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! 😬

The seller doesn't want to do the moving day alone. I think this is reasonable actually. I don't think it's reasonable of you to insist that one person of a couple should handle the leaving of the home on their own, they don't want to and that's up to them.

Confirm with your solictor in writing that they can close by 10 September and have them confirm in writing with sellers solicitor that they can too. Then accept 10 September and buckle up for the next two weeks.

It's not just the moving, it maybe he's needed to be in the country for the sale to complete - there are legal ways around this but they can be difficult or costly and generally not recommended.

Wait it out.

You are not going to find a new property and complete much sooner than December now anyway and you may very well complete by the 10th or the seller will delay their trip a bit.

You may well lose your buyer though if you don't complete. On which case, the seller will have to wait for you to find a new one.

I would complete sale and move into temporary accommodation if you can’t complete on 10th September, however if you can exchange do so, then complete December.

Your sellers are very good to have waited this long. If it were me I would sell regardless, and annoying as it may be find storage and somewhere temporarily. As the market it up and down at the moment and if a sale has already fallen through you might not get such a good offer again. Not worth the risk.

As for buying, they are being U. But see what happens. They might do a U-turn. Or you might decide to look elsewhere.

When you speak to your solicitor tell them you need to move by 10th Sep. If they waffle on about having no control of searches (it is usually the local council searches) ask them If the local council is heavily delayed - if a personal/private search is a faster option is that your mortgage lender will accept. If not ask to expedite searches due to high chance of chain collapsing.

Get your solicitor to “touch” your paperwork twice a day and to let you know if the seller’s solicitor is not returning things quickly enough. Use your estate agent to speak to everyone - they are the only people who talk to all of the chain. You pay them a lot - in these circumstances they need to earn it.

what it boils down to is your solicitor delayed money laundering and searches, when they could have started them, to save under a thousand. Your mortgage company asked for extra checks.

I suspect you have used up all your goodwill with the seller.

they wont pay for professional movers in to help her to move whilst he is away

Can you offer to pay for this to get everything moving? You'll end up losing more in the long run.

What goodwill of the seller? It's @Chickenandegg8's buyer who has been extremely patient. They only made the offer on the seller's property 2 months ago. After that, the seller suddenly changed the goalposts. The seller is guilty of poor communication/changing of plans without an urgent reason and are being very inflexible after doing this.
From @Chickenandegg8 position, I would speak to my solicitor and see what they think the chance of completion by 10th September are. It should be possible in theory. If they say no chance, you then either sell, find a short term rental (if possible) and reconsider the housing market in general and decide if you want to proceed with your purchase or not or you pull out altogether, collapse the whole chain and then reconsider your local market.

We had similar recently but it was my sellers and we were a chain of 7. They gave us two days in which they were willing to move if this could not be achieved it would be two months as they were off in their holiday. This has not been mentioned until we were all ready to go. Of course in such a long chain and it being July other people were away so I told them I was pulling out of they couldn’t bend a bit, guess what? They soon changed their tune and moved on a different date.

Good for you. @Chickenandegg8 could definitely try this and they may suddenly become more flexible but you would also need to be prepared for them to pull out altogether. It may be a risk worth taking though as your buyers may well pull out (who could blame them?) if you can't complete in the next few days in any case. I would be very tempted to do this as the sellers are being very difficult and inflexible here.

Please do not contact your solicitor daily or several times a day it will not speed anything up. Solicitors also have more than your single file to deal with. It is unreasonable to expect a daily update. However make it clear that you must complete on 10th September. Your coal search has been returned so if they had to send it to the lender it should have been done and then they need to call to ensure it’s been checked and your lender is happy to proceed. Your mortgage offer being delayed is not here or there - lenders can reissue within 48 hours. Ensure you have returned your signed documents and there is nothing you haven’t returned that could cause a delay. Ask them to submit your COT and say worse case scenario you require a SIM on 10th September. There is no reason from what you’ve written why it can’t be achieved.

I think you’re getting short shaft here, the sellers are being dicks.

they booked this after your offer was accepted before a completion date was agreed, with no thought to you and the chain. And, the fact that they plan to move without professional movers is a red flag to me - bet they are the type who are still in the house after completion because they’ve not finished yet.

Thanks all for your replies!
The people who are buying our house have been very patient! Which is why it’s really not acceptable to wait another 3 months.

Just to clarify, the mortgage offer was delayed 8 working days. Once the coal mining report was received it had to go to the surveyor who had to review it, then back to the bank who had to review it and then issue the mortgage offer. This took 8 working days unfortunately which is the main reason for the delay, especially as the solicitor wouldn’t order searches until the mortgage offer was in. But this was something beyond our control.

The seller came back late yesterday afternoon to say if we can’t complete on the 10th they may be able to complete 2 weeks later instead….. Will wait and see what next week brings!

Agree that the sellers are being dicks here - what’s so hard about moving on your own?

Sister waited 9 months to move as seller at top of chain was deliberately delaying things for various reasons. Someone lower down gave ultimatum, suddenly all exchanged and moved within three days. England has a ridiculous system.

It seems bizarre that your solicitor wouldn’t order the searches until you had received the mortgage offer - surely you’re the one who instructs your solicitor, not the other way round! We’ve just moved and made offers on three houses over the last nine months, two of which fell through, but in each case we discussed the searches with the solicitor and told him when we wanted him to apply.

This!

They won’t pay for movers? They sound crazy booking a three month trip but then you said the wife isn’t even going! She can surely handle it? We’ve been signing all of our docs online except the mortgage deed and land registry (which was then scanned in) so he could do that abroad.

Exactly all you do is get out of the way of the movers! Clean the rooms and then hang about waiting for keys.

If they are anything like my sellers they think there is only them who exists in the world, entitled is an understatement! The house was absolutely filthy the day we got the keys, skids down the loo, kitchen bins not emptied and full to the brim of shitty nappies!! So glad we got there in the end the house is lovely but it’ll take me years to get over the stress 😭

Definitely being dicks. I did our last move alone as I wasn't working and DH was really busy with his year end at work. MIL took our toddler for the day.

I would be on the phone constantly nagging my solicitors to get it done. Yes, the sellers are unreasonable but if you don't the whole thing could fall apart. They can get it over the line if they really want to.