Vendor getting antsy.

Lionel_Thinkbag

Heres a timeline:

Viewed property on 11 Aug

Made asking price offer 3 days later and it was accepted

Didn't get to see mortgage adviser until 24th Aug

Instructed Solicitor

Valuation done 26th Aug and approved

Offer didn't come in until 28th September (much faffing by lender)

Paid for searches same day

Was expecting solicitor to send mortgage bumpf to us but when I enquired was told this would be sent at the same time as the contract pack?

So now, we're waiting for the searches to come back. EA called today to say that the seller is starting to think about showing other people around.:( I called solicitor and they expect the searches by the end of this week and are going to check through anything starting next week. We haven't set an exchange date yet or anything though. I've told the EA what the solicitor has said about getting the searches back etc. According to EA the seller has done all the solicitor stuff on their side. I told them to please reassure the seller because we really want to move asap. We're FTB renting at the moment and the property we're buying is empty so no chain.

Is there anything I can do to speed things along?

Also, as we would have to give our landlord a months notice, is it possible to vacate early and just partially pay the rent, or else allow the LL to keep our deposit instead? (We haven't said anything to the LL yet because we don't want to be homeless if everything falls through - so just wanting to know if this is a done thing?)

Thanks

Pixie5740

I'm assuming you are in England or Wales.

Do not give notice until you have exchanged contracts. Overlap with a tenancy ending and either another tenancy or buying a property is almost inevitable, it's difficult to get everything to align and should be factored into your budget. Speaking from personal experience, when leaving a rental property (because you need to leave it spic and span to get your deposit back) and moving into a bought place it is a lot less stressful to have a bit of an overlap.

From a legal stand point, if you serve notice and move out before your notice period ends, your landlord does not have to reimburse you. You might be able to negotiate a partial refund though but I wouldn't bet on it.

See Ending/Renewing an AST for more information.

ognum

Firstly you rental home. You have a contract with your LL, you need to read that but the likelyhood is that you are liable for the rent on the property for one month after you give notice and this must be a calendar month from your rent day or the date your contract commenced.

Any thing else is negotiable with your LL, they are unlikely to let you use your deposit as that is for delapidations and will be returned after your inventory has been checked. Please also be aware that you are responsible for council tax and bills until your contract ends not until you leave the property.

As far as your purchase is concerned have you talked with the vendor and explained your position. Why didn't you start searched earlier. Have you had answers to solicitors questions yet?

Keep in touch with your solicitor to make sure they stay on top of things.

Pixie5740

I'll just add that even if he does start viewings again unless he finds a cash buyer nobody is going to be able to move any faster than you as you have a head start.

DandelionPatrol

Lionel_Thinkbag wrote: »

Heres a timeline:

Viewed property on 11 Aug

Made asking price offer 3 days later and it was accepted

Didn't get to see mortgage adviser until 24th Aug

Instructed Solicitor

Valuation done 26th Aug and approved

Offer didn't come in until 28th September (much faffing by lender)

Paid for searches same day

Was expecting solicitor to send mortgage bumpf to us but when I enquired was told this would be sent at the same time as the contract pack?

So now, we're waiting for the searches to come back. EA called today to say that the seller is starting to think about showing other people around.:( I called solicitor and they expect the searches by the end of this week and are going to check through anything starting next week. We haven't set an exchange date yet or anything though. I've told the EA what the solicitor has said about getting the searches back etc. According to EA the seller has done all the solicitor stuff on their side. I told them to please reassure the seller because we really want to move asap. We're FTB renting at the moment and the property we're buying is empty so no chain.

Is there anything I can do to speed things along?

Also, as we would have to give our landlord a months notice, is it possible to vacate early and just partially pay the rent, or else allow the LL to keep our deposit instead? (We haven't said anything to the LL yet because we don't want to be homeless if everything falls through - so just wanting to know if this is a done thing?)

Thanks

You were slow off the mark getting to see your mortgage advisor.

You should also have mentioned your rental notice requirements in respect of moving dates at the time the offer was accepted, although I think it would be totally counterproductive now.

As for speeding things up, you have missed your major opportunity to do this, which was to run the searches in parallel with the mortgage application. You seem to be doing it the text book way without realising that there are 2 text book ways

• Do as much as possible in parallel, which is quickest, with the risk that you spend all the fees before discovering a show stopper which means you lose all your fees
• Do everything in series, which is slowest, but if you do the highest risk things first, you may pay less before you discover your showstopper [on the other hand if the show stopper turns out to be the least risk thing, then you still end up losing all your fees].

You are right not to give notice until exchange of contract. But you should talk with your Landlord ASAP to sound out how cooperative they will be about notice and leaving and deposit.

Only when have had this discussion will you know how to manage exchange, giving notice and completion. And you can make judgements about how much time you want for cleaning etc - a few days overlap can be handy.

When you know how exchange, completion, giving notice and moving will work out, you should go to your solicitor with proposed dates and ask them to work towards those dates - and mention that the vendor is applying pressure.

If the agent pressures you again, you could say that you are working with your solicitor to expedite the purchase, but that you have decided not to take a risk and give notice on your rental because the threat of resuming viewings has made you aware of the risk of becoming homeless. ie you just make applying pressure counterproductive.

In reality as there is no forward chain, there is probably no genuine deadline on this sale and if the seller drops you, they will be about 4 weeks behind for the progress you have made plus however long it takes them to find another buyer.

Just to return to the original point, another buyer starting now would be only 4 weeks behind you because you are running slow. Your risk averse choice to do everything in textbook order is increasing the risk that you lose the purchase and the fees because the seller has lost interest in you as a buyer.

Rambosmum

Unfortunately I think you've already 'done the damage' so to speak with how long it took you to sort our mortgage appointment and survey out. So your vendor has a poor impression of you. Most of the rest of the stuff is out of your hands now, just keep calling the solicitor for an update and pass this on to the estate agent, at least then they'll know you are concerned and serious about the purchase.

As PP said, check your contract. Don't hand your notice in until exchange and organise completion for part way through a rental period - to give you time to move, and clean the rental property.

TBagpuss

don't necessarily belive everything the agents say.

Speak to your solicitor and see whether they can confirm directly to the sellers solicitor what stage things are at, and reassure them that eveything is moving forward.

As others have said, don't give notice until you have exchanged. Speak to your solicitor and be clear about the dates you would like to go for in terms of exchange and completion. The most common pattern tends to be to exchange and then complete about a week later but there is absolutely no reason why you can't agree a longer gap between exchange and completion to reduce the amount of overlap, it the sellers are willing to do so.

If the sellers showed the house to new people then the sale would start from scratch and would take longer, so if they are really saying that, it probably menas that either they are worried that you are not serious about buying, or that you've run into difficulties (in which case reassurance and update from your solicitor to theirs should help) or it is simply a tactic to try to put pressure on you.

TBeckett100

I think taking three days to make an offer on a property would have spoke volumes. No wonder he is antsy, you have been slow, your mortgage provider has been slow and the legal stuff that takes time has been slow off the ground.

Yue

Hey there, I was in a similar position to you - I put my offer in July but didn't instruct my solicitor until the middle of August since I was waiting on a mortgage offer. The estate agent threatened that the vendor was thinking of pulling out because of how long it was taking to get to exchange, and also my solicitor was quite slow and uncommunicative. However, I arranged another viewing and spoke to the vendor myself, and found out she was really in no rush and in exactly the same place as me with her own purchase. So, it was just the estate agent trying to push things along by stressing me out! I read online that estate agents can get a bonus on quick sales, so that might be the reason.

So things might not be as bad as they seem.

vic_sf49

Ask the EA to pass that timeline to your vendor, then they know where the time's gone. They might have experience of things happening much quicker, and just think you're getting itchy feet.

My mortgage advisor was onto my case the day my offer was accepted, so a few weeks waiting for a mortgage appointment (I appreciate not everyone can get an appointment straight away), then awaiting the mortgage offer before the searches were started, seriously slowed the whole process down.

My buyers had 3.5 weeks between exchange and completion due to a similar rental situation. Of course, I'd have preferred a smaller gap, but I was happier to pay for an extra couple of week's worth of house insurance / council tax etc, than have the sale fall through. And once exchange had taken place, we were all more relaxed, and had a nice defined time frame in which to finalise moving plans.

Lionel_Thinkbag

Thanks for the replies. Personally I would have gone with a broker and hopefully been able to sort the mortgage sooner but the OH was put off by previous experience, and also works for the same bank (albeit in a different division) At the time the EA and vendor were aware that we had to wait - we instructed our own survey in the interim to show we were serious.

Had we known it was an option we would have pushed to have the searches done weeks ago.

TBH I don't think 3 days is long between a viewing and offer - bearing in mind that I viewed it first, then brought OH back the next day when he had time off and made the offer on the morning of the 3rd day, so I don't think we messed about there - not like it isn't an important descision.

Going to ring the solicitor tomorrow and ask that we can get to agree on exchange and completion dates by the end of next week. Probably wishful thinking but I want to be in by the end of Nov at the latest.