what do we do? sellers just delayed our entry date and buyers refuse to budge theirs

[ziptoes]

We were due to move in 10 days, but last thursday the folk we're buying from decided that they wanted to change the entry date to two weeks later than the date our buyers move in. Our solicitor said he'd sort it out but he's not been in touch since and never returns our calls. I spoke to his assistant today (not v reliable) who said our buyers are refusing to budge and want to move in to the flat in ten days.

We have a 1 year old DS and a flat full of furniture. Are we going to have to pay to move twice, store all our stuff and find a rental for 2 weeks (holiday cottage?), or should we call the whole thing off and go back to square 1?

DH is livid and thinks we should call it all off. I am sick of having people poking round our flat and desperate to move to a house with more space and a garden.

What can we do?

(btw, we're in Scotland and missives have not yet been concluded on either property)

Seems to me it's unlikely your buyers are going to find another house they can buy and move into within 3.5 weeks, so I'd probably call their bluff tbh.

How exactly do we do that? Do we just pretend to say, it's next Friday or the sale is off? But then if they call our bluff in return we loose the house we're trying to buy.

zip, I am also in Scotland and being messed abou tby the owners we are trying to buy from.

However, our buyers have concluded and have been great so we have absolutely no intention of moving our date. If necessary we will put our stuff in storage and bunk up somewhere - a terrible pita, but as I say, you have to keep the buyers happy in this market.

We are about to tell the owners of our 'new' house to bugger off as there are plenty other houses available.

It is a buyers market so I would do what the buyers want tbh or risk being back to square one. I'd also consider a different solicitor!

Sympathies - it is a trying time.

Exchange contracts or conclude missives or whatever it is people do in Scotland with the two different dates and go on holiday for two weeks. What could be nicer? Try not to stress, selling your house is the important thing.

Wise words, that's my feeling too. Buyer's market, short term pita, but long term a nice house with a garden.

At what point can we ditch our solicitor without having to pay him? He's been rubbish.

Not sure where you stand with the solicitor.
Have you signed his contract for buying/selling yet? It might have more details. Or give the Law Society a call tomorrow.
We are very lucky to have a fab solicitor. Makes life easier and worth shelling out a little extra for a good one, not that money is always a guarantee of that of course!

Such a carry on, isn't it? Just get your missives concluded for sellign then for buying and then relax!

Oh, or contact the partner at the solicitor's firm if that is relevant.

You have no contract ('missive') hence you have no legal right to force them to move. Your only leverage is by threatening to walk away.

NickyTT - any idea how you'll be finding somewhere to bunk up short term? Our families are both a long way away. I guess we go with LaLa and go on holiday. If I can persuade DH to do it. He's reluctant.
ABetaDad - that's what I thought. I'm not in love with the house, but it's got a great garden and is in a great area, so I'm reluctant to walk away. Maybe a holiday would be better.

This happened to me last time I moved - we ended up paying the removal firm to pack our stuff and then store it for 2 weeks (only cost about £100 a week for storage, and we had a 3 removal vans' worth of stuff). We then stayed at my dad's house 250 miles away with our 2 dogs and 18 month old DD for 10 days....whilst in no way ideal, it wasn't actually that bad.

What I'm trying to say is that there will be a way around this if the worst comes to the worst. Can your sellers pay for storage and/or hotel costs maybe? Try to look at the big picture in this case - short term issue but you end up with a sale on your property and the house you want too

Zip, I went off last night so apologies for not replying.
We are planning on bunking up with the in laws , but you could try the local tourist info brochure for a short let. It might be pricey though.
When I was a kid we moved in with my parents' friends for a fortnight and apparently it was a riot, so not at all bad.
Hope you get things sorted soon. Very unsettling.

Where are you in Scotland? We are in Edinburgh and have used RSS twice now for storage and three times for house moves and they've been fantastic. I'd get them or another personally recommended removals and storage company to pack you up, store your stuff and then move you in.

We are currently trying to move and my gut feeling is things are slowing down again so personally I wouldn't walk away from an arranged sale and purchase.

Good luck with it.

We had exactly this situation - a 2 week gap with nowhere to live. As Only said removal firms will store your stuff for not much money. We went on hols for a week and then me and dcs stayed with my mum and dh bunked up with a mate.

It was fine, going on holiday was absolutely the best thing to do as it was a lovely week and we could forget that we had nowhere else to go!

We were too scared to call our buyers bluff and at the time I was furious. In retrospect though it was fine and so worth it to get into our lovely new house!

Good advice from curly - get a personal recommendation, we went with the cheaper removal firm and they were utter rubbish.

Good luck!

Thanks all for the good advice and good luck wishes. It's reassuring that this has happened to other people and that it's not just our ineptness.

I have looked into holiday cottages, have got lots of spare bed offers from colleagues and even a one week house sit offer from a colleague I hardly know (she hasn't got kids - does she know what she's letting herself in for?). The only thing now is to persuade DH!

You could ask for the people wanting to delay to pay the costs so you just have to bear the inconvenience?