Seller won’t budge on completion date

[Chickenandegg8]

We had an offer accepted on a property back at the end of June.
The seller has since booked a 3 month trip abroad and has informed us we either complete on the 10th September or we’ll have to wait until December. We only need another 7 -10 days but they’re adamant.
Our solicitor only ordered searches 2 weeks ago, as they wouldn’t order them until our mortgage offer was in and they could complete the anti money laundering checks. Our mortgage offer was delayed as the surveyor insisted on reviewing a coal mining report which added 2 weeks to the process. Searches are back but we’re waiting for the report from the solicitor. They had already sent most of the enquiries prior to searches, and received responses.

Our poor buyers have been waiting since April and they’re also saying they won’t wait until December which I don’t blame them!

They didn’t disclose this trip when we offered, or say we have to complete by x date. This has just come to light in the past 5 weeks.

I’m so stressed out!! This will be the last time we ever move house! 😬

Are your buyers and sellers both ready and just waiting on you?

What is your solicitor saying? Do they think completion by 10th September is something they can achieve?

Its still a few weeks away yet so it could be done, providing everyone else in the chain is ready and your Solicitor pulls their finger out.

So, you’re holding up both your buyers and the sellers of the property you are purchasing. Instruct your solicitor of the completion date of 10 Sept. or you will most likely loose your sale and purchase.

Yes they’re ready, we accepted their offer in April, they finished enquiries a few weeks ago.
Our buyers started their process before we offered on their property so they’ve both been ‘ahead’ of us if you like.
Our sellers booked this 3 month trip after we had offered on their property. Then expected us to complete end of August, then pushed it back to 10th September.
If we hadn’t had the issue with the coal mining report and mortgage offer being delayed due to it, we would have been done, but I really don’t know what our buyers expect us to do about that!

Not sure what calendar you are looking at @ErlingHaalandsManBunbut 10 Sept is less than two weeks away.
OP I agree your seekers are being unreasonable but if they insist and if you can’t complete by that date then you have three options:
sell and move into temporary accommodation
call your buyer’s bluff and say it’s December
call your seller’s bluff and say you can’t make Sept date and are not willing to wait until December.
Last two rush the chain collapsing.

Well this is partly down to your solicitor's choices and policies. They could have ordered the searches earlier, they know in advance what the money laundering checks will be. Searches can be expedited ( on payment of a fee) or you can get personal searches plus an indemnity.
You need to formally instruct your solicitor ( ie in writing) that you need to complete by 10 Sept if the chain is not to collapse. They should be able to get it sorted within that time, but it might cost you more. Get on the phone every day to push, make an appointment to go into the office to sign docs rather than doing it by post/email, ask them specifically what you can do to get to exchange the week before 10th Sept. Have funds ready to transfer. Be available for immediate responses to any questions.

@mondaytosunday but surely enough time for the solicitor to be ready for exchange and completion if they pull their socks up. If there is just the report from the searches for the solicitor to do, and then final enquiries (if there are any) then if the solicitors work together on this they can make this work surely?

This is what happened on ours. The solicitors pulled together and made it happen towards the end as we had all worked so hard and no-one was willing to let it fail after coming this far. They called each other, instead of sending and sitting on endless emails and got it done.

Is that three month trip a cruise by any chance? Because if so there is no way for them to cancel without losing an awful lot of money. So unless you feel like reimbursing them tens of thousands you might have to agree, or lose the house.

Your buyers aren’t going to pull out. It’s going to take them til December to secure somewhere else, so they’re better off waiting. I suppose they might do it on principle.

No it’s not. He owns his own business and booked a 3 month work trip about a month to or so after we offered on their house. Wife isn’t going, they have no kids, young couple, but they wont pay for professional movers in to help her to move whilst he is away.
Its just massively frustrating, if we complete the week after it’s only taken us 12 weeks to complete after chain has completed, which I thought was quite quick nowadays! And that’s with a 2 week mortgage delay.

it absolutely can be achieved in this time frame OP.
But if it is stressing you this much could you pay for there cost of the removal company for them to remove that being an issue.

If we hadn’t had the issue with the coal mining report and mortgage offer being delayed due to it, we would have been done, but I really don’t know what our buyers expect us to do about that!

You needed to tell your solicitors to proceed before the mortgage offer came back. Often they don't to save you money if you can't get an offer, but here you were working to a tight timeline.

He either can't or doesn't want to complete while abroad, so it's putting pressure on your solicitor now to meet the deadline, or risking losing both. I definitely wouldn't wait for December if I'd been ready for most of the year, and moving in December sucks anyway.

It doesn't really matter if it's been really fast or really slow if the dates don't line up in the end.

Im trying to picture how my DH working away would mean I can’t move house. Do they mean that they are waiting three months because she can’t do several runs with boxes or not just paying for a removal service!

OP can you not pay their removal bill ? Am I missing something?

I'd call your sellers bluff OP.

I think if you do someone will miraculously become available to help the woman with the move whilst the man is on his jolly. They will either pay the professionals or get family/friends to help. Or the man will realise he can shuffle the start of his trip a week or two later.

When we sold (deceased) MiL’s flat we were in the Australian outback visiting Uluru. It just meant a phone call to agree that my husband agreed for the sale completion to proceed. So your buyer doesn’t need to be in the country to complete.

Why can’t you carry on as normal
and complete while the seller is away? Presumably the seller is ready and has no related purchase if they are saying 10th sept?

your poor sellers have been waiting 5 MONTHS for you!!! Seriously you should be apologising profusely and onto your solicitor DAILY to get them to complete! 5 months is taking the piss!!! They’ve been more than reasonable! They have probably had enough!

I'm with the seller - complete on 10th Sept if you want this house I think.

If that's the actual blocker and you want to move I'd consider offering to pay for their movers.

At this point it's a game of chicken. You don't want to lose your buyers, so keep going with that and complete on your sale. You can't complete by 10 sept. So you now need to find a rental and in parallel you have the chance to look at other properties and decide whether you want those more than the one you've currently offered on. You also have 3 months to decide whether it's still worth the agreed purchase price, now that you're chain free.

We had to move into a rental to save our sale. You might have to do this OP

Wow! They have been very patient, but they’re not the ones pushing us now, they’re happy to wait. It’s our sellers who are pushing!
Our buyers didn’t have to wait for us to find somewhere, they could have found another house. And from us offering on a property we’ve been 9 weeks so far!

This is good advice if you could move to a rental. I'd rather not lose a buyer in the current market and you might find something better in September.

Or if might encourage your seller to be a bit more flexible.

I would either pay sellers removal fees or rent in between moving out and completing on new property.

I don't think either party are being unreasonable here. Seller has been clear about his plans and dates. That doesn't suit your buyer - but that really isn't the seller's problem. I imagine in his view he's clearly communicated possible dates, based around his existing obligations.

Firstly, I do think you can complete in two weeks if everyone is on the same page.

Secondly, thousands of people buy and sell property overseas without being there in person. All you need is someone (e.g. a solicitor!) being prepared to advocate for you in your absence. I sold a share in three properties abroad without once setting foot there. You just need to assign a legal representative (usually done via a notary public). So the seller could do that.