Agreeing a completion date early on?

kevinlad

Hi, I'm in the middle of a chain of three. I have still got a bit to go before signing the contracts but as it is now getting closer to Christmas and I would very much like to move well before that, should I fix a completion date now? I predict the exchange of contract won't happen at least for 3 more weeks though. Would it be too early (or any point) to get my buyer and seller involved in agreeing a completion date?

G_M

You can'r 'agree' a date, but you can agree a target date. There are too many unknowns until Exchange for anything to be certain, but yes, it helps if all parties involved have the same date in mind.

sonastin

It is always worth talking about dates early on. Open and frank communication makes everything run smoother as you have a much better understanding of what everyone else is expecting and you can all start to adjust your expections towards a mutually agreeable compromise. However you have to be aware that all sorts of things can come up which can affect or delay completion. Everyone needs to remain flexible to a degree until all contracts are ready for exchange. Again, open and frank communication can help everyone understand the issues and accomodate the fluctuations which might arise from any of these hold ups.

klolav

We have been expressing since the start that we were looking to complete by the end of October. Would have been 9 weeks since offer accepted, no chain from us, they coming from rented.
Nobody even acknowledges that I have specified a provisional completion date once. My solicitor seems completely against discussing until everything is ready to exchange. But I feel if we have a date to aim for we know we are both singing from the same hymn sheet. I also don't want delays with "we want to complete thus date", 'no we can't do that date, we want..." etc etc.
Anyway, clearly the end of Oct is now a memory so aiming for before the end of Nov.
Do you think it is advisable to contact our buyers and ask what dates they have in mind. My husband is concerned that they will think we are desperate and drop the agreed price at the last minute, leaving us hung up to dry.
Or do you think it's completely normal and acceptable to give them us a buzz at this stage to request dates?
The stage is everything in place, just waiting for their mortgage offer, been told no problems, money etc is there and its a small mortgage, taking ages because the buyer has many businesses and accounts need to be supplied from all of them. Their solicitor has told mine, when the offer arrives, we will be exchanging the same week.
Any opinions?

krlyr

I'm in the process of buying a house (no chain though, makes things easier!), yet to exchange contracts (probably in the next week or two) and we agreed on a provisional exchange date yesterday - the seller just expressed his preferred date to the estate agents and they proposed it to us which we agreed on. The provisional date is 19 December so we'll hopefully be in by Christmas - just about!
Our financial advisor did think it would be possible for us to complete before that but that date works well for us. We'd known from the start of the purchase that the seller wanted to move quickly though, do you know if the others in the chain are keen to move before Christmas?

Richard_Webster

The basic difficulty is that people tend to agree dates without understanding what has yet to be done and they often agree things without consulting their solicitors to establish feasibility.

You can reasonably have a target date but be prepared to change it. Also don't assume that a date that looked feasible 6 weeks ago is still realistic given the present position of things in the chain.

Don't rely on the estate agents because they often ring the other people and ask if they can agree a date but never bother to check with the solicitors. It is a frequently encountered issue that we phone another solicitor saying that we've been told everyone has agreed such and such a date, we are told that nobody asked him about it and anyway it is unlikely because e.g. he hasn't even received a draft contract on his client's related purchase!

Having said all that, the approach of Christmas has a wonderful effect on people and we do tend to find that there is a greater level of co-operation to get things done and people moved at this time of year than normal!

hazyjo

We were talking dates for MONTHS! I think it's advisable to sort out the basics such as 'how long does everyone want between exchange and completion' and 'any day of the week you can't/don't want to move on' (someone might have work or other commitments, or they might want to avoid a Friday for example).

The people we bought from wanted a few weeks as the wife had to find a rental (they split up halfway through our purchase!). As it turned out, she found somewhere and took the gamble and it all overlapped by less than a week. I think we ended up with 8 days between exchange and completion.

It's worth bearing a few dates in mind, but so long as everyone knows it should all happen asap, and you chase regularly for updates, it shoudn't be too much longer and I'd be inclined not to start throwing dates around just yet unless you know you're almost at exchange.

Jx

sonastin

If you have any "definite can't" dates, get those on the table ASAP. If people know early that, for example, you'll be on holiday for 2 weeks in mid-January, they work around it. If they get to the point of being ready and then discover that you've left the country, they'll as best curse you, at worst panic and do something daft. Surprises are the enemy in this sort of transaction.