offer down,survey paid, vendor now entered a chain!

[janerne]

Hi, could do with some advice..we have put in an offer on a house,paid for and completed survey and now the vendor who had previously stated she wasn't in a chain and could proceed without delay has put in an offer on another house and says she wants to complete on that before exchanging with us.My partner has now given notice on his rented property and has to be out by Jan 1st (i do still own a property but we wanted to complete on this new house before selling this one, so we won't be homeless)we had made it clear that we needed to move quickly on this from the start and she said there was no problem as she was moving in with her parents until she found something.Now we face the additional costs of storage for his furniture etc..do we have any legal/moral standing to re-negotiate on our offer? Just a bit annoyed and dissapointed right now! thanks for any help x

[Dan S]

Hi Janerne

That's a very frustrating position you've been put in there. I'm afraid you have no legal recourse, and of course moral recourse won't really change anything. It all comes down to which party is more over a barell, and I'm afraid that's you unfortunately. Finding the house you want to buy is in a way more tricky than finding a buyer for your current property (given the emotions involved), and as such they're just as desperate to buy the property theve just found as you are to buy theirs.

Unfortunately, if they don't need your sale to buy their new home, then you have no choice but to put all your things in storage. You could play hardball but the real question is how much you want to risk buying this property. Is it 'the one' (without sounding too corny!)?

All the best,

First Time Buyer Guru

[Richard Webster]

We keep having to tell people not to make assumptions and never to give notice on rented until contracts have been exchanged.

Ultimately it will depend on the negotiating strengths of the parties. If the seller is frightened he might not get another buyer then he might move out when you want regardless of his onward purchase - but don't bank on it. See also Conveyancing FAQs - Seller Moving Out? where I explain that sometimes the sellers never actually agreed to move out but the estate agent told you they would....

I'm not saying it happened like that in your case, you may have had it from the seller direct, but it is regrettably a frequent occurrence.