Dilemma

Lathyrus3

Ok, practically. You want to exchange in July. Their tenancy is till October. That’s three months rent. £3000? Are you prepared to fund half of that to close the sale?
Exchange in the next four weeks a condition or it goes back in the market.Completion later.

Galling but pragmatic. Starting from scratch again could mean an even longer delay and no guarantees.

This is an excellent idea.

I do not think the seller would believe us if we threatened to withdraw. We have been the only people with an abiding interest in this property since it came on the market 18 months ago, and as a previous sale crumbled, as our house went under offer, we immediately got our offer in. The house is very much a one-off, and the owner knows that there is nothing else on the market comparable with this house.

However we can jump up and down waving our cricket bat and shouting and hope that we wake up the rather dozy woman who owns the house, so that she tells her sister to start packing and prepare to vacate the premises. I have no idea whether they are even on speaking terms.

When this happened to us , I phoned the buyers wife and said if they could not complete on the date we'd agreed, the deal was off. The property would go back on the market.

The following morning their lawyer called mine to say the buyers had " managed to resolve their problem" and were ready to go ahead as agreed.

We have had to read the riot act to our vendor today. They contacted us through their solicitor asking if they could have six weeks between exchange and completion, instead of a month

The reason is that the house is full of stuff. The family member living their rent free is a compulsive clothes shopper and you cannot move around for stacks of clothes, shoes, handbags, make up and jewellry. The house has been on the market for 18 months and in that time neither the resident nor vendor have done anything to begin to sort it out, so I see no reason why we should be expected to delay completion to accommodate them.

We had expected there might be problems and we had already stipulated that either we or or official representative should have access to the house the day before or morning of completion to check that the house had been fully emptied and that there were not heaps of black binbags left in the garden for us to dispose of and that completion would be delayed if we were not satisfied.

Now our solicitor has told the vendor throught their solicitor that a month it is and not a day more and at her recommendation, we have sent a polite but firm note to the estate agent, pointing out that exchange has not taken place because of their client's slowness in answering queries and is unlikely to happen for another week or ten days, so that if they start sorting things out, they will effectively have six weeks before completion.

We will see what the response is.

Tell your solicitor and agent that if you don’t exchange by a certain date , you’ll put the house back on the market . You’ve been nice so far but it’s not getting you very far .
We had a similar issue with our buyers for our rental house . We wanted to complete before the budget in October last year , due to a hike in CGT . There was only two couples in the chain and the people at the bottom were delaying things . So we issued an ultimatum and it worked . We completed two days before the budget .

Exactly RosieanndherMaw. Now is the tme to bring out the cricket bat.

With every day that passes the more likely it is that your buyers will drop out. So take the lead and put your house back on the market before they drop you in it. They can still negotiate with you while you are showing viewers round and the possibility of alternative buyers may buck them up a bit.

Put in writing via your solicitor that unless they come up with a contact and can exchange by eg.24 June, the house goes back on the market.
You might want to query why the estate agent did not “vet” them before putting their offer forward.
Maybe a different EA next time?

They are still being very evasive keep mentioning talking to landlord. Not responding to messages promptly after a couple of days if at all . I have spoken to my Solicitor. It’s so stressful x

Luckygirl3

The crux of the problem is that even if you agree to the October date (and can make this work with your purchase) you cannot be sure that come October you might not find them kicking the can down the road once more.

I can understand your concern that they have not responded to the agent. Could you ask the agent to contact them again and explain that if you do not get a clear reply there will be no choice but to put the house back on the market? Has your solicitor commented on all this?

Excellent advice, and what I would do.

We have sold numerous properties. We had a saying when the red flag goes up, take note and always be prepared to walk away

I don’t necessarily agree that “closing the deal” is the only criterion. There’s not getting ripped off, there’s honest dealing and there’s getting the reverse of value for money - money for value!
Unless a prompt sale is the over riding factor, I’d call their bluff and do exactly as M0nica suggests.
Gazundering has reared its ugly head in some places and I think your purchasers are trying it on.

Ask your solicitor to set a completion date.

Well I wasn’t suggesting that the OP actually hand over money. But the first rule of Sales is Close the Deal.

Against a reduction in price the OP has to weigh

The stagnant market with more buyers than sellers and whether they would have to drop the price to get another buyer

The costs of starting again with new buyers

How much they want to move

How much they want the house they have offered on.. it’s likely it too will be put back on the market.

What difference the loss of a couple of thousand will make in the long run.

All of this might be worth the cost of the rent to the OP to close the deal or it might not.

We all like to think we’ve done well in house sales and purchase but sometimes you have to focus on what it is you really want and roll with the punches.

Something like this should be dealt with by your solicitor. These people are messing you around and I suspect that they will keep kicking the can along the road, and then finallypull out.

Get your solicitor to put forward exchange and completion dates decided by you. If they do not reply or just avoid a straight answer, get your solicitor to ask them directly what the reason for their delay is. I suspect the problem is that they are having difficulty raising the mortgage, and that is why I think they may well drop out.

If they are still cagy issue an ultimatum, exchange contracts within 3 weeks or you will put the house back on the market - and if they don't, do so.

We too are on the move and our sale has gone well. It is our purchase that is being stalled and running slowly because the seller is 'ditzy' my polite description of her, and her solicitor is nearly as bad. We are just waiting for our sale to complete so that we are cash buyers in every sense of the word. So that we can start reading the riot act and threaten to withdraw from the purchase.

In house purchase, try to be nice to everyone, but always have a cricket bat behind your back and do not hesitate to use it in necessary

When my daughter and her partner sold his flat to first time buyers, it took 6 months to complete. They told the buyers that they intend to put the flat back on the market and the sale was completed not long afterwards.

When I sold our overseas apartment to first time buyers, it only took 3.5 months to complete. Their system is different As soon as the buyers make an offer, they must transfer a few thousand dollars into my bank account. If they change their mind, they would lose this deposit.

The October date suits your buyers but it doesn’t suit you, so a compromise is needed, and if they have no room for manoeuvre or are unwilling or unable to compromise, I would put the house back on the market. As others have said, even if you are willing to wait until October for completion, there is no guarantee your purchasers will stick with the agreed date, or indeed, find another property they decide to buy instead. If everything is more or less in place for completion it seems unreasonable to drag things out until October.

Lathyrus3

Ok, practically. You want to exchange in July. Their tenancy is till October. That’s three months rent. £3000? Are you prepared to fund half of that to close the sale?
Exchange in the next four weeks a condition or it goes back in the market.Completion later.

Galling but pragmatic. Starting from scratch again could mean an even longer delay and no guarantees.

Do NOT be tempted to part with money to close the sale. Better to walk away.
Another buyer will tun up.

Rainbow24

Do you think they are stringing us along?

I’m afraid I do.
They may not actually have their mortgage in place, or work/jobs may be uncertain. Or they may be taking advantage of lower prices now, expecting them to go up in the autumn.
Back on the market then, unless they are willing to exchange contracts NOW with a date in 4 months time for completion. If they default then they forfeit their deposit .
I had to harden my heart years ago in a similar situation and said the house would go to the first buyers who came up with a contract and were ready to exchange.
If they are genuine but dozy it will wake them up , if not you are no worse off.

I do hope some kind of solution can be found. The difficulty lies in the fact that we trust others to behave with the same degree of integrity as we would demonstrate only to be disappointed.

14 years ago, my first husband and I sold our family home to a local family, keen to live in the catchment area of the local primary school as their son was due to start school in the village in September. We succumbed to the pressure to move out ahead of a later date that would have suited us, only to learn subsequently from neighbours that they then spent four months ripping out the kitchen, Georgian windows and a bedroom wall before finally moving in the following January!

I'd be inclined to put your house back on the market until contracts are exchanged.

Rainbow24

Thanks for your responses.

Definitely stressful! We are concerned they do not seem to have the need to sort this out with compromise on both sides. We deliberately put the house on the market in April looking for July/August move, this was on advice from agents. The Solicitor said October is definitely not on. I believe if they pull out due to some questions and decisions having to be made then they are not fully invested. If they had reasons which are out of their control for not wanting to move until October then we would understand. The fact they don’t want to exchange a few weeks before is a concern as someone pointed out they called pull out at any time us having waited. Not responding to the agents is very 🤔. We have moved several times and we know how frustrating and stressful it can be. I want to make this less stressful for us and them. Ignoring my message when we were in a dialogue does not bode well. The agents are going to contact them again confirming our proposal.

The estate agents knew you would sell the house in 2/3 months?

Mmm... they seemed over optimistic didn't they?

If you put it back on the market I would go with a different agent...

Lathyrus
Exactly! We nearly lost a sale based on a misunderstanding of how old our property was. Our estate agent sorted it out with our buyers and were very professional.

When our daughter was buying her house it was already occupied by renters and she agreed to pay the balance of their rent owed if they moved out by a certain date, which they did.

Rainbow24

Do you think they are stringing us along?

Definitely……..and to be honest I would be concerned that they might pull out altogether at the last minute because I suspect they’re considering an alternative property.

Ok, practically. You want to exchange in July. Their tenancy is till October. That’s three months rent. £3000? Are you prepared to fund half of that to close the sale?
Exchange in the next four weeks a condition or it goes back in the market.Completion later.

Galling but pragmatic. Starting from scratch again could mean an even longer delay and no guarantees.

Get your solicitor to write to their solicitor with a deadline for the house to go back on the market. Also, text them yourself to say that's what you've done but you would welcome a conversation if they want to continue with the purchase.

You are right they are stuck with their tenancy until October so I have just been informed by the agent. I do feel for them but I don't think our purchase will wait. Rental properties are like gold dust in this area so hopefully their agent will give them some leeway.