Completion date?

tim123456789

kilby_007 wrote: »

Hi guys, we had out offer accepted 4th June (3 weeks ago). We are getting married on 4th August so we need to be moved into the house in the next couple of weeks to give us chance to set up before we go away on honeymoon. We're away for a month so we're a bit anxious because if we don't get moved in time we'll have to pay another month's rent while we're on holiday which will be dead money.

unless you are buying for cash you will have to pay the mortgage interest for a month on the empty property = dead money

ValHaller

kilby_007 wrote: »

No, turns out they are just being useless. I rang again today. Again, solicitor was "busy" - I was put on hold for nearly 10 minutes, but didn't hang up. Finally, someone (although not our solicitor) answered and gave us some information on our file. She said the searches had come back and as a result they were waiting on some responses from the vendors. So I asked my EA to chase the vendors. I find it really frustrating that I'm paying so much money yet I have to pester them to find out what is happening.

Why are you bothered about the searches? You have a serious problem if the price you are offering does not cover 'all mortgages and charges secured on the property'

kilby_007

tim123456789 wrote: »

unless you are buying for cash you will have to pay the mortgage interest for a month on the empty property = dead money

Eh? That makes no sense! I will have to pay that anyway in the long run. It would be more economical to start paying it right away and get it paid off a month earlier (in 25 years!) than to spend £500 on rent for the month while we're away. It's not an interest only mortgage - we will be paying back capital!

kilby_007

ValHaller wrote: »

Why are you bothered about the searches? You have a serious problem if the price you are offering does not cover 'all mortgages and charges secured on the property'

How is it a major problem? I understand the theoretical issues (e.g. if the seller does not have enough capital to pay off the rest of the loan, the mortgage lender will not agree to let them sell their asset for less than the loan value) but how do you know that is the case? I highly doubt that the seller would have accepted our offer and appointed a solicitor if they knew that they could not pay back their debts!

ValHaller

kilby_007 wrote: »

How is it a major problem? I understand the theoretical issues (e.g. if the seller does not have enough capital to pay off the rest of the loan, the mortgage lender will not agree to let them sell their asset for less than the loan value) but how do you know that is the case? I highly doubt that the seller would have accepted our offer and appointed a solicitor if they knew that they could not pay back their debts!

It is a major problem precisely because in this situation, sellers do accept offers and appoint solicitors without regard to the possibility that they cannot pay back their debts.

Do read what I said - I used the word 'if'. And I would still say that you should deal with that 'if' before spending good money.

kilby_007

ValHaller wrote: »

It is a major problem precisely because in this situation, sellers do accept offers and appoint solicitors without regard to the possibility that they cannot pay back their debts.

Do read what I said - I used the word 'if'. And I would still say that you should deal with that 'if' before spending good money.

But, "if" that is the case, the sale will not progress from here. I've paid £650 for a survey anyway - I had to do that, and the searches were not much. The solicitors fees I would assume I'm locked into now, so there's nothing else remaining really - I have to proceed or worst case (if the worst happens) I won't get the house and I'll be about £1200 out of pocket. Shame, but it wouldn't be foreseeable and there's nothing we could have done to predict it, we'd just have to put it behind us.

I'm not sure what you're saying exactly? Are you saying that we could end up with their debt? Because I'm fairly sure that couldn't happen...

ValHaller

kilby_007 wrote: »

But, "if" that is the case, the sale will not progress from here. I've paid £650 for a survey anyway - I had to do that, and the searches were not much. The solicitors fees I would assume I'm locked into now, so there's nothing else remaining really - I have to proceed or worst case (if the worst happens) I won't get the house and I'll be about £1200 out of pocket. Shame, but it wouldn't be foreseeable and there's nothing we could have done to predict it, we'd just have to put it behind us.

I'm not sure what you're saying exactly? Are you saying that we could end up with their debt? Because I'm fairly sure that couldn't happen...

No, I am not saying you will end up with their debt. Your mortgage lender would not let this happen. I am saying that worrying about your solicitor and searches is akin to doing an inventory check on the deckchairs on the Titanic.

You need answers on the outstanding mortgage question - and you don't just need your solicitor to ask it - you need to get the Estate Agent to answer to you for his client. You raised the topic of 'dead money' in relation to an extra month's rent. Here you are "we'd just have to put it behind us" about £1200 of dead money (2 month's rent?).

kilby_007

ValHaller wrote: »

No, I am not saying you will end up with their debt. Your mortgage lender would not let this happen. I am saying that worrying about your solicitor and searches is akin to doing an inventory check on the deckchairs on the Titanic.

You need answers on the outstanding mortgage question - and you don't just need your solicitor to ask it - you need to get the Estate Agent to answer to you for his client. You raised the topic of 'dead money' in relation to an extra month's rent. Here you are "we'd just have to put it behind us" about £1200 of dead money (2 month's rent?).

OK I will do that. I have already been asking the estate agents to get the sellers to respond to my solicitors questions but I will put the question to them myself also.

There's nothing we can do about the £1200 if we were to lose the house. But working on the assumption that we will get the house, then we'd like to move as soon as possible to avoid dead money on rent for the month we're away. That was my point. The £1200 is irrelevant now, it's spent. I still don't see your point other than to try and poke fun. I think you've posted in a few of my threads on here in a similar fashion and to be honest I don't need your advice if it comes with a double helping of sneer!

sulphate

I don't think valhaller is poking fun, just pointing out what they would focus on if in your situation.

Solicitors do generally need chasing unfortunately, at least that's what I've learnt in my (very limited) experience.

The rent issue is annoying, but not something you can really do much about until you have an idea of a completion date.

kilby_007

Up until last week my solicitors were fairly good in doing things without being prompted. Then they just seemed to not want to speak to me at all. I have been calling them twice a week for updates, I wonder if this has annoyed them?

You're right - the rental issue can not be helped if we run over into August, but it will annoy me if it's over something silly that could have been resolved quickly. In reality it will probably be more like £1000 as we won't be back until August 29th which will mean another month's rent for September unless we completed and get moved out in the last two days of August which is unlikely. All dead money.