Completing on mortgage whilst still having another mortgage

zacattack_2

We have an incompetent solicitor so I wanted to ask some advice here as all through this process it has been me pointing out her mistakes and avoiding messes she has been making.

We have exchanged on our house with a completion date of 25/10 - we have a mortgage balance on this house which will be repaid on completion.

We have exchanged on the house we are buying and our mortgage offer has a special condition around repaying our existing mortgage pror to completion which seems pretty clear cut to me.

With all that in mind, both solicitor's suggested and agreed a completion date of 21/10 (i.e. 4 days before the house we are selling) at which time the existing mortgage will not be paid off. Having said that, we are not relying on any funds from our sale to fund the purchase.

We agreed to this date as well as it is convenient and gives us a few days to move in and we weren't aware of the clause but it has been digging at me hence looking at the mortgage offer this morning.

Are there any special arrangements in these scenarios to take this into account when there is such a short time difference or is it a complete no and when we get to "completion date" we will end up wasting a day waiting around for something which will never happen to then be told it can't happen until 25/10?

Our solicitor is "unavailable" but I will obviously chase her later when she gets out of bed.

Thanks
Jase

kingstreet

If there's a clause which says you can't complete the new mortgage before you repay the old one, the completion can't take place on the purchase unless you ask the lender to remove the clause.

JimmyTheWig

It should at least be possible if you've exchanged contracts on the house that you are selling. Agree with kingstreet that you need to run it through with the mortgage company.

But also, how are you going to fund the purchase of the new place 4 days before you sell your existing place?

As far as I am concerned, the vast majority of people sell and buy on the same day.


Is there a senior partner that the solicitors who you could speak to? I took your opening line about the incompetent solicitor with a pinch of salt when I read it. But reading the rest of what you have written sounds like you might be right.
Is the same solicitor dealing with your sale and your purchase? Have you really exchanged on one without exchanging on the other? I wouldn't let on to your buyers if this is the case. They could seriously gazunder you if they knew!

Wh05apk

As kingstreet says, you cannot complete on the new one until your previous mortgage is redeemed, it might only be a few days, but what if your sale fell through for some reason - purchasor die or declared bankrupt, you would then have the 2 properties/mortgages which your new lender would not have agreed to.

You need to speak to your solictor/superviosr etc to stop the "premature" completion.

Thrugelmir

Unusual to agree one completion date then another. Are you sure the date is not now the 21st.