Exchange of Contracts Question - Urgent

Poppit

When all parties are ready to exchange, do we all have to agree a completion date before exchange of contracts takes place?

We're only a small chain and have all agreed a date for completion but our buyer who has been an absolute nightmare (and that's being polite) is demanding a later date which none of us want or will agree to.

If our buyer doesn't agree to the completion date we all want, am I right to assume that there will be no exchange of contracts?

Once he agrees to the date, he cannot go back and try to get the date changed and he will have to complete on that date?

Many thanks for any advice on this

firstaspect

Yes the completion date will be written into the contracts. So if you can't agree then contracts can't be exchanged.

david29dpo

Without wishing to be anal, contracts can be signed be not exchanged.

Pigster_2

When all parties are ready to exchange, do we all have to agree a completion date before exchange of contracts takes place? Yes. If you have not all agreed a completion date, then you are not actually ready to exchange.

We're only a small chain and have all agreed a date for completion but our buyer who has been an absolute nightmare (and that's being polite) is demanding a later date which none of us want or will agree to. If you're only a small chain, and one of you prefers a later date to the rest of you, then you have not all agreed.

If our buyer doesn't agree to the completion date we all want, am I right to assume that there will be no exchange of contracts? Yes.

Once he agrees to the date, he cannot go back and try to get the date changed and he will have to complete on that date? Correct.

Many thanks for any advice on this

Best of luck. Is there no way the rest of you can compromise, so that at least you can exchange?

Richard_Webster

Once he agrees to the date, he cannot go back and try to get the date changed and he will have to complete on that date?

Correct.

Not quite - as well as agreeing the date he also has to exchange with completion set for that date. Telling you he has agreed a date and actually exchanging for that date are not the same thing.

Poppit

Pigster wrote: »

When all parties are ready to exchange, do we all have to agree a completion date before exchange of contracts takes place? Yes. If you have not all agreed a completion date, then you are not actually ready to exchange.

We're only a small chain and have all agreed a date for completion but our buyer who has been an absolute nightmare (and that's being polite) is demanding a later date which none of us want or will agree to. If you're only a small chain, and one of you prefers a later date to the rest of you, then you have not all agreed.

If our buyer doesn't agree to the completion date we all want, am I right to assume that there will be no exchange of contracts? Yes.

Once he agrees to the date, he cannot go back and try to get the date changed and he will have to complete on that date? Correct.

Many thanks for any advice on this

Best of luck. Is there no way the rest of you can compromise, so that at least you can exchange?

Many thanks for your reply. It has been extremely helpful.

Unfortunately there is no room for negotiation with this man (our buyer). He already gazundered us when we were supposed to have exchanged back in August. His excuse at that time was that he had to renew the lease on the house he was renting until December and in order to make it worthwhile for him, was for the price to be reduced plus money for inconvenience as he was not financially in a position to exchange before then! After much deliberation, we agreed. The chain held together whilst we revised our mortgages and within a week we were all ready to exchange (this Tuesday) with a completion date set for 29th September.

Tuesday came and went. Our buyer was not around or contactable. The next day we get a call that he's in India on business! We were then told that his solicitor was not in receipt of his deposit or revised mortgage offer, then we were told that he had transferred the deposit but still no mortgage offer. Then he tried to spin us a yarn about the delay with the mortgage paperwork being delayed due to an influx of mortgage applications! We know that this is rubbish as we are with the same mortgage company and experienced no delays whatsoever.

All through the week he has fed us lie afer lie and have just realised that he is doing this to string everything out as long as possible in order to get a completion date as near to December as possible which is what he originally wanted. He didn't want a completion date until after 10th October.

There is absolutely no way that any of us will wait that long and have all agreed a completion date of 5th. If he's not prepared to commit to that date, then it's over. We will no longer allow this to go on.

Today we find that he has turned his phone off, no funds have been received and still no mortgage offer has come through. We are giving him unti tomorrow to come through with the deposit and paperwork. If still nothing that's it, finished. If it does by a miracle all come through tomorrow, we are all stating the 5th as the completion date. If he says he can't, then it's over.

We have wasted almost 5 months of our lives with this man messing us around and can't take it anymore. Everyone in the chain is absolutely fed up to the back teeth with him and the owner of the house we're buying from will be putting his house back on the market from Monday if nothing positive happens tomorrow:-(

If ony we had an inckling of what this man was going to do to us when he made us an offer on our house originally, we would never have accepted it and would have sold it on to someone else.

There really should be a law against this type of behaviour.

LandyAndy

Poppit wrote: »

We are giving him unti tomorrow to come through with the deposit and paperwork. If still nothing that's it, finished. If it does by a miracle all come through tomorrow, we are all stating the 5th as the completion date. If he says he can't, then it's over.

We have wasted almost 5 months of our lives with this man messing us around and can't take it anymore. Everyone in the chain is absolutely fed up to the back teeth with him and the owner of the house we're buying from will be putting his house back on the market from Monday if nothing positive happens tomorrow:-(

If ony we had an inckling of what this man was going to do to us when he made us an offer on our house originally, we would never have accepted it and would have sold it on to someone else.

There really should be a law against this type of behaviour.

It is over, I fear. This buyer won't care if you pull out. He will just go off and do the same to someone else until he can get what he wants on his terms. There are some people who think that this is the normal and acceptable way of doing business.

sonastin

I understand that you and the rest of your chain would like to complete on 5th October but that is pretty much guaranteed not to happen. The question you really need to ask yourself is would you prefer to exchange on October 11th or, for example May 15th 2011 - by which time you might have found another buyer who might be ready to complete by then.

An extra week is an inconvenience to you all, but not having a buyer is much more inconvenient when you are trying to sell.

satchmeister

sonastin wrote: »

I understand that you and the rest of your chain would like to complete on 5th October but that is pretty much guaranteed not to happen. The question you really need to ask yourself is would you prefer to exchange on October 11th or, for example May 15th 2011 - by which time you might have found another buyer who might be ready to complete by then.

An extra week is an inconvenience to you all, but not having a buyer is much more inconvenient when you are trying to sell.

Exactly, push comes to shove, put everything in storage for a week or two, pack the kids off to grandparents .... you could end up with the same probem May 15th 2011.