After having typed in my blog yesterday, I received a phone call.
Now before I go on, I should point out that we only returned our documents to the solicitors about a fortnight ago, which meant that it should take a further four to six weeks before exchange and completion. Now you're up to speed, I can press on...
Yesterday's phone call was a bit of a revelation.
Our buyer's buyer (I know, the dreaded chain) was supposedly a cash purchaser, but it transpires that they too have a buyer and their buyer is waiting to move into their property. They need to do this by the end of this month or at the latest, the beginning of the next.
Our estate agent asked how long we needed to move and I said that we needed two weeks between exchange and completion.
"Ah..." he said.
Well, there then came a complete load of what to me sounded like gibberish, but I assured him that that's what we had stipulated in our contract and that's what we needed. Of course I had no idea at this time about the purchaser's purchaser.
A second phone call explained everything.
It could be as little as a week before we need to find somewhere else, but we can't just go get a rented property until we know for certain that the sale will go through. We won't know that until exchange.
The problem is, if our purchaser's solicitors don't get their shit together, our purchaser's purchaser may well have to pull out too because of time constraints with their purchaser.
Confused?
Try and see it from our perspective.
If all goes well - and we fervently hope it will, we will be on our way sooner rather than later, but it will only take a slight bit of pooh and we could be left high and dry...
Fingers grossed please.
NB
Comments
Okay, I'm clueless in these matters
But shouldn't it be most prudent to get through the chain of resellers and contact the final buyer directly? After all, it would mean a lot less paperwork.
Though if you put money in the equation, this is probably done so that the whole string of resellers could get a comissioner's fee.
Faraway
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Attempting to see if I have it right...
I don't think Nick is talking about just one house here. (I'm going to make up some fake names as we go along here.)
The "Smiths" are buying Nick's house. But for the Smiths to buy Nick's house, they have to sell their house to the "Joneses", who are in turn selling their house to the "Cunninghams".
Each contract of sale usually has a contingency clause specifying that the sale is contingent upon the other person selling their house, and has a time limit upon which the contract can be completed before it is void.
Right now, Nick is being pressured by the Smiths to finish the sale, as the Smiths are being pressured by the Joneses, who are in turn being pressured by the Cunninghams. If the Smith's real estate people don't finish their deal with the Joneses soon, all of the contracts will run out of time, and none of the deals can complete. Thus, this is why Nick may need to move into a rental for a short period of time, but he won't know until the Smiths are able to finalize selling their house; if he moves out and the deal falls through, Nick will still have his house.
(This is based on my understanding of what happens in America; it could be different in Britain, and I could very well be off in my facts anyway.)
Oh.
You meant it THAT way. Yeah, it kinda makes sense to me. And makes me wonder - don't they plan for such contingencies as time limits?
Faraway
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
You could rent the*Cunninghams* former place ...
thus completing this real estate daisy-chain.
Hum, put that way it sounds a little kinky.
Four Couples in Wild Swap Ring!
The tabloids would love this.
Good luck.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Um...
I'd rather not gross my fingers quite that way. ^^;
That said, best of luck. It sounds like you're trapped in the Real Estate Conga Line of Doom. >.< Wouldn't it be nice if professional contract-readers and -writers would do their jobs like they're supposed to do?
-Liz
-Liz
Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"
Having moved only about 15 times in my life
I know how frustrating the whole process can be, particularly in England, where the transaction is heavily weighted against the one with the most to lose.
The song "The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone; the thigh bone's connected...." springs immediately to mind, as does the song "Chain Gang".
All I can do is wish you 'Bon Chance' and 'Nihil Desperandum Illegitimae'.
I won't mention lawyers....
Susie
Ain't It Typlcal?
Put your house on the market; chew your nails in quiet desperation for a year, trying to keep your financial head above water while waiting for a genuine offer for your home, and then have a situation like this develop!
I know these things never have an easy solution because there are too many people involved and someone is possibly being unreasonable.
I don't know how far the daisy chain stretches, but the logical answer would seem to be for the buyer's buyer's buyer ( do I have enough buyers in there?) to be the one who has to arrange to rent a place for a couple of weeks, but logic seldom triumphs.
Poor Nick! I just hope it all gets resolved. Either that or plan to do a Basil Fawlty with a garden gnome on the villain in this scenario,
Joanne
Buying houses in England
Actually Jo, there are five properties involved here.
Bear with me because this gets complicated...
Two of us are only either selling or buying.
The person at the other end of the chain is only buying, whilst we are only selling and will be moving to rented property for a while.
Above the poor bloke at the bottom, there is one more above him and then our buyer's buyer's buyer.
Now our buyer's buyer's buyer is getting pissed off because our buyer's buyer was supposed to be doing what we're doing and moving to a rental, but they changed their minds and have decided to buy our buyer's house, which is holding up that end of the chain.
Meanwhile, as I have said, the people down the other end are expecting to be able to move by the end of the month or the beginning of next and since we want to have two weeks between exchange and completion, the exchange has to happen within the next ten days.
Doesn't affect us, but our buyer and his buyer may not be able to keep up, since there are sales and purchases associated with them.
I know that between agreeing to buy a house and actually exchanging, there are a lot of a lot of things that can and do go wrong. Sometimes, someone pulls out and that may happen here, which is precisely what we DON'T want to happen, but it might if the legal wheels of those beneath us in the chain can't keep up.
Like I said, fingers crossed please.
I don't just look it, I'm totally evil