Home survey

How likely are you to find a new buyer quickly?

If you are confident that it wouldn't take three months, I might be inclined to tell your buyers to take a running jump.

And then they will find a better deal, and then another.

Bank of England:

Why are interest rates high and how quickly might they fall?

We began raising interest rates at the end of 2021 to help reduce inflation.

It is working. Inflation has fallen a lot and inflationary pressures have eased enough that:

• in August 2024, we cut the interest rate from 5.25% to 5%
• in November, we cut it from 5% to 4.75%
• in February 2025, we cut it to 4.5%
• and, in May, we cut it to 4.25%

If they want your house, you call the shots. I’d ditch them and start again.

Give them a fortnight to exchange and if they do not put it back on the market.

You need to be talking to your solicitor.

It’s unlikely the bank will insist on a full survey, it will be a house buyers report.

If you ditch these buyers and re advertise you could be at least another 3 months.

Well you can’t blame them for wanting the best mortgage deal they can find. It could easily mean the difference of several hundred pounds a month to them.

They are paying for the survey so it’s no loss to you if it goes ahead.

The important thing to find out is why they want to delay. Then you can negotiate around that.

Houses are not selling well at the moment so I would think very carefully before responding curtly. There may not be another buyer out there for months or indeed, at all, at your current offer. A falling market means sellers that need to move are accepting deals and you will be competing with them.

Only you know if your house has that something extra that will make it easier to sell.

I doubt a new buyer would complete in three months but put it back on the market anyway, whoever completes first gets it.

It is a buyers market at the moment.

OP, I read your earlier post regarding your house-sale. It sounds as though you’ve stuck with the buyers who wanted to delay completion until October - now they’ve introduced a further complication. You’ve been very patient, but as this latest ploy will likely entail another survey, I’d seriously consider (again) putting your house back on the market.

Oh didn’t realise this was the same person. They wanted to delay because that as when the lease on their flat ran out.

Well, if you haven’t managed to sort something with them yet, yes I’d probably go back on the market. They made an offer before they were really ready.

Are you getting any pressure from the people selling to you, presuming you have found a property you intend to purchase?

I tend to agree with Elowen33. Having gone through the selling process a couple of years ago with unreasonable buyers who demanded xyz then backed out and then the next buyers were making the process so stressful with various demands that I gave them a deadline to complete or else the house was going back on the market. I'd discussed this with my estate agent who agreed it was worth risking calling their bluff. It was amazing what that threat did as it got them focused on the fact that they could lose the house they had set their heart on. Only you know what the market is like in your area and what feels right for you but I'd be concerned that should another survey be required which threw up something this time which could sway your buyers to walk away and then your back at square one. I really wish you luck and hope it works out right for you.

Thank you everybody for your thoughts. My estate agent is useless and thinks we should just go along with the buyers wishes. I am concerned this survey may flag something. The first survey was a level 2 and this one will be a level 1. I have told the agent if we don’t exchange in the next couple of weeks there needs to be a discussion. The housing market is slow here. The stress is getting me down to be honest. Im

Are your buyers FTB?

My daughter is house hunting just now (as a FTB) and has no idea about a lot of things. I say this with all due respect, as it is her first time, and how could she know with no experience, but unless/until she asks us for an opinion she can be very easily put off by things that wouldn't make me bat an eyelid, and doesn't notice what to me would be red flags.

This will be controversial advice, but can you speak to them without the professionals? The last time we bought and sold we were being fed lines from both solicitors and EEs who had a vested interest in respectively holding up and pushing forward the sale, and it was only a conversation between us and the buyers that meant it went ahead in the end.

This provides some further background:

www.gransnet.com/forums/house_and_home/1348750-Dilemma

OP wrote on 7 June … [the buyers] 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.

also I believe they need to give two months notice

Tell the potential buyers to find another property.

I doubt you'll find another buyer and be able to exchange within a 3 mth deadline.
Are you sure that they are only doing this because they are waiting for a fall in interest rates? Maybe they are looking elsewhere or are having other problems.
What you do depends on how much you want/need to sell asap, only you know that. I would give them a timescale to complete and let them know that in the meantime you're putting the house back on the market.

We are having the opposite problem. We have a vendor who is delaying exchange and completion. Mainly completion.

They asked about 3 weeks ago if they could have six weeks between exchange and completion, we said 'no'. Four weeks was standard and we wanted to stick to that. We pointed out, that as we had yet to exchange, if they started packing then, that would give them six weeks to pack.

We still haven't exchanged and they have come back with a suggested completion date of 12 August. We have said no, as we are on holiday then and suggested the 1 August. I think they will come back suggesting a date later in August and still stalling exchange until that date is a four weeks from exchange.

I know the family have lived in the house since 1968, so selling it must be a wrench, but seeing the state the house was in when we viewed it, I suspect that the real reason is that the vendor and her sister are just so disorganised that they are having difficulty getting organised.

We have already said that we want the estate agent to visit the proeprty the day before completion to check that it has been fully cleared and the garden is not full of black bags. If it is a mess, completion will be delayed and we will want compensation.

M0nica

Give them a fortnight to exchange and if they do not put it back on the market.

I agree, they can exchange with three months to the completion date.

I would be inclined to put the house back on the market on the proviso that they have first refusal if they are ready to exchange contracts if someone else makes an offer. Don't risk losing your future purchase by delaying. Our last two moves were complicated nvolving moving out and putting everything in storage. The first time it was only for 2 weeks and we went on holiday, but the next time we had to rent for about 3 months, but we had cash buyers we didn't want to lose. We were lucky that we didn't have to take a long rental contract as we had friends leaving their house on the market but emigrating to Australia! While we were in their home we helped sell it. In the end they returned to the UK as things didn't work out, but they left us there and moved in with their parents temporarily. The worst thing was we had a very long commuute for my husband and children to work and school and I had that commute to pick the children up! Getting the timing of a move right is never easy, but compromises have to be made soometimes.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.