House sale falling through after exchange of contracts

fezster

I'd be very surprised if you hadn't exchanged on your purchase when exchanging on your sale, unless you had made arrangements to stay elsewhere in case the purchase fell through. But looks like you've clarified that the whole chain has exchanged.

As said already, keep in touch with your solicitor, and keep a log of ALL expenses incurred. You will need to claim these back from the buyer, and those above you in the chain will probably be looking for compensation also, which you'll then pass onto your buyer.

Mossfarr

marsman802 wrote: »

Whilst very rare I guess you really want to be at the bottom of the chain in these situations...
Does anyone ever request an exchange on their sale before exchanging on their purchase?

Exchanging on sale before exchanging on purchase is becoming increasingly common in a slow housing market. Vendors market their property as 'no chain' to achieve a faster sale by moving to rented accommodation or bunking in with relatives.
I've done this both times I've moved house. Its a bit of a pain having to move twice but a lot less stressful than getting caught in a long chain.

POPPYOSCAR

Daletoon7 wrote: »

We have exchanged - last week. The story keeps changing depending on who you talk to but it now appears that the mortgage offer was 100% retained until work on the kitchen and bathroom was done according to their survey. I have not seen the mortgage offer or survey as its nothing to do with me. Only my buyer, her broker, her financial advisor and her solicetor would have seen this morgage offer and survey. Yet none of them picked this up and exchanged. So when they went to get the funds from the mortgage company - they could not get any as the work advised on the survey (again I don't know what this is as I have not seen it) had not been done.

I have a really small kitchen and bathroom (it's a flat) which is a bit dated. I never advertised it as a new or in perfect condition. The buyer even came around with her builder so they knew they needed a bit of investment. Because it's buy to let I think the bank wanted to make sure she could rent it straight away.

She needs the mortgage and as its 100% retained until she does the work - we are all stuck

Yes it does.


That makes no sense. How can a lender offer a 100% retained mortgage until work is done on a property that belongs to someone else?

HouseBuyer77

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Yes it does.


That makes no sense. How can a lender offer a 100% retained mortgage until work is done on a property that belongs to someone else?

Could just be the lender's way of saying we will not lend on that property in this state, but indicates that they would be willing to lend once certain work is complete.

However it seems odd they're doing this based on kitchen and bathroom rennovations. I believe the bar for them so a lender considers the property habitable is very low (do you have a toilet and sink in bathroom. Sink/something to cook on in kitchen). So unless the OP lacks basic cooking and sanitation facilities they shouldn't be having this issue.

marksoton

Something here is just not ringing true.....

I'd suggest someone,somewhere is lying....

societys_child

Is it that the lender will provide a mortgage when the work is done, expecting the buyer to raise the funds (short term loan or whatever) to buy the house in the first place? Only thing I can think of :huh:

betmunch

Well this is an interesting thread.

I don't understand why everyone is surprised about a lender putting 100% retention on the loan.

They don't care how the work is done, who owns it at the time, or anything. They are keeping their money until the property meets their requirements for security.

Also the first post said the buyer needed to prove they had funds to do the work, not to actually do it. Can the OP clarify that please?

Stop trying to be logical about how they can expect this or that, its a mortgage lender we're talking about, they have their own special logic.

This should have been addressed ages ago by the buyer, they have been let down by both their solicitor and mortgage broker.

I'll be keeping up with this thread with interest

AnotherJoe

I would back up a bit, it doesn't matter to the OP what the buyers problem is, and really there's no point in them investigating. Thats the buyers problem not theirs.

All the OP needs to know is, when the buyer will be completing.
If they arent going to, they start suing, big time, the buyer is on the hook for serious money.

I dont know what time-delay is allowed, I know that completion dates often change around and last minute snags can occur. But how long can they drag it out for, before you can sue?

I also think it can be presumed there was absolutely no chance of building work on kitchen and bathroom starting until completion, since the buyer themselves didn't seem to realise about the retention.

POPPYOSCAR

marksoton wrote: »

Something here is just not ringing true.....

I'd suggest someone,somewhere is lying....

I agree with this.

betmunch

AnotherJoe wrote: »

I would back up a bit, it doesn't matter to the OP what the buyers problem is, and really there's no point in them investigating. Thats the buyers problem not theirs.

All the OP needs to know is, when the buyer will be completing.
.

This is spot on