Does anyone want to join me waiting for new build to be built and complete

swishy87

Can anyone give me a rough idea of what I need to do now between exchange and completion?

dgtazzman

Between exchange and completion? Sit back, relax and wait. Once you have some scope of a completion date, you can start looking for movers, arrange insurance, get things like TV and broadband lined up once the completion date is certain. Visiting the site a few times to touch base and get a personal view on progress is also good (i.e. if they tell you completion is 2 weeks away and the roof isn't on yet, you know somebody is lying). It's mostly a void period, till a few weeks before confirmed completion date, then things suddenly start moving fast. Oh, and live in hope there isn't so much delay that you need to apply for a new mortgage.

Update on mine, builder's CEO insists that they will complete on the 17th, but my sols haven't received their 7 days notice yet, so the 17th is a pipe dream. The builder's own solicitor has passed on a completion date of the 31st to my solicitor. Gives so much confidence when the builder's left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. It has inspired me to appoint a snagging surveyor, however, though their build quality does seem solid, they're just a bit disorganized on some things...

On the positive side, it seems I'm getting 720 pounds back from extra mortgage fees I had to pay due to all the delays, my sols seems to have told them she is withholding the money from the completion amount and they'll just have to take it like a man, to word it politely.

Graciepie88

Just spoke to the girl at our site office to get an idea of when we can go for our site visit. We exchanged two weeks ago and were told at that point it would be '2-3 weeks' before we could have our first visit. She's just told me it will be 'two weeks' again but we've provisionally booked next saturday as after that was looking like the end of September!

Our estimated completion on exchange was 14th October but she just mentioned the first week in November to me.

Patience is a virtue and all that, I'm just excited and want to go and have a look and get our guy to measure for carpets!

swishy87

Trouble is, removals are getting booked up for September so we need to get a date booked in with them fast and find out what to do if it changes and also arrange TV aerial and moving our BT stuff I think so that it can be done straight away.

Our mortgage offer definitely won’t run out as it doesn’t expire until 1st January and if it does and can’t get a new one, we’ll just walk away.

Our site office is letting me know today when we can have a look around. They rang last week out of the blue and said we thought you might fancy having a look how your house is coming along. The carpet fitter is also popping up next week to measure and order in the carpet.

kinsandkinnies

-pete- wrote: »

Congrats to those who've exchanged and completed! Guess its the season for it because apparently we just have wait for checks to be done on ours too. Hopefully it won't throw up any major problems.

@Babybell86, I don't think its unheard of but ours is nearly 3 months late and I know there are others who have been waiting for well over a year. All the builders seems to be terrible at giving dates so take whatever they say with a massive pinch of salt.

Good luck Pete. We must be slightly ahead of you as we had our completion date a few days back. We get our keys on the 23rd of August and we get our tour on the house on the 18th. Just trying to decide whether we appoint a snagger or not. I'm in favour, but £380 does seem a lot. Will have to think on this some more.

Jon_B_2

swishy87 wrote: »

.

Our mortgage offer definitely won’t run out as it doesn’t expire until 1st January and if it does and can’t get a new one, we’ll just walk away..

I hope you understand that it isn't quite that simple?

If you've exchanged. You have to buy the house, mortgage or not. You are legally obliged to complete.

If your mortgage expires and you cannot obtain a new one, you will lose all your deposit and are liable to face legal action by the developer if you do not pay full purchase price on completion.

dgtazzman

Nothing quite so dramatic, as the builder would still have a house to sell. Also depends on what's in the contract. Mine has a clause saying if I pull out or fail to complete, I have to pay the builder 10% of the agreed purchase price as compensation. If the contract does not specify anything, you'd be liable for the builder's quantifiable losses, i.e. legal costs, costs of finding a new buyer, cost of the time their employees have invested in you, ... It will hardly be the full purchase price, but it will still be a bitter pill to swallow. Best not to be a doom thinker.

swishy87

Jon_B wrote: »

I hope you understand that it isn't quite that simple?

If you've exchanged. You have to buy the house, mortgage or not. You are legally obliged to complete.

If your mortgage expires and you cannot obtain a new one, you will lose all your deposit and are liable to face legal action by the developer if you do not pay full purchase price on completion.

Luckily for us it is just that simple. I ensured that a clause was added to the contract that completion could be no later than 25th Novemenr otherwise we could walk away with no loss. That gives us just over a month to play with should their be any unforeseen delays before the offer does run out. Better to be safe than sorry.

Jon_B_2

Then that is cool.

I am not a doom monger, but it's good that people reading this thread have an understanding of what could potentially happen.

swishy87

Even still it would have 'only' been the 10% deposit we were liable for (or liable for if anything happens between now and completion). But then I guess it would have to go to court and if you couldn't pay it well then who knows what the court would decide. But let's hope that's not something anyone has to find out.