Completion date drama

Greenlady

We put an offer on a house in February and finally got to exchange of contracts stage. And this is where everything went pear shape.

My husband I are at the bottom of the chain as first time buyers. We're currently renting.

The dates we had on the table for completion were two dates in early and mid May. We just had to agree which between us all.

The day before we were going to give our notice to landlord we were told to hold on because some papers were missing at the top of the chain.

As no one could give us an indication as to how serious this was, we held on.

Two days after we missed our notice day, things were back on track. But, too late for us. We now have to stay until 20 June, or at least pay rent until that date.

We now want to exchange at the earliest 27th May, which is still quite early as there is 3 weeks overlap of mortgage and rent. But at least it's pay day time, near enough.

Everyone is OK with that, except the top of the chain - a builder digging his heels refusing to budge.

This is leaving us very stressed. Do you think that this is it and sale will fall through?

Is it feasible to ask for the rent equivalent to be deducted from house price? It's not our sellers fault though, so this seems mean.

I'm getting to a stage where I'm starting not to care if it all falls through. I just want this over one way or another.

kinger101

You need to be patient. You cannot know a completion date until all parties are ready to exchange, so stipulating one will likely result in your disappointment.

Asking for the rent off the price of the house is silly. It's not your vendors' fault either. Realistically, you should expect some overlap between your rental period and the completion date, and budget accordingly. Moving from rented to owned actually gives you an opportunity to have a slight lag between completion and moving in. A good opportunity to get professional cleaners in.

eddddy

It's all down to negotiation. The builder is digging his heels in and so are you.

So nothing can happen until one of you backs down.

Realistically, if you walk away, it might be months until a replacement buyer is ready to exchange/complete. So you're probably in a strong position to stand firm.

(But you never know how irrationally people might react, if they don't get their way.)

Greenlady

I accept that it's silly asking for vendors to bear the cost of this disagreement, so I'm scrapping that idea. Thanks.

I know rent and mortgage will overlap and that's not a bad thing, but not by four weeks. We needed two weeks. We have compromised to three.

But the builder still wants asap.

franklee

The dates aren't making sense to me.

Greenlady wrote: »

We now have to stay until 20 June, or at least pay rent until that date.

So your rental periods are 21st to 20th.

Greenlady wrote: »

We now want to exchange at the earliest 27th May, which is still quite early as there is 3 weeks overlap of mortgage and rent.

Surely you want to serve notice by 20th May to leave 20th June. So you need to exchange contracts at latest a few days before 20th May. If posting your notice you need to allow time for delivery. If you leave exchange till 27th you will miss the boat for serving notice for another month.

Will offering to exchange soon with 3 or 4 weeks till completion pacify the builder? You could exchange soon to complete 27th May.

kinger101

I misunderstood you. Thought you didn't yet have a completion date. But as edddy suggests, it's possible the builder will cut of his nose to spite has face. Ask you solicitor to point out that this happened because the top of the chain didn't have their paperwork ready in time, and you're already compromising on the completion date.

Greenlady

OK. So, we moved to this flat 20th day of a month.

Timeline:

- 17th April our solicitor asks us if we could complete 6th May. We said no but could she check if 13th May was OK. Builder did not agree. (We didn't even know we were close to exchange. Returned from holiday and papers were in our post box, so we headed to solicitors office so she could witness signatures straight away).

- 19th April I was chasing yet again when I was told not to give our notice due some missing documents at the top of the chain. (Builder)

- 22nd April we were asked to complete 6th May again, having already missed our deadline to give one month notice.

- We then suggested 27th May because of rent/mortgage issue. Rejected.

Deadlock.

Hope this clarifies things a bit better with dates.

Greenlady

I did point this to the solicitor. I think she put her foot in it for not assessing the situation better. I got better clarification from agent later on who told me what the missing documents were and that they were just getting duplicates.

Our solicitor just told us not to do anything which alarmed us. If she told us it was nothing major we'd have probably taken the risk and given our notice.

But I also understand she wanted to cover herself because experience probably tells her things can go wrong at last minute.

Greenlady

franklee wrote: »

The dates aren't making sense to me.



So your rental periods are 21st to 20th.



Surely you want to serve notice by 20th May to leave 20th June. So you need to exchange contracts at latest a few days before 20th May. If posting your notice you need to allow time for delivery. If you leave exchange till 27th you will miss the boat for serving notice for another month.

Will offering to exchange soon with 3 or 4 weeks till completion pacify the builder? You could exchange soon to complete 27th May.

Everyone wants to exchange this week. But builder won't accept 27th May (everyone else in chain OK with it) as he's on holiday. He won't accept later. Would compromise week of 16th but we already compromised to the 27th, we feel.

We're taking our rent notice in person, and yes, we need to give it 19th May.

Debtslayer

Are you getting exchange and completion mixed up of think they have to bd done together?
You now say builder wants to exchange this week. You don't have to exchange and complete same time. You could exchange this week with a completion date of a couple of weeks time.
Once exchanged then you can give notice on your rental property, as everyone is tied into contracts then, that's why your solicitor would have told you to wait

Hoploz

Does the date really matter? Just get it exchanged ASAP whatever the completion date.

The problem here is the builder. You aren't solving the problem by not agreeing to his date, you're creating another problem.

BTW solicitors will always tell you to wait. They have no interest in speeding things up. They are used to sitting and waiting, it's how they work. They always wait for every t to be crossed and I to be dotted before making a move, it's the way their world works.