Delay in Contract Exchange

hadisabah

We had decided on a property, set to complete end of September. A day before contract exchange the vendor's solicitors informed that this will be delayed until end of October. Our expenses shot up as a result of temporary accommodation and related things. Now they are ready to exchange and we decided to ask for a 5K reduction in price since we they put us through unimaginable stress, which they are not willing to accept.
1. Do you think we should still go ahead with the original price?
2. Should we pull out and move to a rented place for a year. Will that mean a significant increase in house prices?
3. Is the buyer so helpless in the current UK housing market that he/she has to literally go out with a begging bowl?
Please advice. thanks

[Deleted User]

A delay in proceedings does not change the value of a property, so I'm not surprised they're not accepting a £5k drop. That's property buying I'm afraid, lots of waiting and things changing. Were you in rented before? Most sensible advice would tell you not to hand notice in for your rented accommodation until you exchange, for this very reason.

Now you have two choices- wait it out, or walk away and start the whole process again with somewhere else (and potentially have the same, if not more issues). Only you know which one you should do.

hadisabah

Thank you for answering. So is this how helpless buyers are? By the way, the vendors had agreed for a 29 September date. Does that not carry any weight?

[Deleted User]

Not until you've signed contracts, the vendors could pull out of the whole thing and there wouldn't be any comeback (keep that in mind if you're going in guns blazing for money off- can't imagine they would pull out but anything can happen).

Bear in mind you could just pull out without any comeback either (as you've discussed doing) so maybe sellers are just as helpless.

Thrugelmir

hadisabah wrote: »

By the way, the vendors had agreed for a 29 September date. Does that not carry any weight?

None in the slightest. As the vendors have no control over the time it will take to complete matters.

Rosetinted

As habssac said, just because you've been inconvenienced doesn't mean the house is worth less. If I were your seller, I'd not agree to a price reduction either, especially as (in my area, anyway) house prices will have continued to rise since the offer was accepted, making it worth slightly more than when that price was agreed. Also, you don't know if the delay was even the seller's fault.

House buying is notoriously stressful, takes a long time and often encounters unforeseen delays. I don't think you can expect compensation for this. Until contracts are exchanged, you can make as many plans or agreements as you want, but nothing's legally binding and you can't hold your seller to it. It sounds like you may have been a bit premature in moving out of your last place in expectation that you could move into this one (although I don't know the full story from your post).

You need to ask yourself if you still like and want to live in the house. If so, buy it and live in it. This will all be water under the bridge in a few months' time.

macman

There is no contract before exchange, so you won't be compensated for delay, 'stress', or anything else.
You are perfectly within your rights however to reduce your offer by whatever you want to up until the day of exchange, without reason or explanation required, and the vendor is of course equally within their rights to tell you to sling your hook, which is what I'd do.
Prices in a year's time require a crystal ball, and depend on area, but there is every chance that the bank rate will have risen within the next 12 months, and so your mortgage will cost more.

cloo

Sadly, I'm afraid buyers (and sellers, for that matter - they can also lose out at any stage) are really that helpless up until exchange.


If you really want the house, exchange. You won't see the money spent so far come back, and as has been said either the market will go up or interest rates will, so I'm afraid this will just have to be chalked up to one of those awful, teeth-grindingly expensive buying experiences.