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Buying a new build in Scotland when you have a house to sell

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KG
KG Posts: 333 Forumite
in House buying, renting & selling
If you are selling a property and buying a new build (in Scotland) are you able to include a clause in the new build contract stating that the contract is based on you selling your house? In the same way you can insert a clause in your offer when buying an existing house?

Just wondering since the contract when buying a house is legally binding once you sign the missives up here, rather than it being on the actual day of exchange down south. And if there is, say, a 7 month wait until the potential entry day on a new build, you might be confident enough about selling, but not want to put it on the market for a month or so.

Thanks

KG

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  • davidmcn
    davidmcn Posts: 23,596 Forumite
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    KG wrote: »
    the contract when buying a house is legally binding once you sign the missives up here, rather than it being on the actual day of exchange down south
    No, it's binding when you conclude missives - it's the same principle as down south, the main difference is that it (usually) happens at an earlier stage in the process.

    As for whether you can make your offer conditional on your house being sold - that would probably attract the same response as from any other seller i.e. they'll tell you they'll only conclude missives with that condition deleted. So they'll prefer a buyer who is more proceedable, rather than wasting their time with one who might walk away months later because they haven't sold their own house.

    In short it depends how much competition there is - if you don't want to sell immediately they might tell you to come back in a few months to find out whether they have any left.
  • paddycharlie
    paddycharlie Posts: 87 Forumite
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    You usually can't even reserve a new build until you have a buyer for your existing property.


    Some house builders will hold onto a certain plot for a fixed amount of time while you find a buyer
  • pinklady21
    pinklady21 Posts: 870 Forumite
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    Some builders offer part exchange where they buy your house as part of the deal. Is that an option for you?
  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
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    What did your solicitor say when you asked them?
  • googler
    googler Posts: 16,103 Forumite
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    agrinnall wrote: »
    What did your solicitor say when you asked them?

    This.

    This is what you're paying your solicitor for.
  • KG
    KG Posts: 333 Forumite
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    No solicitor involved yet as I am just doing some general research at this stage into whether looking at new builds is worth it before a sale is agreed on your own property.

    Trying to get the order to do things straight in my head.

    From the helpful responses it looks like you really need to have the sale agreed on your own house first, which is what I was half expecting. Though I did wonder as I know that for some developments it will be 6+ months before the properties are ready and I figure it's kinda unusual for your buyer to agree to wait that long before completing, meaning you would need to plan for somewhere temporary to live between the two.
  • davidmcn
    davidmcn Posts: 23,596 Forumite
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    edited 14 December 2017 at 4:10PM
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    KG wrote: »
    I know that for some developments it will be 6+ months before the properties are ready and I figure it's kinda unusual for your buyer to agree to wait that long before completing, meaning you would need to plan for somewhere temporary to live between the two.
    Yep. The main difficulty with buying newbuild is that, other than a vague non-binding estimate by the builders, you don't know when your date of entry will be - so unless you have a very accommodating buyer (unlikely, other than part-exchange schemes offered by builders), you can only do it if you are prepared to own either zero or two houses for a period.
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