Can vendor pull out after signing?

purplegirl_4

We are in the process of buying a house with no chain, everything is going smoothly so far; we have had our mortgage offer but one of the searches has not come back yet so we haven't been able to exchange this week as planned.

The thing which is keeping me awake at night just now is that we have to give our landlord one calendar month's notice (on the 27th of any month), so the plan had been to do this on Monday. I don't really want to wait until after we've exchanged as we will be paying rent and mortgage together unnecessarily for an extra month.

The vendor has signed his contract and handed it to my solicitor. Does this mean he can't pull out of the sale or is there no guarantee until contracts have been exchanged? What I'm trying to say is: if we hand in the notice on Monday are we risking it??

Sorry if this sounds garbled! (lack of sleep!)

NAR

Contracts are binding only when both parties have signed. Which when you think about it is only fair.
So therefore it is your risk if you give your landlord notice on Monday.
Has the search being going on long? Has your solicitor any idea what is causing the delay?

Slider

Depending on which search, I think your solicitor can take out an indemnity insurance which allows you to exchange, but also covers you in case of problems. On my current house one of the local searches was not back, but we still carried on. It was a new build estate and our solicitor basically said that it won't contain any surprises.

Regarding the backing out, you can both have signed the contracts, but until they are exchanged, you have no surity that it will go through.

purplegirl_4

Thanks, I know it's a risk to give in the notice but ... oh it can be so stressful all this house buying and this is an easy transaction compared to some peoples nightmare stories!

Can't get hold of the solicitor today - day off so can't find out what the hold up is.

We are seeing the vendor this weekend to discuss completion dates etc

frugglewump

purplegirl wrote:

The thing which is keeping me awake at night just now is that we have to give our landlord one calendar month's notice (on the 27th of any month), so the plan had been to do this on Monday. I don't really want to wait until after we've exchanged as we will be paying rent and mortgage together unnecessarily for an extra month.

I know exactly that worry. In the end I called the bank because I had to give notice the next day and still had no completion date. They said not to worry because they are required to wait 28 days from completion before they can start taking mortgage payments and if you have specified a day (e.g. 5th or month) the payment would not go out until then.

So I completed this weds (22nd), will be giving notice on the 1st march and no mortgage payments until april.

Now I know that my experience is only useful if you are with my bank (HSBC), but give your lender a call and explain your worries.

Jorgan_2

Either party can pull out upto the point of exchanging contracts. Is it possible to speak to your landlord, explaining that you wish to give notice on the 27th but see if there is an option to stay there on a month by month basis incase the worse happens?

purplegirl_4

We are already renting on a month by month basis after our AST expired a few months ago.

I am 99% certain that we will be in our new home this time next month and we've decided to bite the bullet and give notice on Monday. If it all falls through we will just rent somewhere else.

claz

we also were in the same situation but our landlord was very understanding

at the end of the day if your landlord doesn't hvae anyone lined up to move in at the end of the month then you can always ask to extend it for another month he won't be complaining about another months rent

Omertron

One thing that may be worth doing is to take out indemnity insurance against the search returning something bad. This may cost you, in our case it was £60 for insurance against a loft conversion with no planning permission (in the end it wasn't needed, but it was worth it for the peace of mind). Ask your solicitor as they should be able to arrange it all.