Delay exchanging contracts

ropybloke

Hi everyone. I'm hoping you can give me some advice on what to do as I am at my Wits end.

My wife and I lived in the South West and decided to relocate last year. I moved to the North East last January and she is due to move in July - the difference in time being because she wasn't able to find work until July.

Our house has been on the market since February and we managed to get a buyer within a couple of months. We were planning to exchange mid June and complete the end of June. Our buyer then turned round and said that we had to complete early June or the deal was off. My wife moved in with a friend and we made arrangements with our sellers to complete. The date for exchange came and passed and nothing happened. We ended up having to store our furniture.

Our solicitor discovered that there was a problem at the base of the chain and we were in a long chain. Several proposed dates for exchange have been and gone and nothing has happened.

It is now a month since we should have completed and our solicitor is suggesting that we should stop waiting and put the house back on the market. He has gone down the chain several times and the problem (relating to a death certificate or something) does not appear insurmountable.

I wondered if anyone else has experienced a delay in echanging contracts in excess of one month? Our buyer does not want to pull out and we don't want to lose the house we are buying. Should we continue to wait, or do you think we're flogging a dead horse?

Cheers

Ropy

zzzLazyDaisy

ropybloke wrote: »

Hi everyone. I'm hoping you can give me some advice on what to do as I am at my Wits end.

My wife and I lived in the South West and decided to relocate last year. I moved to the North East last January and she is due to move in July - the difference in time being because she wasn't able to find work until July.

Our house has been on the market since February and we managed to get a buyer within a couple of months. We were planning to exchange mid June and complete the end of June. Our buyer then turned round and said that we had to complete early June or the deal was off. My wife moved in with a friend and we made arrangements with our sellers to complete. The date for exchange came and passed and nothing happened. We ended up having to store our furniture.

Our solicitor discovered that there was a problem at the base of the chain and we were in a long chain. Several proposed dates for exchange have been and gone and nothing has happened.

It is now a month since we should have completed and our solicitor is suggesting that we should stop waiting and put the house back on the market. He has gone down the chain several times and the problem (relating to a death certificate or something) does not appear insurmountable.

I wondered if anyone else has experienced a delay in echanging contracts in excess of one month? Our buyer does not want to pull out and we don't want to lose the house we are buying. Should we continue to wait, or do you think we're flogging a dead horse?

Cheers

Ropy

I don't understand this....

Why has your wife already moved in with friends and put your furniture into storage when you still own the house and you haven't even exchanged yet? It seems very premature. Chains can stall or even break down completely (eg if someone loses their buyer/gets made redundant/etc). If you remarket the house you could be months before you find another buyer, in the meantime you have an empty house, and are paying storage fees.

No-one on here can tell you how long it will take to resolve the problem, only your solicitor can advise you on that, since s/he knows what the problem is.

ropybloke

We were under the impression that we would exchange and complete the same day but it didn't happen. We had to move the stuff out as we are moving 400 miles away and the van was booked. We're not paying for the storage.

I don't expect anyone to tell me how long it will take. I just want to know if it is usual for exchange dates to be continually put back - and for it to go back beyond a month. Personally, I think it will still happen as it would have collapsed by now if it was going to.

crusty_toenail

just hang in there

martindow

This is the hazard of exchanging and completing on the same day. Nothing is certain until exchange unfortunately.

G_M

ONE reason for the gap between Exchange and Completion is so everyone can plan to move on a date that is fixed. As it only becomes fixed at Exchange, Completion is usually 2 - 4 weeks later, allowing plenty of time to book removal firms etc etc.

zzzLazyDaisy

If the OP was expecting to exchange and complete on the same day, I could understand, but in his first post he said...

ropybloke wrote: »

We were planning to exchange mid June and complete the end of June

Hence my confusion

kst101

I think that's what was going to happen, but hen the buyer wanted both exchange and completion to happen at the beginning of June.

Am afraid I can't offer any advice but it sounds very frustrating.

ropybloke

That's it - exactly. We planned to have a gap between exchange and completion but our buyer kept putting it back and back until CRASH - we were going to have to exchange and complete the same day.

It appears that the problem is that someone at the bottom of the chain has died and there are various legal hoops that have to be jumped through before the exchange can take place. Fingers crossed we will exchange this week!

martindow

ropybloke wrote: »

That's it - exactly. We planned to have a gap between exchange and completion but our buyer kept putting it back and back until CRASH - we were going to have to exchange and complete the same day.

It appears that the problem is that someone at the bottom of the chain has died and there are various legal hoops that have to be jumped through before the exchange can take place. Fingers crossed we will exchange this week!

Did your solicitor not know about the problems caused by this death? Regardless of the pressure from your buyer if the chain is not ready exchange could never take place.

I think you should be speaking to your solicitor and asking some questions this morning. I feel they have some responsibility in the situation you are now in.

Richard_Webster

The buyer who got stroppy about completing by a certain date should have checked that this was possible in the chain below before having strop. Problem is that people don't check these things and happily make assumptions.