Vendor changed completion date but no contract

looknohands

No we've just been using solicitors. Not sure about estate agent would they help?
As I said I am new to this process so no Idea how it works, just guessing, hence asking here.

The solicitor said vendor is happy to complete before Christmas last week and gave us date as 22nd Dec. Sent me over a contract and told me to get my insurance in order. Today I got buildings insurance and verbally told landlord we've got a date were moving, signed some contracts, (no idea what they are or what the wording meant) and was going to take them in tomorrow.

Solictor then came back later today with 'sometime in January', vendor doesn't want to move before Christmas anymore, so sudden change of mind, maybe something happened. Time is no problem for me, unless mortgage expires, it's more knowing where we stand. I'll only loose out on a bit of the insurance.

I feel as if we have no power to get a firm date, no advice from our solicitor and not a lot of answers on our questions for fixtures and fittings etc unless vendor has what we're asking for.

From comments here Im assuming this is normal and the completion date and answers to requests is mostly dictated by what next vendor up requires? We are essentially the bottom so if the sale falls through for us it isn't as bad.

Voyager2002

looknohands wrote: »

. I'll only loose out on a bit of the insurance.

You ought to be within the cooling-off period so should not lose out on that.

Voyager2002

If there is an Estate Agent involved then use him/her, otherwise ask the vendor directly what is going on, and why. The obvious explanation is that they are buying somewhere at the same time as selling to you and are facing some delay with that purchase. This is quite usual, and while annoying is something you have to accept.

Solicitors do not usually get involved in conversations between buyer and seller since their time is too valuable.

Voyager2002

looknohands wrote: »

verbally told landlord we've got a date were moving,

You should not give your landlord notice until you EXCHANGE contracts: the sale could fall through at any moment before then.
For this reason, many people who are renting try to leave a gap of a month between exchange and completion so that they do not have to pay rent on an empty property after moving.

Until contracts are EXCHANGED neither you nor the vendor are committed to anything and so could pull out at any time, and you would not get any compensation for the money spent up to then. That is just how the housing market works.

davidmcn

looknohands wrote: »

signed some contracts, (no idea what they are or what the wording meant)

Why not? Is your solicitor not offering any advice? This is what you're paying them for!

pinkteapot

Nothing wrong at all with pushing for exchange ASAP - speak to the agent and get them to chase the chain.

We exchanged on 23rd December and didn't complete until 13th Feb. Various parties in the (long) chain couldn't do certain dates, so that was the earliest completion date everyone agreed to, but we were ready to exchange. We had a very relaxed seven weeks with loads of time to arrange removals, order extra furniture that we needed, etc. Think we had four different companies deliver on the day after completion.

It was lovely to be exchanged for Christmas - we could completely relax as, until then, it had been a nerve-wracking chain.

As others have said though, it is dependent on everyone else in your particular chain wanting to exchange.

LannieDuck

We had the same problem with vendors pushing back the completion date. The only people who were helpful in getting to the bottom of it were the Estate Agents. The vendor's EA esp was v helpful (even though she worked for him) - I think she was the most concerned about the sale falling through. She spent a long time on the phone to him trying to understand what was happening - there were holidays and I think a divorce complicating matters. The solicitors didn't get involved in any of that.

looknohands

Thanks, the vendors solicitor got confused with the dates, said they were happy to complete before christmas when really they weren't at all, their solicitor has admitted responsibility for this mistake, (hope there's no further mistakes)

My solicitor has asked them for a completion date in Jan to be confirmed before Christmas.

Our main concern is mortgage expiry is 25th Feb, we had full offer quickly, 10 days after offer accepted on property, as we are FTB they were a bit dubious of selling to us so our broker contacted the EA and got app done quickly to keep them happy, thinking we were a bit too keen now.

Richard_Webster

Has anyone asked the solicitors that OP's sellers are buying from what they and their client think about dates and whether they can be achieved?

So many times I used to be told that "ther sellers are buying an empty property" that I'm a little cynical. Do not rely on possibly out of date third hand information from estate agents - make sure it is properly checked.

Sometimes the so-called empty proerpty isn't strightforward e.g. sellers of it have moved to another part of the counttry and are buying a newbuild there and are renting int he meantime. Builder is taking seller's house in part exchange but will not do so until new house is finished which could be months away. They can't complete sale of "empty" house until they have purchased it in the PX transaction. OK, unlikely - but I have known it to happen - so the moral is make sure the people above have no issues and can complete when your sellers say they can - your sellers may have assumed too much.