Buyer wants end-of-month completion and may pull out of chain if it’s not met

[Housemover26]

We Accepted an offer early Nov, told EA at the time we haven’t found anywhere and wouldn’t break the chain (two young children) so need somebody to be patience whilst we wait and Confirmed all ok as the buyer was breaking chain themselves and living with family.
Mid / Late Jan - our offer was accepted - Found out our buyer not a cash buyer but small mortgage and runs out end of May
Feb - Lots of chasing our solicitor
Mid March - Our buyer had survey done
Late March - finally received preliminary report and initiate local searches (mortgage already approved) delay due to solicitors and some historic title issues to resolve / understand
NOW - our buyer wants to complete by the end of the month and if we can’t agree then will pull out though still receiving enquiries. The rationale is they’ve booked to be out of country which is news to us.

Totally shocked and surprised and quite frankly annoyed. Yes we didn’t find anywhere for 10 weeks but had offered on 3 properties and lost in bidding war on 2, 1 we had to reconsider due to commute time and we were over a quiet period with little properties hitting the market. Only reason why we’ve had an offer accepted now is a promotion and significant pay rise allowing us to increase budget. I get it’s frustrating but we’ll complete by end of May all being well.

Theres nothing I can do, our solicitor has confirmed unlikely to get searches back and won’t allow time for enquiries so breaking the chain isn’t actually an option as we risk having no house at all should the searches find anything significant.

Can you complete and stay with family/friends or a short term rental for a month or two?

Sounds like you’ve been dragging your feet and I’d be annoyed if I was your buyer.
I wouldn’t blame them for pulling out.

Why hasn’t your solicitor done any work?! Your offer was accepted mid/end Jan. Your buyer is being totally reasonable and has been very patient and I’d be giving you an ultimatum too. There is no reason why you can’t make this happen by the end of April.

It took almost 2.5 months between offer acceptance and initiation of searches? Bloody hell, I’d be threatening to pull out too. You need to get your act together and complete asap.

I would rent for a while rather than lose my buyer.

I would be pulling out too, need to get your act together and get this sorted.

I think you need to get out. You may need to sofa surf or use a hotel but can you not do it so as not to lose the sale?

You either stick with them in the hope they are bluffing or you accept that they are pulling out and re-market.
Either way, I think you need to rethink your strategy and decide if moving out into rented/family is an option.

We last moved 4yrs ago (sold 5yrs ago but a long delay between E&C) when you didn't even get to view unless you were SSTC.
Harsh maybe but everyone knew where they stood and moving into temporary accommodation was the norm (for a few short years until the market cooled again).

This is the thing though, if you want to sell your house then you can't have it all your own way and expect everybody to wait for you. You need to take some of the inconvenience too and not just put it all on other people while you have a seamless move.

If your solicitor is saying that you will not be unable to complete by the end of this month then I guess you have to weigh up the relative risks of a) either breaking the chain with no guarantee of your purchase going through or b) hoping that your buyer is bluffing and will still be happy to continue if you don't complete your sale by the end of the month?

They may well be bluffing because they stand no chance of getting another purchase through before the end of the month or even before the end of May.

Personally I would send them a grovelling apology for the delays and reassure them that there is no reason that you won't complete by end of May. What does your estate agent advise? This is when they should be turning on the charm with your buyers and trying to keep the chain together.

Agree I see not reason it can’t complete by end of April.

We Accepted an offer early Nov ... Mid / Late Jan - Found out our buyer not a cash buyer but small mortgage and runs out end of May ... Mid March - Our buyer had survey done
I wouldn't set myself on fire to keep these people warm.
Call their bluff.

So many people say they wouldn’t break the chain and cite having children as the reason, but you have to decide whether you’re prepared to lose the sale and start again, or put up with a certain amount of inconvenience to actually get your sale and purchase over the line.

Inna stagnant market, with little selling and not much to buy, I wouldn’t risk it for short term pain. I think your buyer is entirely reasonable. We’ve had to do it with two children some years ago. It isn’t ideal, but actually selling and buying was more important than camping out with most of our things in storage for a month or two.

I don’t think it is reasonable for sellers to drag out the process, you talk a lot about your situation, but what about the buyers situation? I was the buyer in this situation and after my seller messed me around for months, I pulled out (lo and behold, suddenly they were able to complete within a couple of weeks and even offered a reduction, but I pulled out nonetheless).

Why on earth didn't your local searches go in straight after your offer was accepted? It's normal to get them in asap because they take the longest. Will your mortgage lender accept a private search? Discuss with your solicitor because that could speed things up.

Whats it got to do with you if they are out of the country?

Call their bluff.

You are being ridiculously slow and I think I'd be threatening to pull out too! They've already been pretty patient and them living with family may not be sustainable long term. You can't have it all your way.
Our sellers were a nightmare and we eventually completed 2 days before our mortgage offer expired. It was the most stressful 6 months of my life and if I was ever in that situation again I'd walk.

Just get your skates on and tell yoyr lawter to move as fast as possible to get it done by end of the month. Make as much progress as possible in the next two weeks and then give an exchange date so they can see the end is in sight. They probbaly feel like it will never end.

May very well be the estate agent who is making threats to pull out.
Happened to me, seller knew nothing of it.
I'd call their bluff because, even if the threat is coming from the buyers, as pp said they can't hope to complete on another property by end of month and quite possibly you'll be calling the agent's bluff in any case.

We were in a similar situation with two kids and as the sale had been dragging on for a month I really didn’t want to lose the buyers and start again… It was a long chain and an absolute nightmare. We went to an Airbnb for two months and it did put us in a really good position for our purchase as that ended up completed in six weeks! It wasn’t ideal… We had to put a lot of stuff into storage and just take a car full of stuff to the Airbnb…. But in some ways it was an adventure and we survived !

Wait, your buyer only had their survey done mid-March, despite putting their offer in in November, and THEN declaring they weren't a cash buyer but needed a mortgage, and now their offer is expiring? What was THEIR delay?

Otherwise, reasonable to expect your solicitor to pull their finger out with searches and enquiries, but not unreasonable to be sold by the end of April.

November your buyer offers, but takes until mid-March to organise the survey on your house ?That seems a long time? So 6 weeks essentially til they complete our your house from the survey. That seems a tight timeline. They probably want to avoid applying for a new mortgage offer.
Anyway, you don’t mention anything about whether you’ve had your survey and searches done on the house you’re buying, so difficult to advise really.

You need evidence that they can’t hold on, eg deadline for mortgage or letter from mortgage provider confirming an extension isn’t possible.

Forget about all the drama and story behind it all. That’s just noise.

ask them to provide evidence to support the reason why they are threatening to pull out in order for you to even consider the threat.

keep it simple and evidence based

I can understand why buyers would want a fixed quick completion date,i can understand why this may not be possible and may be beyond your control.
I can understand why you wouldnt want to lose your buyers but equally why your buyers wouldnt want to lose your sale. Remember if they pull out they wont be completing anytime soon and will have to start again too.
What you do it up to you.
This happened to me and i decided to call their bluff because i simply couldnt guarentee the completion date they wanted.
They didnt pull out after being adament they would if i didnt agree but ive heard of many who have lost buyers.
If you had a lot of interest and sold quickly i would call their bluff.

I don't really understand "call their bluff" comments. It's not bluff. OP has been stringing people along for six months and I recently pulled out in similar circumstances and got offer accepted on another house the very next day. We are six weeks in and looking to complete by the end of the month. It's not like houses are selling like hot cakes at the moment. My seller had his on the market for 7 months and already dropped the price twice. I was very clear with him that I was looking to be done and dusted ASAP and if he couldn't get his shit together, then not to bother as there are five more properties in the immediate vicinity in a similar situation of not being able to sell.

Why would the buyer provide any evidence? OP is not in a very strong position here to demand such thing. Not to mention that the byer can pull out at any time for any reason without any evidence whatsoever. OP demanding evidence is not going to make the buyer any more amenable. Quite the opposite.