My girlfriend and I have agreed a sale on a house after having both sold and moved out of our respective places. The vendor still hasn’t found anywhere that she likes so we’re in limbo at my girlfriend’s parents house at the minute. Now, the vendor has very specific search criteria in that she wants a bungalow in one of the surrounding villages and so far those that have come on the market have not come up to scratch. We’ve done a bit of cheeky looking on Rightmove and we have to admit, we agree with the vendor. She’s got a lovely place and you don’t get as much for your money with a bungy so we sympathise with her. HOWEVER, we are also a bit worried that she may just lose heart, think “stuff this” and pull the house from the market. My girlfriend and I want to be able to start our future together and get into our own place and we don’t want to be in this situation in say, another six months (we first viewed the property in July and had offer accepted in Sept). I’m currently commuting 120 miles a day, we have stuff filling up various garages and spare rooms and also we simply don’t have our own space anymore (nor do my girlfriend’s parents). The vendor initially said she could move in with family but it appears this is no longer an option.

Has anybody on here found themselves in a similar situation (of being kept hanging by a vendor) and if so what did you do? Is there anything WE can do bar just sitting and waiting (we are still keeping an eye on the market but this is the house we want and nothing’s come up to scratch before or since, which is why we get the vendor’s position)? Three hours travelling to do long, awkward shifts is battering me and we’re both going a bit stir crazy and whilst we can keep it up for a bit, what we can’t do is keep it up indefinitely. And end date would help no end but we wouldn’t want to lose the place at the end of it. Also we don’t want to start pressuring the vendor so she decides to pull the rug but is there anything we can do? As far as I see it there is nothing, the vendor holds all the aces and can take as long as she damn well pleases but any advice would be very much appreciated (sorry for droning on).

It’s just how it is. We’re now holding ours up as our buyer pulled out on us late on. So we are now the problem, but there’s not a lot we can do.

We had a constructive viewing yesterday and with the increase in prices I am sure we’ll sell soon, but I hate holding it all up.

Start looking for somewhere else, let the vendor know it’s because it’s taking too long. That will either get her to pull her socks up or finish the deal off. It’s a bit brutal but house buying sometimes is.

Sitting in limbo is not good.

I’ve been there. Over 25 years ago.

Only difference was that the vendor was buying a new bungalow.

I should’ve bought a different house…

It took a year, although the good things were that I saved 12 months mortgage (lived with future in-laws) and the house would’ve gone up £10k due to the ‘boom’ (mid 1990’s, and the house ‘only’ cost £40k).

Exactly what I was expecting to hear to be honest 🙂
The in-laws are fab, we’re saving money and we’re gonna keep on looking. Hopefully I’ll be having a room at a mate’s pop up in the next month or two to ease the pressure on the travelling. I guess it wouldn’t be quite so bad if it was not the depths of winter and I didn’t have a dodgy foot meaning I can’t get out and let off some steam on the bike 😐

I’m a bit out of touch with buying and selling I the uk, so would be checking with my solicitor as to what is possible. But I would be looking at saying if we are not moved in by March or something the deal is off and you will look for somewhere else to buy. Otherwise you could be stuck as you are for ages, or she could decide to stay where she is.

I disagree with you and think you have all the aces, presumably you have a bit of cash in the bank, and mortgage agreed and no chain, you are anyone’s dream buyer. On the other hand a seller who has let a sale fall through because she is looking for the moon on a stick before she moves out sounds like a nightmare and I would be looking elsewhere.

Ask your solicitor about exchanging contracts early, don’t need to swap money. Not going to speed up the process, but gives you both piece of mind that it’s a done deal.

Oldschool, I’ll look into that, cheers! 🙂
Ishouldbeworking, I get you, but by god do we love that place! And therin lies the problem…

You only have a lose plan to buy . There is nothing you can do guaranteed to force the sale on . The vendor is not even bound to the agreed price . I would carry on looking if only to keep my options open . If this is genuinely the house for you offer a shed load extra for immediate completion on the basis your vendor can move out and rent etc.

I’ve had a vendor change their mind after survey. The little old lady that was buying my house decided to sell hers out of chain and she’s ended up without a house in the end as we couldn’t find a suitable alternative.

Good luck – be patient but keep your options open. Down here in the SE it’s raging again – there’s some ridiculous pricing going on by some of the agents.

I would start (discretely) looking at other options (you as I understand it are in a good position to go so may be able to get a deal). IME if you want to be mucked about and lied to then buying/selling houses is a great place to start. Until you exchange you are trousers down/bum out the window with no financial etc comeback.

I’d also think about something along the lines of getting vendor to exchange now with a 3 (or x month) future completion date, or possibly turning into a rental agreement (with a fixed time/penalty clause to encourage vendor to move) – to protect you against rises/changes of mind etc

On a practical front check out cheapo hotels etc (Travelodge etc) private Mon-Fri/rentaroom as that might help with commute/personal space if you stayed there a few nights a week.

+1 Captain Slow on SE pricing. Our next door nieghbours bungy went for what can only be described as “telephone numbers” about a week after it was put on the market.

Good advice above of course but it boils down to.

If you REALLY want this house, wait however long it takes.

If it is just a house , pull out ASAP and look for another one.

EDIT : SCOTROUTES version ( below) is better.

Almost same thing happened on our first house. We planned to move around when our lease ran out. Vendor still hadnt found somewhere so we moved in with inlaws and tripled our commute. Another 4 months passed and they pulled out due to it all being too stressful we lost money we had spent on the survey. It was another 6 months till we managed to complete on a second property which actually is much nicer. In that time prices had gone up and it cost us another 10k. If you are concerned start looking asap for someone who is serious about selling. That or give timescales to the vendor, if they are serious they can move into short term rented. It is very stressful hanging on and having no control dont go down that path if you can avoid it.

Hey Johnny,

Your OP kind of shows that you fully understand the position your in, so I guess there’s not a lot you can do to push things through. My brother was recently in a similar situation – sale agreed, he sold his house and moved in with parents. Then the fun started – land searches revealed problems with boundaries etc. His solicitor asked him very early on if he wanted to carry on as it would be a complete can of worms – but he and his wife loved the place so much and agreed to continue. After 12 months of broken deadlines and broken promises – they had little choice but to look elsewhere. They ended up moving into a much nicer house and are now very happy. The point is, don’t let the vendor string you along. Home buying (not house) is an emotion driven experience and often heart rules head…but you have to try and apply ‘your business’ head be logical about it. I would resign myself to the fact the deal was off and start to look again. No need to tell the vendor. If you can deal with the emotional side of buying a home, and the ups and downs that go with it you put yourself in a much stronger position.

If the vendor finally gets her arse in gear then all the better, but she may be one of those people that put their house on the market to see what kind of position she’s in, without any real intention to sell – you can’t put your life and future on hold on the whim of someone who owns something you want, who ultimately may never sell it to you.

Great advice throughout and it’s been good to read as in many cases echoing what both myself and my girlfriend have been thinking/doing/bracing ourselves for. Some interesting bits of advice which we’ll look further into as well so thanks everyone for your input. I’ll let yous know either way how it goes if anyone’s interested but either way, thanks for the advice. 🙂