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.

Will OP be willing to compensate them the costs of doing so?

What's the council got to do with this?

The searches, to see if we can expedite them for our onward purchase

From your updates it’s clear you aren’t that bothered about losing the buyer and starting over again, so just do that then.

Searches take no more than a few days and involve many different stakeholders, the local authority being one. This is what you are paying your solicitor for, to gather and review the information. There is a process. You need to be chasing your solicitor, nobody else. Better still, put some time and effort in to sourcing some short term accommodation.

Don’t lose the buyer, would be my advice.

Airbnb plus storage!

I don’t know why your solicitor thinks searches take weeks. Do they live in the 1970s?

We had to move into a short term rental which was a disaster financially for us and a pain with two small children as otherwise we’d have lost our buyer and the market was slow. Now I’m in Ireland so we don’t really do the whole chain thing so it was just tough luck that our house wasn’t ready to move into. That wasn’t our buyers fault.

Why should she set herself (and her family) on fire to keep some random strangers warm?
Some of the replies here are utterly ridiculous.

But why would the OP even need to go into rental if they've exchanged on both sale and purchase?

It's not, if they get to keep the house sale, and therefore move that they want.

Have you asked your solicitors realistically wether April is feasible, it’s still a good four weeks away?

It is a risk that you will lose the buyer but if you are confident of another then do what works best for you. Your buyer will be doing the same, so if they are looking at much higher rates they may pull out.

It's not about whether "should" or "shouldn't". The buyer has every right to move when they want to move, especially if they are needing to move for a reason like to be in commutable distance to a new job when they start, or to be near parents who urgently need their support. If they believe that OP may not be ready to sell for them to move at the right time for these things, they have every right to find somewhere that will sell more quickly. If they do this, OP will lose her buyer altogether. It's FINE that OP gets to chose when she moves regardless of the buyer's needs, but it does mean then the buyer gets to move when they want regardless of OPs needs, if OP agrees with that, she's ok to lose her buyer.

Update - Buyer wants to complete by mid June and wants written confirmation it can be done if not he will loose mortgage offer and that’s the panic - sooner is better but wants 100% confirmation it can be done by the expiry.

He really wants the house, is happy to continue to live with family (less than 0.5 mile away) just nervous - which I fully support and agree with so if I can get confirmation from all solicitors that can be done we’re good to go - should we not manage that and he looses his offer then we’ll offer compensation but at this stage I don’t feel it’s warranted and I’m certainly not paying £2.5k a week for a short term rental

Shocked they didn’t pull out before, you caused the issues then moan about others.

I wouldn't be providing confirmation myself. Not when so much of it is out of your hands. Nor would I offer compensation. It's not your fault that mortgage rates are rising. I'd be suggesting the buyers ask Agent Orange to put his (tiny) hand his pocket if they want compensation. Maybe I sound harsh, I don't know, but there's no certainty when buying and selling property and if people don't know that, they shouldn't be doing it.

I wouldn't be providing confirmation myself. Not when so much of it is out of your hands.
You can offer some 'try our utmost / it's what we want, too' waffle, whilst not committing yourself. Run it past the solicitor because everything should be carefully worded with caveats such as 'subject to contract' and 'without prejudice'.
Nor would I offer compensation.
Agree with this one!

Everything will be done via solicitor, I don’t mind a token few hundred pound as compensation but I’m hopeful we won’t need it - I didn’t consider it until all the messages on here suggesting it

It’s fair enough for your buyer to call time.

I have just pulled out of buying a place and am feeling pretty good as prices have since come down more. You should be v careful OP

OP, this reads like you are trying to close the post down. You aren’t listening, you are reading what you want to hear and nothing else. This won’t go on until June and doesn’t need to either. Why put so many people to months of stress when you can sort it out in weeks. I firmly believe that if you don’t this sale will fall over in the next few weeks and rightly so. It honestly sounds like you don’t want to move. Be honest with yourself.

Do what we did: preserve the sale. Move out, get an air bnb or something. We did this with pets, we put everything into storage. It was a nuisance but we made the right call, getting a great price and locking in a six house chain.

be realistic, the world doesn’t revolve around your convenience. Haven’t you read the news? House prices are going to be impacted by war and interest rates will go up. If you mess up your sale, you’ll not get such a good price. You’ll lose your buyer. You need to prioritise getting your house sold.

It makes sense your buyer is giving his mortgage as a deadline because they might not be able to afford the house once it expires if he can’t keep his rate.

im sympathetic op. We are house hunting. Our initial house fell through so we are looking for another and hoping not to lose our buyer. I don’t recognise what other people are saying. Houses are being snapped up for loads over asking round here, sometimes before I’ve even had chance to view it.

Sell and rent. Puts you in a much stronger buying position.