Can I exchange without mortgage offer amended?

kcseb

Hi all

We're about to exchange on a house in East London, and the lender has finally OK'ed the purchase but with a retention as it's quite dilipated.

So we've re-negotiated the purchase price down, and the vendor is in a rush to exchange - as he's quite ill. We're happy to exchange for his sake now, but the bank still needs to re-issue the mortgage offer with the new, lower purchase price.

So is there any way that my solicitor can exchange now, while we wait for the bank admin to re-issue the mortgage offer? Rather than waiting for the new doc to come through.

Ta

K

davidmcn

If you're prepared to take the risk of not having the new offer in time, yes.

G_M

Is your solicitor also cating for the mortgage lender, or are you paying for a different solicitor to do this?

The lender's solicitor will not allow Exchange until the mortgage is in place.

Your solicitor, if in the dark, might be persuaded......

davidmcn

G_M wrote: »

The lender's solicitor will not allow Exchange until the mortgage is in place.

I don't see why not. The lender isn't a party to the contract.

paye

As GM pointed Out, my solicitor did not exchange on a property I bought last year until a mortgage offer was In front of him.

davidmcn

paye wrote: »

As GM pointed Out, my solicitor did not exchange on a property I bought last year until a mortgage offer was In front of him.

Yes, but I presume that's because you agreed with his advice that it would have been a bad idea to do so, not because he or your lender had some sort of veto.

ruggedtoast

You would have to be out of your mind to exchange on a house without a valid mortgage offer in place.

eddddy

kcseb wrote: »

...
So is there any way that my solicitor can exchange now, while we wait for the bank admin to re-issue the mortgage offer? Rather than waiting for the new doc to come through.

You're essentially saying that you think it's a low probability that there will be a problem with the mortgage.

The counter argument is that if a problem does actually occour, you could lose thousands, if you've exchanged but don't have a mortgage to complete.

kcseb wrote: »

We're happy to exchange for his sake now,...

Why do you think exchanging now will help the seller? Do you think completion would happen earlier? I think it could be the other way around.

If you did decide to exchange without a mortgage offer, I guess you would set a long completion date to be on the safe side (just in case the mortgage offer is delayed, lost in the post etc.).

But if you have the firm mortgage offer in your hand, you are safe to complete practically straight away.

(In theory, the solicitors could draw up more complex conditional contracts etc, to get around these problems, but it just seems simpler to wait for the mortgage offer before exchanging.)

ethank

The solicitor will not exchange until the new mortgage offer goes through. They will check in with the lender on exchange as they have to confirm the funding is in place and agree a date for drawdown of funds.