Gap between selling / buying, seller delaying completion

Nalia

Hi all,

I am part of a chain of 5 - 2nd from the bottom - with an buyer purchasing my flat as investment.
We were due to exchange today and move in a week, but due to poor health the seller in now asking for the completion to be delayed by 2 to 4 weeks.

My buyer is buying other properties as well as mine, and as organised for builders to carry works throughout the properties, and he is keen to maintain the original agreed date.

Should I have to sell and look for short term accommodation, is there anything I can request from the sellers delaying the process to compensate for these additional costs (expensive short term accommodation, storage, 2 moves instead of one).

Have you been in a similar situation?

Thanks in advance!

G_M

By all means ask. If the seller is willing to reduce the price by the amount of your hotel or whatever costs, rather than lose the sale, fine.

But he might well just say 'no'.

And it seems a bit hard trying to put him over a barrel if he's (presumably seriously?) ill.

I think your buyer should just suck this up and reschedule his contractors. He's an investor - it's part of managing his business! He should be well aware that until Exchange has actually taken place, no timescale is fixed.

Hoploz

If everyone is ready to exchange then the chain should go ahead, the date for completion could be delayed without any issue. Your buyer would just have to reschedule his work, but it would all still go ahead.

If someone wants to delay exchange, then alarm bells would ring and it could all go wrong.

Tricky to ask for details, but if it's a serious illness, if someone dies during the process it causes a problem for everyone in the chain. Maybe it's an operation they can't reschedule or something? In which case I can understand not wanting to move at the same time. If this were the case could you ask them to consider completing on the same day as exchange? Sooner than next week?

If you went ahead with the sale you could vacate temporarily and move in later, assuming you exchange all at the same time, just with different completion dates. It's a bit of a worry though. If you don't exchange all at the same time things get more risky.

eddddy

Nalia wrote: »

...
My buyer is buying other properties as well as mine, and as organised for builders to carry works throughout the properties, and he is keen to maintain the original agreed date.
...

A professional investor/developer will be very well aware of the challenges associated with property chains. And it's the business he's chosen to be in.

In your position, I would just be polite, apologetic but firm that there's nothing you can do about your seller's change of plans.

(I'd bet money that he hasn't really made a definite arrangement with the builders for a particular date! He'll know better than that!)

Nalia

Thanks a lot for your views,

I agree he should have some flexibility.

The people I am buying from have now organised treatment at their new location and offered to moved a bit early so we only have a one week gap.

I'll keep pushing the person buying my property so he re-arranges his schedule with the contractors. Fingers crossed he comes to his senses and gives us a few days...

Have a nice day all!

questionss

He will probably be a lot more relaxed if everybody exchanges even if completion is a bit further away - at least he'll trust it's happening