Concluding missives on back to back properties

fionah

My house went to closing 6 weeks ago with a number of bidders. The chosen bidder said they already had an agreement in principle and were flexible with entry dates.

The qualified acceptance was issued to the buyer, but they missed a deadline of last week to conclude missives citing that they were still waiting for their mortgage offer. Is it normal to take this long to receive a mortgage offer?

In the meantime I put in an offer to purchase a second house, and they have also given me a deadline of this week to conclude missives. My new mortgage offer is in place, but I cannot conclude on the second house until the missives are concluded on my existing home.

I'm worried that the purchase of the second home will fall through as a result of this. I already had concerns when the buyer pushed back the entry date by 2 weeks, just over 2 weeks prior to the originally agreed entry date. This then caused problems for the seller of my second home, who are also dependent on their sale to purchase their second property.

So far any requests to my solicitor to try and push the buyer to conclude on the existing property have been fruitless. Solicitor said it was out of his hands, and that all we can do is wait.

Is there anything else I can do here? Is it normal for missive deadlines to be delayed? Both houses are in Scotland.

Are there any financial options for me get a temporary loan to cover the deposit for the second home that would have been funded by the proceeds from the sale of the existing house? My mortgage adviser confirmed I would need to restart the application process if I needed a higher LTV, and would be complicated by the fact that I still own the existing house and will need to pay an LBTT additional dwelling supplement temporarily. In any case, I don't have time for this since I'm due to conclude in 2 days, and DOE is in 2 weeks.

davidmcn

fionah wrote: »

Solicitor said it was out of his hands, and that all we can do is wait.

This is reasonable advice. You can't magic up a mortgage offer for your buyers - all you can do is either wait for them or remarket.

Is it normal for missive deadlines to be delayed?

Yes, deadlines are just unilaterally imposed things to try to hurry along the other party.

Both houses are in Scotland.

They would be, nowhere else has missives

Are there any financial options for me get a temporary loan to cover the deposit for the second home that would have been funded by the proceeds from the sale of the existing house?

Nothing which wouldn't be prohibitively expensive and/or affect your current mortgage application. Bear in mind that this would be an open-ended arrangement as you can't be sure when you'll actually complete your sale.

fionah

Thanks for your advice, David.

My concerns are that either the buyer is stalling, or have trouble getting a mortgage - does it really take 6 weeks? Even the buyer's mortgage surveyor already came out to value the house nearly 4 weeks ago.

My mortgage application for the second house took 7 days from start to finish!

davidmcn

Different people's applications take different lengths of time - have a look around here or the mortgages board and you'll see. Of course it could mean they're having trouble and/or playing for time. But you have no way of knowing for sure.