 2 children.

We’re moving our lives and the children across the country. The paperwork has to be correct, and we’re asking that we move 2 weeks later than they’ve asked for which fits in with their mortgage offer. I don’t think that’s a lot to ask considering the stops we’ve pulled out to accomodate them this far after being given reassurance there was no rush.

“you don’t seem motivated to move asap” is a rather flippant comment to make when you’re not privy to the enormous effort we’re going to to get this sale completed.

There must be serious issues to warrant that activity.

For me, 4 house moves, longest is 13 weeks in long chain, and 8 weeks without, and never spoken to the solicitor more than a couple of times and used online agents who don’t call for chats or even really get involved.

something is unusual at one end or the other. 🤷‍♂️

lemonwrighty · 27/02/2025 19:22

Hi OP, I came across your post and I'm intrigued to know if you did complete mid-end of Feb?

Original poster
Greatrainplane · 28/02/2025 06:12

@lemonwrighty yes! We got the 5 weeks we needed (and the lady still hadn’t given birth by the time she moved in.

We completed earlier in the day than predicted by the solicitors and within 10 minutes of the removal people leaving so we had a couple of small jobs to do (get the pets and kids in the car, finish the last bits of the hoovering where the final pieces of furniture had been etc) and the buyers were camped outside the house from the minute of completion 🙄 Other than that it went fine.

OP posts:
lemonwrighty · 28/02/2025 08:57

Greatrainplane · 28/02/2025 06:12

@lemonwrighty yes! We got the 5 weeks we needed (and the lady still hadn’t given birth by the time she moved in.

We completed earlier in the day than predicted by the solicitors and within 10 minutes of the removal people leaving so we had a couple of small jobs to do (get the pets and kids in the car, finish the last bits of the hoovering where the final pieces of furniture had been etc) and the buyers were camped outside the house from the minute of completion 🙄 Other than that it went fine.

Oh goodness, how intimating do they want to be to be camped outside your house whilst you're moving. Did either of you say anything to each other or did you throw the keys at them and off you went? 🤣

Original poster
Greatrainplane · 28/02/2025 10:18

@lemonwrighty he made some comment about how stressful it had been for them and not realising it would take 4 months (pretty standard length of time and quick by current timelines). He also told us the house was £100k more than they could afford but they loved it. The house is expensive to run, one of the reasons we sold, so a daft decision in my opinion but each to their own. Other than that we handed them the keys and left.

OP posts:
lemonwrighty · 28/02/2025 13:51

Greatrainplane · 28/02/2025 10:18

@lemonwrighty he made some comment about how stressful it had been for them and not realising it would take 4 months (pretty standard length of time and quick by current timelines). He also told us the house was £100k more than they could afford but they loved it. The house is expensive to run, one of the reasons we sold, so a daft decision in my opinion but each to their own. Other than that we handed them the keys and left.

You pay what you want to pay for a house so with it being £100k over what they can afford isn't your problem. Yes they say on average 25 weeks from offer to completion. We took 14 weeks to complete and it was a simple chain, ourself and our vendor. We now buying our next property and hoping to complete in 8 weeks 🤣 I don't know why I do it to myself. Glad it all worked out for you in the end.

Northernladdette · 28/02/2025 14:01

Greatrainplane · 28/02/2025 10:18

@lemonwrighty he made some comment about how stressful it had been for them and not realising it would take 4 months (pretty standard length of time and quick by current timelines). He also told us the house was £100k more than they could afford but they loved it. The house is expensive to run, one of the reasons we sold, so a daft decision in my opinion but each to their own. Other than that we handed them the keys and left.

Shouldn’t the keys be handed to the EA? 😂

PurpleThistle7 · 28/02/2025 14:08

When we bought our house the previous owners knew we had to sell our old house and gave us 6 weeks with a bit of flexibility if we needed a little extra time. 4 months of waiting for you to deal with your logistics sounds like a very long time to me. I'm not sure why you keep delaying - as you said you can't get the school places settled 5 weeks in advance anyway, you have a backup option if it all goes wrong, you've prepped and packed and such. I can see why they want to get on with it.

Really it's about how much you want to do this versus how much they want to do it and I think they've been more than reasonable. All the solicitors should have put an actual figure on the term 'take as long as you need' though as that could mean many things.

caramac04 · 28/02/2025 14:15

We were messed about by buyers when I was pregnant. They knew when we needed to move by. They were first time buyers and no chain above us so should have been easy. Buyers pulled out then a couple of weeks later made a much lower offer which we could not accept. We had accepted lower price twice and our sellers did too.
I told them to shove it, stayed where we were and extended the house.

Original poster
Greatrainplane · 28/02/2025 14:16

@PurpleThistle7 completely missing the point 🙄

We didn’t delay, if anything our buyers did by not getting their contracts to us until the 11th hour and trying to use our solicitor to write their contracts.

We sold and moved in over 2 weeks ago- calm down!

OP posts:
Original poster
Greatrainplane · 28/02/2025 14:18

@Northernladdette you would think so but our expensive and useless EA suggested we hand the keys over at the house which added a much needed extra layer of stress!

OP posts:
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