House chains

Samtheman1k · 7 Mar 2007 at 15:54

I was hoping for a bit of advice on some conditions that we have received from an estate agent.

We are first time buyers and have just had an offer accepted for a house. The vendors are looking to upgrade their house, so the timescales are dependent on them finding a house and we can't obviously purchase until they find somewhere...i.e. a chain.

However, the estate agent has told us that we must get the survey done within 10 days; this is not normally a problem as we are looking for a quick purchase.

However, if the vendor has problems finding a house, or dithers for 6 months say, then we would probably pull out as we want somewhere within a reasonable time and have made this obvious to the estate agent.

Is the estate agent reasonable to put that condition on? I would be more happy with saying to the estate agent that we will get the survey done as soon as the vendor puts an offer in on a new place, assuming that they do actually find somewhere, thus reducing the chances of them dithering and reducing the risk of us loosing any money should they pull out.

Anyone else been in this situation? And what do you think is reasonable?

stoofa · 7 Mar 2007 at 17:07

The seller can really put whatever conditions they like on a house - it is up to you if you're willing to accept them.
Now personally if I found a house I wanted and I put in an offer and it was accepted I would then say right, no messing about lets get things moving.
If the sellers then said "Sorry, we're still looking" I'd give them a deadline.

You cannot be expected to put yourself in a situation where you've found a house you want, are now expected to pay for surveys etc and at any minute they seller could say "Sorry, you're going to have to wait 4 months while we find somewhere to move".

Make it quite clear that your offer is subject to them immediately taking the house off the market and in no way obstructing the "normal buying procedure".
Basically, as long as no problems are found during the survey's you really wouldn't expect the whole process (from your accepted offer to you moving in) to take more than 6-8 weeks.

If they can't accept this then you need to be prepared to walk away - it does hurt, we walked away from our very first house two and a half years ago (thankfully we then put an offer on the second one we saw and here we are after two and a half years living in it).

Abraham · 7 Mar 2007 at 17:09

nail on the head from stoofa
you can only respond with your own time restrictions on how quickly they'll progress with the deal

HEADRAT · 7 Mar 2007 at 17:13

This is why I always buy a "new" house, honestly look into it as it saves UBER amounts of hassle.

Samtheman1k · 7 Mar 2007 at 17:26

stoofa said:
The seller can really put whatever conditions they like on a house - it is up to you if you're willing to accept them.
Now personally if I found a house I wanted and I put in an offer and it was accepted I would then say right, no messing about lets get things moving.
If the sellers then said "Sorry, we're still looking" I'd give them a deadline.

You cannot be expected to put yourself in a situation where you've found a house you want, are now expected to pay for surveys etc and at any minute they seller could say "Sorry, you're going to have to wait 4 months while we find somewhere to move".

Make it quite clear that your offer is subject to them immediately taking the house off the market and in no way obstructing the "normal buying procedure".
Basically, as long as no problems are found during the survey's you really wouldn't expect the whole process (from your accepted offer to you moving in) to take more than 6-8 weeks.

Hmm, good advice there. But do you think that those timescales are realistic?

stoofa · 8 Mar 2007 at 13:01

I personally think 6-8 weeks is a good time scale to aim for with regards survey's, reports etc.
Anyone who has ever been involved with house buying knows it feels so slow at times and if everyone got their fingers out everything could be completed in a matter of weeks.

When we bought our first house we weren't in a chain.
We were renting and were on a month-to-month rent after our initial 12 month lease had finished.
The people we were buying from were moving into rented and already had that sorted.
So our move was as straight forward as you can get really (except if you're buying brand new) and I'm sure it took us around the 6 weeks to complete everything and then a week or so for us to decide when would be a good date to actually do the move.

Samtheman1k · 8 Mar 2007 at 14:24

We have spoken to our solicitor and got them to tell the agent/vendor that we will not get the survey done until they have put an offer in on a new house (or arranged alternative accommodation). I think that that is entirely fair and reasonable, let's hope that they do too!

peige · 8 Mar 2007 at 16:12

As a first time buyer your a valuable person, *you* can call the shots quite a lot more than you think, most sellers will be happy with you saying that you will make an offer based on them giving vacant possession by the end of.. say two months time.

I offered on three places on that basis, all three of them said they would move to rented to keep me as a purchaser, one even came back and offered to accept less from me.

Your king of the chain here, if you drop out the whole chain fails.

LOAM · 8 Mar 2007 at 16:19

Exactly, as a first time buyer you are gold. Don’t be pressured by the agents, remember they are acting for their vendor and will not want to loose you but will try to make you toe the line to make life easy for their client.

You’ve done the correct thing holding off for a survey until they get an offer accepted as the last thing you want to do is incur costs un-necessarily.

Wait till your ready to sell and buy and your no longer the start of the chain, then the fun really starts