Chain is on the brink of collapse

[Doornon]

We sold our house in September and put an offer in straight away on our new property.

It’s been annoyingly slow as there have been 3rd party management companies involved

we found out only Monday that our buyers mortgage offer runs out next week! the bank will not extend it.

We had done everything at our end and waiting on our sellers solicitors - there appears to be a lot of bits wrong with the deed and land registry which we also didn’t know about until now. Our solicitor is trying to sort that out with them and land registry. They are arguing over a deed of covenant and an indemnity policy now

We had started putting pressure on a couple of weeks ago to complete by end of March (stamp duty) and assured it was only a few outstanding items left. Now this

I can’t see how this will work now as there needs to be time for funds to transfer and how likely is it this will all be sorted by Tuesday (when the offer expires!) - highly unlikely. Then that would mean exchange and complete on the same day but will it be too late?

So now are we now left with our chain collapsing, all the extra stamp duty fees, more costs to resell as our buyer needs to sort out with a lender, it’s going to ruin us financially for a while, all our savings gone on this

I am feeling really gutted. Is there no hope for this to work do you reckon?

Push, push, push. We threatened to pull out unless we exchanged by 4.00pm on the original agreed date. Somehow it happened so it can be done. Good luck

Sometimes with house buying it can all feel like too much and not enough time, and then it just miraculously gets sorted and it completes unexpectedly and what feels against all odds.
Don't take the pressure off - really hopes you have a miracle situation!

I would hassle everyone relentlessly at this point. However if your buyers aren’t motivated too, there is possibly only so much you can do.

It's not over till its over. Push until then.

It sounds like you buyers may well be worried about stamp duty too and be trying to force things through.

everyone seems motivated, it’s that we found out there is an issue on the LR that needs resolving.

Just spoke to solicitor. It won’t go through end of this month

Is it just the missing Deed of Covenant that is holding up the purchase?
We too are in the process of buying and there is a deed of covenant document missing which apparently is dated to the 1930s.
Our solicitor advised us that the older the document the less likely it will be a problem to you. As a precaution, he also advised us to take out indemnity insurance which he arranged but the vendors agreed to pay for. It was a £99 one off payment. The insurance covers your legal fees should the missing document resurface (unlikely) and any covenants that have been breached challenged.
In our situation our solicitor advised (given the date 1934) that the covenants might restrict running a business from home, keeping poultry on the land, type of fencing, walls, brick used if making changes to the property etc.
Given the date and risks, if like us you’re willing to accept, just pay for the Indemnity Insurance yourselves and draw a line under that problem.
What are the other problems holding up the sale? For us it was stuff picked up on the survey & it was back and forth between the solicitors. And as in your case it was the vendors solicitors holding things up. In our situation there had been removal of a chimney breast (years ago) and no building regulations checks carried out to confirm required support had been installed. We used a structural surveyor (recommended by the Estate Agent so carried out the next day and we got the report immediately) to inspect the chimney breast.
So all issues from our side were eliminated.
Why won’t their bank extend the mortgage offer? Is it because the mortgage rate they were offered is no longer available at the rate they agreed. If so are they willing to accept another product with slightly highly interest rates from the same lender.
If you miss the Stamp Duty deadline would the vendor be willing to reduce the price of the house by the amount you’ll be paying in extra stamp duty. It’s worth asking.
Remember you’ll not be the only ones losing money here, so will they and it should be in their interest to push the sale through as well.
Fingers crossed for you

Our buyer is losing money but our seller is losing nothing, they are moving into family home as they have chosen to buy something that will take a lot longer.

So in my mind yes us and our buyer will lose, but they aren’t

I know it seems unfair to be the only one losing out but would you consider selling and moving into rented accomodation or with family for a month or two? That way you are at least chain free going forward.

No it’s our buyer who is also losing out and they haven’t done anything either to end up here it’s not fair on them. We still want to sell to them, but we are so angry with our seller we considering pulling out and finding another property and renting.

It turns out our solicitor asked about this deed in December and they ignored it. So our solicitor has to find out if they can sort it out- not their job to do it! And they don’t know if they are able to, ineffective solicitor engaged by the sellers, this is down to their negligence purely.

I will be asking they compensate us for this, yes!

Nothing is missing, there is an overage on the land that needs removing, and the sellers solicitors were alerted to it in Dec 2024 and didn’t do anything about it. This is why they are talking about a DOC and indemnity at our end

Sell to your buyer and move into rented until the issue is sorted or you’ve found another place. That’s the only sensible thing to do in this case.

Our solicitor is not advising this as a good option for us

How frustrating. If I am reading this correctly, your seller has both lied (or changed their mind) in terms of their onward plans and delayed things via their solicitors. I think it's very reasonable to ask for a reduction to be passed down the chain to you and your buyers because of this. I guess you have two choices:
Ask for a reasonable reduction from your sellers in view of delays, higher SDLT, new mortgage requirements, etc. You need to have a plan if they say no. Will you pull out and look elsewhere?
Or you sell and go into a rental and then decide what to do wrt your onwards purchase.

@rainingsnoring it doesn’t look like anyone has lied, it looks like they have engaged a really crap legal firm to manage their sale and we are all paying the price for this!

We had a bit of movement on something today but we have 1 day left to make a decision before the chain collapses. I am holding out for the DOC/indemnity to get instructed and it may salvage something.

If we ask for a reduction in price we have to do all the admin associated with that and at this stage, we are not in the best position as could end up homeless!

I'm sorry, I misunderstood your post as I read v quickly. I thought you meant they had changed their mind about whether or not to buy.

I'm not really sure what you mean by this: 'If we ask for a reduction in price we have to do all the admin associated with that and at this stage, we are not in the best position as could end up homeless!'

Try to put your anger and frustration to one side. What outcome do you want? What outcome would be your second choice? What do you need to do to achieve one of these? Do you need money off? You've said it would 'ruin you financially for some time'. If so, ask for money off and don't to such a point that it puts you at great financial risk. How do your buyers feel?

if you let your buyer proceed, you’ll speed up any future house sale (and will most likely be seen as cash buyers) because you’ll have the monies for the onwards purchase to hand. You don’t want to start the selling process again. If you sell your house then you’ve only got your purchase to worry about.

If you want to move, I'd do everything that you can to keep your sale, even if that means going into rented, moving in with relatives etc, it seems a shame to have come this far with selling and then not go through with it (we did this, and lived in a hotel for 5 weeks!)

As a PP said, why can’t you just pay for the indemnity insurance? What, if anything, is your solicitor advising at this stage? TBH, why has your solicitor not done anything else since December except wait for these documents? Did you know there has been this hold up all this time? Sorry for all the questions! Just to add, don’t give up, a lot can happen in three working days.

Our solicitor hasn’t agreed to the indemnity - I’m trying to establish why, but overall she thinks the risk is perhaps too much for our lender due to the overage. It’s been touted as a possible solution but I not on the table as a done deal

financially we are out money due to the stamp duty deadline, then if we rent as rental prices v high here. If we don’t agree to sell tomorrow to our buyer then we have more fees from having to go through the process a second time

No I can see our solicitor has chased and chased. It’s their end that is slow. We knew it was slow but not because of the overage because really that is something that doesn’t have to cause a delay.

The EA told us if we as for a price reduction we will need to do more admin with our lender due to the change in price, but the risk is, they could pull out and remarket for a better price - we are in a worse situation than they are. They don’t have a chain above them

'The EA told us if we as for a price reduction we will need to do more admin with our lender due to the change in price, but the risk is, they could pull out and remarket for a better price - we are in a worse situation than they are. They don’t have a chain above them'

Well they would say that because they don't want the chain to fall apart so that they lose the commission on your sale (and possibly others in the chain). I'm not sure why your sellers would pull out and re-market at a better price, although I guess things in your area may be selling better than most.
The positive thing about selling your property and moving to a rental is that you will then be chain free and in a great position to negotiate on an onward purchase. I think the SDLT increase from April will tend to lower prices a bit, although more at the FTB end. Of course, Labour could introduce some new wheeze in the Spring statement. They are all the same, after all!

Before closing last night the EA is putting pressure on us to complete with such a short time frame, there is no way we can find a rental in that short time and we have kids, we don’t want to live in a hotel or sleep on a relatives floor. They want us to complete next week with nowhere to go

The EA is blaming our solicitor which has really pissed us off, we have all the trails of how often she has badgered the other side and got no response. If we had more time maybe but we don’t. We did not find out about the mortgage expiry till Monday. The EA is acting for all 3 parties in the chain. She has failed to coordinate this effectively. We only got part of the documentation re service charges yesterday - our seller has only just handed them over! And not even proof of what they have paid this year. Solicitor has to try to estimate what funds the seller should retain otherwise we are liable for that too. I also saw them passing the buck to our solicitor to sort out the indemnity - the seller has to pay for this, not us!

I think the chain will collapse today

@rainingsnoring we don’t have time to revise an offer now. The extension for our buyer will only be given if we agree a completion date TODAY and they want to complete next week.

The other side we are buying from aren’t ready to complete so the only options are to break the chain or let the chain collapse.

I am not very experienced in the technical elements of this but to revise any offer, it would mean going back to our lender. We don’t have time now with the time frame they are pushing on us.

The lender for our buyer will give a 15 day extension but only if the funds are applied for today with an agreed completion date. We have nowhere to go. Finding a rental this short notice or bunking up with family is not what we ever planned to do, we also do not know how long we will be left in that limbo. If we had prepared for this to go into rental then that would be different.

For me if would depend how much I wanted to move, if I had to or was desperate to move I would probably sell to your buyer and then make do for a while, possibly finding a new onward purchase that is chain free. We did this a couple of years ago and ended up with family for 6 weeks after our seller pulled out in the day of exchange. We found a chain free property quickly and the conveyancing was fast with just the two of us in the chain. But if I wasn’t desperate to move I would just stay put and try again.

We aren’t that desperate that we would want to technically become homeless to be able to move. We are upsizing but not desperate. I think the buyer needs to leave their rental so I understand their need however they have no children

Seems like you’ve already decided what you want to do so go ahead.