Infuriating, illogical reason for not wanting to exchange contracts

outdoorcjc

wolvesman89 wrote: »

I have a no completion no fee fixed arrangement with my solicitor where I would lose £250 if I pulled out. I would lose £215 for the valuation fee. Other than that, that's about it.

Check the small print, a lot of these agreements have a clause saying it doesn't apply if you pull out / only apply if the seller pulls out.

If you pull pout (even if caused by someone elses actions) you may find you have to cover more then £250.

cajef

We had a situation where we were ready to exchange on a property in a September and the buyer kept putting the date back, in the end all of a sudden with just a few days notice they wanted to exchange and complete in the first week of November when we had a holiday booked which we had told them about in the beginning.

We said no way were we prepared to cancel our holiday and lose over £1500, they would have to wait until the end of the month to complete, they threatened to pull out so we called their bluff and said go ahead, we have others interested anyway if it falls through and they backed down.

Thrugelmir

wolvesman89 wrote: »

once chain was closed 5 weeks ago with 5 in the chain, ourselves and our vendors made it clear that we wanted to complete by May 24th.

Top of the chain is behind you though. Everything takes time. 5 weeks isn't long to resolve all matters relating to house sale and purchase.

Chill out and go with the flow is my advice.

wolvesman89

Just to add to my previous posts and in response, all parties had already agreed 24th was the date. I'm now wondering if the best way is to just bite the bullet and agree a date of our choosing in July on the proviso that contracts are exchanged straight away? Any thoughts?

Lord_Baltimore

deleted...

wolvesman89

I totally understand what you're saying. Of course, I knew this was going to be one of the most stressful things I've done and had prepared myself for it. However, I think the thing that's pushed me over the edge is that we've been incredibly lucky for everything to go so smoothly up to now and we were all set to go on the 24th (hell, my vendor had even packed stuff already!) and it seems ridiculous to make what was a simple and straightforward situation in jeopardy for such a daft reason, and so late in the process when they've clearly known for a long time they were going away! That's my beef with them. I could cope if it was something more serious like they were on their honeymoon, having a kid, getting married, family member had passed away. But as far as I'm concerned the reason isn't good enough for me to want to compromise with them and lose money, and my vendor and my vendor's vendor are of the same opinion. I still think its totally unreasonable to leave us out of pocket for this reason, hence my EA and sols both advised me to seek costs from the other party. If they offered to do this, which I think is a reasonable request considering the financial loss and inconvenience for the sake of their inconvenience, then I'd be fine with it.

wolvesman89

Here's another scenario. I'm in a lose lose situation if they don't agree to the 24th in that we lose money AND we don't get to move on the date we want. As a last resort, I'd probably be prepared to pay some kind of inconvenience payment to them (of say £250) to move on the 24th. This way, yes we've lost some money but at least we'll have moved on the agreed date. Any thoughts on this either?

SnooksNJ

About 3 years ago someone else had a similar problem. Do you happen to own a camper and does the vendor have a big driveway?

Better_Days

I do have sympathy. We were in a chain of 7 and exchange was delayed 5 times. This cost me £350 so that my LL (we went into rented) didn't re-advertise the let. Someone else in the chain had their mortgage offer expire and had to reapply. I lost my broadband 2 weeks before we moved because my provider had forgotten to change the move date. Then a week before we moved I also lost my land-line as BT did some engineering work. We had to complete either by 1st of Feb or 2 weeks later because someone on the chain was going away on a training course. My husband was unable to take the week off work when we moved (the date had been changed so many times his manager lost patience), and only had the moving day off. We exchanged on the Thursday afternoon, and moved on the following Wednesday, completing on the Friday.

Very stressful.

Only threaten non-agreement to dates if you are prepared to follow through. Also bear in mind that if you do pull out it will impact on everyone else in the chain. Unfortunately one party in the chain can try and hold the others to ransom, especially as there is so much at stake.

I think the suggestion of exchange now with an agreed completion date in July, although not what you wanted, will at least put your mind at rest that the sale will go through, and commit the party who you have doubts about to the process. Plus it gives you lots of time to pack and organise everything.

I appreciate you are incurring costs - but if you divide these between the number of years you are likely to stay in the new house you may find they are insignificant.

GL

lessonlearned

^^^^ As above.

Sorry to say this but until you have exchanged contracts it is all very much up in the air anyway. You are in a chain and there are a lot of variables. Without wishing to be negative it could all still go pear shaped.

Exchange contracts asap and then at least the sale is guaranteed, and not just you, but everyone in the chain, is safely locked in.

Exchange, fix the Legal Completion date and then breathe.....