Dream house in chain or avoid renting and get ok house chain-free?

[Nikki201]

Hello, I'm so filled with stress I've made myself ill over what is admittedly a very first world problem. But wouldn't mind some perspective.

Sold our house, moved to a new city and renting. Found house that needs complete updating but I really love. Great location for the price, layout perfect for our family, south facing garden, near everyone we know and things we do. However it turned out the house wasn't registered nor could the seller find the deeds.

So we naively waited, EA stringing us along that things were moving. At about 5 months in it dawned on us that they hadn't even submitted the land registry application, let alone processed it. So we begin looking again, admittedly half heartedly as I couldn't stop comparing everything to that house.

Then we get given notice on our rental, which makes us panic.

We go all out looking at houses, and we've just had an offer accepted on a great house, chain free, very big, no work really needed, but in a worse location - on a busy road with east facing garden, 15min further away from where we've been renting near the school, the beautiful park and shops.

Literally on the day we put the offer in to this House #2, the EA from House #1 calls us to say the land registry application has gone in, the seller has found a property and it will only be a chain of 3. Initially I got so excited that House #1 was back on the table but the reality of the land registry application taking at least 3 months + conveyancing of 3 months(?) means we'll have to find another place to rent before we can compete. And the fact that there's a chain, even small, risks the whole thing not working anyways.

The thought of moving into another rented property again, the cost, the effort, and the uncertainty of the chain working (and us renting for yet another year) is making me so stressed I feel sick.

Should we risk it and get the house we really want or go with ok (but still good) house chain free and just get it done? This will be our forever home as I'm never doing this again.

I don’t understand why the land registry is taking so long? When I told my solicitor I was selling the my house (like you, dream one appeared but house was in shared name with ex-H) they updated it in 15 days.
Can you push your solicitor? I wouldn’t miss out on a dream purchase just on that!!

Six months is nothing in hopefully a long life. I'd try to get the dream house but be very clear about no more hold ups.

I'd move onto another rental and pursue the dream house. If it all works out you'll have a bit of overlap between leaving the new rental and moving into the new house which gives you time to get some of the updating done before you move in.
If this is your forever home, I wouldn't be settling for a location that wasn't fantastic for me. It's the one thing you can never change about a house, so it's the thing I'm least likely to compromise on.
And in the meantime keep looking in the right locations for you as you never know, something even better might come along.

Go for the dream house for sure!

First registrations are taking over a year at the moment, so a fair while over your 3 months.

You can ask for it to be expedited if a sale relies on it (or the vendor's solicitor can), so I think you should insist on them applying to expedite if you want to progress with that house.

Conveyancing should be going on whilst the application is being sorted.

Do not move out out of your current Rental stay there. There’s no need to move.

We offered on a house “chain free”, 10 weeks later we’re still waiting. Go for the house you love.

If you can afford it, I'd rent for another year, or see if there's anywhere that a six month rent then a rolling contract might be optional. That way it'll take the pressure off. You can pursue your dream home, but at the same time generally keep an eye on the market just in case anything comes up that's better than your second option.

Forgot to say, if completion was to take place in say seven months on your dream home and you're in a rental, you could possibly do some of the work before you move in, if only decorate a couple of rooms and put flooring that won't be damaged by work and get the garden straight.

This. You don’t legally need to move out when your notice period ends.

Thanks everyone, your perspectives are much appreciated. Having slept on it, and driven back to both properties and lurked around on the pavement for a bit, we're still in a muddle but will probably risk it and go for house #1 because as most of you say, you can't change a house's location!

Hi, the house we moved into last year was unregistered (previous owner lived here since it was new 60 years ago) it didn't hold up our purchase, our solicitor just advised us that it needs to be registered on completion and we had to pay a little for the first registration maybe £150 but otherwise there was no problem.

If you explain your situation to your current landlord, they may allow you to stay? If I was a LL it would be easier to let you stay and know you’re moving out than a potential costly eviction

Thanks, unfortunately the family are moving back in so there's no hope of an extension 😭.

Also, if it was just unregistered I think the process would be straight forward, it's the fact that they can't find the deeds which is holding things up.

I'm still swinging back and forth. I should change my user name to yours @Wobblyhousebuyer , very fitting!

They’re only two people who can end the tenancy agreement you and the court.

If it doesn’t suit you to Move, that’s unfortunately very inconvenient for the Landlord but that’s kind of how it goes.

You can stay there until the judge tells you you must leave.

No brainer, go for the house you really want. If you go for second best, maybe it will save you a few months now, but then you’ll forever regret not going for the other house.

What’s a few months in the grand scheme of things. And there is nothing to say the supposedly chain free house will go smoothly either.

Don't compromise; go with House #1.

That is a horrible suggestion. I hope people dont really act like this in real life.

It’s the law if you don’t like it don’t rent your house out because every possibility that might be the outcome.

Just wanted to thank everyone again for comments to put perspective on my admittedly very privileged position of being able to choose what house to buy (within reason!). We decided to attempt to go through with the effort and risk to buy House #1 😬. Fingers crossed it works out, but regardless something will work out in the end, and we will be able to just get on with our lives! Thanks everyone.

So fuck over the landlord for something that has nothing to do with them, when they've followed all processes correctly?
Lovely....

Essentially squatting when you don't need to, (i.e. you could rent elsewhere despite the hassle and expense) is a dick move, plus if they then do go through the whole process to evict you and the chain does fall through, good luck finding anywhere to rent in the meantime with the reference they'll give!

Op, if it is going to be short term gap would there be any prospect of renting an air bnb or a caravan/chalet holiday let, or putting stuff in storage and moving in with family?

Might be slightly more expensive than trying to get another 6 month lease but also cheaper in terms of agency/deposit fees, references, not to mention all the hassle of setting up new Internet, council tax, bills, etc....?

It’s a business arrangement nobody is fucking over anybody. If you don’t understand the legalities of these things, you shouldn’t go into letting your Property and I say that as a Landlord. But that’s just how it is.

Oh and references count for nothing by the way these days

how can you say 'references count for nothing?'
where I live competition for rented places is so intense that the tiniest thing counts - a friend was rejected despite her and her DP working full time in permanent jobs because she had a credit rating in the 800s (i.e. well above average) and someone else's was in the 900s - if people can afford to be that choosy who is going to pick the person who can't give a reference for the last however many years over people who have good references?

As a landlord are you really saying you'd happily rent to someone who told you they'd refused to leave their last property until they were forcibly evicted? Yeah right....

Of course it's fucking someone over if you sign a contract you then break!
If it was just a business arrangement courts wouldn't have any jurisdiction and would say it's a civil matter to sort out amongst yourselves but they do get involved because it's legally and morally wrong.