28 Day Exchange Of Cotracts

Laurawr200

Hi,

My Fiance and I have just had an offer accepted on a house, the house us part exchanged and we have paid a £250 reservation fee to the property developer. They have said we need to be able to exchange contracts in 28 days! Is this possible? We are first tme buyers and have an appointment at the bank on Saturday to apply for the mortgage (we have done AIP already etc).

Really worried this is not enough time! Can anyone help?

Thanks!

G_M

Why have you paid a reservation fee?

What are the terms of this fee?

And what happens if you offer to Exchange on day 29?

AnotherJoe

Laurawr200 wrote: »

Hi,

My Fiance and I have just had an offer accepted on a house, the house us part exchanged and we have paid a £250 reservation fee to the property developer. They have said we need to be able to exchange contracts in 28 days! Is this possible? We are first tme buyers and have an appointment at the bank on Saturday to apply for the mortgage (we have done AIP already etc).

Really worried this is not enough time! Can anyone help?

Thanks!

Yes it's "possible" but "possible" does not equal "will happen".

lee111s

We were given 6 weeks. It was 9 weeks on Tuesday and we signed contracts yesterday, hopefully exchanging next week.

We done everything we could to get it done sooner but sometimes these things just take time. As long as you're not dragging your feet there's usually flexibility. I think they put in the timescales to prevent people from messing about.

theartfullodger

Laurawr200 wrote: »

Hi,

My Fiance and I have just had an offer accepted on a house, the house us part exchanged and we have paid a £250 reservation fee to the property developer..

Unless the terms & conditions or receipt given when paying reservation fee mention the 28 day exchange then tell them to go forth & multiply...

It may be they will next say "use our conveyancer he'll sort it quickly". Do NOT use their tame chap (he'll be working for them, not you...).

Buying/selling property can be stressful & "challenging". Make sure you can cope or don't do it!

Mobeer

Previously discussed:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5507652
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5398493

Thrugelmir

28 days is simply to weed out time wasters. Providing everything is moving forward you'll be ok.

bris

Thrugelmir wrote: »

28 days is simply to weed out time wasters. Providing everything is moving forward you'll be ok.

Maybe you missed the part where they say they are going to the bank to apply for a mortgage, which means they haven't even applied for a mortgage yet.


28 days is still possible but tbh very unlikely, can't see it happening in this time frame without even an application form submitted, AIP helps but still cutting it very tight.

Lu_Lu

Ours was about 6 weeks from reservation to exchange of contracts. Our solicitor didn't actually get the draft contract from the developers until 2 weeks before w exchanged either! We applied properly for our mortgage about a week after reserving - we had an AIP but ended up using a broker to get the HTB mortgage anyway so the AIP meant nothing.

As others have said, they say 28 days so theres no timewasters. As long as you can show you are working to move things along they would be silly to remarket the house. Someone will be along in a minute to say that happened to them!

Get a solicitor lined up now also and appoint them soon (I am sure someone will advise whether to wait for the mortgage application to go in) as the developer will look favourably on you if you start spending money!

Good luck!