Is it possible to insure against loses due to inability to complete after exchange?

6am

Thank you all for replies. I am not expecting to lose my job, but I witnessed several redundancies, and it is always unexpected. That taught me that there is no job security. Today I am fine, tomorrow I might be under the thread of redundancy.

I am the first in the chain, therefore if I do not complete, then probably the whole chain will collapse and I will lose more than my deposit.

Even if I do want to exchange and complete at the same time it is possible that somebody in the chain will be against it for various reasons and I will be forced to take an unnecessary risk. Can I pass this risk on the person that insists on different times?

I get a feeling that some people think that this is an unlikely scenario and I should not worry about it. I do not believe that. People lose job all the time, and it is not unusual to exchange and complete at different times. Therefore it follows that this scenario is not that rare.

Pixie5740

If you can't agree with the vendor to exchange and complete on the same day then no you cannot pass that "risk" on to them.

Exchanging and completing on the same day is very stressful when you are both selling and buying a property because until exchange all bets are off. There are boxes to be packed and removal firms to be booked.

AnotherJoe

6am wrote: »

i get a feeling that some people think that this is an unlikely scenario and I should not worry about it. I do not believe that. People lose job all the time, and it is not unusual to exchange and complete at different times. Therefore it follows that this scenario is not that rare.

It doesn't follow at all. Far fewer people are made unexpectedly redundant than move. Even fewer of those will have that happen in the one "critical" week out of 52 (typical exchange to complete timeline) because if they are made redundant before exchange they will cancel the move. In a month about 100k house moves and maybe 10k unexpected redundancies

. So that's 1 in 10 x 1in 50 or a 1 in 500 chance they will get notice they may be made redundant, not even actually made redundant. So it's very rare.

davidmcn

6am wrote: »

Even if I do want to exchange and complete at the same time it is possible that somebody in the chain will be against it for various reasons and I will be forced to take an unnecessary risk. Can I pass this risk on the person that insists on different times?.

If you're not prepared to take on the risk of you losing your job, why on earth do you think a complete stranger is likely to bear the risk of you losing your job? You're probably best to have a chat with your solicitor about this as it doesn't sound that you really understand what is "normal" or likely to be accepted by other parties.

AdrianC

G_M wrote: »

Hmmm.... I get angry when weather forecasters warns of bad weather. I love rain - so what the forecaster calls 'bad' I call 'good'.

There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing...

Jonbvn

OP,

It seems to me that there are one of two scenarios playing out here:

1. The risk of you losing your job is much higher than you state. In this case pull out now.

2. You are overthinking the situation. There are always risks between exchange and completion. It is not possible to insure or offset these risks. To minimise (but not eliminate) the risk look to keep the time between exchange and completion to a minimum. PS. Don't consider a skiing holiday either

Dird

If you lose your job or change jobs between exchange and completion, just don't tell them. Simples.

They seem to want stability the few months before, a change of jobs in between wouldn't be stable.

You've got enough to stay above water for 1 year so it's not like their investment is at risk but they still might pull out if you told them and you'd be left with a ££££ bill (breaking the chain) and no house

marksoton

6am wrote: »

Even if I do want to exchange and complete at the same time it is possible that somebody in the chain will be against it for various reasons and I will be forced to take an unnecessary risk. Can I pass this risk on the person that insists on different times?

Are you having a laugh? Why should someone else take on your risk because you're worried about YOUR job.....

6am

marksoton wrote: »

Are you having a laugh? Why should someone else take on your risk because you're worried about YOUR job.....

Because they are responsible for organising the process in a such way where that event (me losing job) had large financial and legal consequences. If I want to exchange and complete at the same time then I cannot lose job between exchange and completion. However if they insist that we have a delay between exchange and completion it is only fair that they should be prepared to pay for consequences.

6am

I read through this discussion and other similar discussions and it seems that the best approach is to be economical with truth. I will probably follow that advice if required.

If the timeframe between exchange and completion is short (say one week) I would like the bank to send money to the solicitor in advance before the exchange takes place? Is it possible? I will then have a small assurance that it will be more difficult for the bank to withdraw from the deal.