Selling a house in England and buying a B&B in Scotland

irbit

Hello! Has anyone been in a similar situation?

I am just reading up on the English and Scottish system and it seems very complicated due to different jurisdiction plus home vs commercial.

It looks like we will need 2 separate solicitors. I am also concerned about the chain - how can we make a legally binding offer on a B&B in Scotland without having sold the house in England?

Any advice will be much appreciated!

davidmcn

irbit wrote: »

how can we make a legally binding offer on a B&B in Scotland without having sold the house in England?

You can't (if you need the funds from the sale), but you probably don't want to make a particularly binding offer anyway - these days offers are generally conditional on you getting a mortgage offer (if you need one?), possibly on survey, you might not have completed your due diligence on the business etc - I wouldn't expect there to be a binding contract particularly quickly. And for similar reasons, anybody who was selling in Scotland would also want to wait until they had a binding contract for their sale first. So the cross-border aspect isn't necessarily adding to the complications.

It would be easier if you don't need to link the two transactions e.g. if you can stay somewhere else between selling and buying?

martindow

davidmcn wrote: »

It would be easier if you don't need to link the two transactions e.g. if you can stay somewhere else between selling and buying?

Totally agree with this. You really need to live in an area to become familiar with it to be sure that you buy your B&B where it will be a success.

System

You can have a condition on your offer that the missives cannot be completed until you have sold your current property, that way you have a binding offer but it's dependant on the sale of your house.
I did this with my most recent move and it was a bit nerve wracking tbh! although it did work out in the end, just be prepared for the sellers solicitor to pester you when you are trying to sell your house! If you are in an area with a reasonably buoyant market and property moves quite quickly then it's probably not a big worry for the seller.
Offers in scotland are binding and dependant on the conclusion of the missive conditions (i.e. when all the conditions are satisfied then you cannot back out)

comeandgo

the_r_sole wrote: »

You can have a condition on your offer that the missives cannot be completed until you have sold your current property, that way you have a binding offer but it's dependant on the sale of your house.
I did this with my most recent move and it was a bit nerve wracking tbh! although it did work out in the end, just be prepared for the sellers solicitor to pester you when you are trying to sell your house! If you are in an area with a reasonably buoyant market and property moves quite quickly then it's probably not a big worry for the seller.

If my property sale went to sealed bids there is no way on Earth i would accept this, even if the highest bid. Sell your property, then you are in a much better position to buy.

System

comeandgo wrote: »

If my property sale went to sealed bids there is no way on Earth i would accept this, even if the highest bid. Sell your property, then you are in a much better position to buy.

Much better position to buy but depends on the property you are purchasing, b and b's usually take a bit longer to sell so comes down to how many offers there are for it.
Obviously if there are clean bids then it puts your offer down the order of preference but it can be done

sheramber

Sellers in Scotland must have a home report which is accepted by the mortgage lender if the surveyor is on their panel.

It is up to the seller whether they accept an offer with a condition of waiting for a house sale as most Scottish sales go ahead on the offer acceptance.

An entry date is usually included in the offer.

We have moved in 4 weeks on two of our house moves.

ProDave

irbit wrote: »

Hello! Has anyone been in a similar situation?

I am just reading up on the English and Scottish system and it seems very complicated due to different jurisdiction plus home vs commercial.

It looks like we will need 2 separate solicitors. I am also concerned about the chain - how can we make a legally binding offer on a B&B in Scotland without having sold the house in England?

Any advice will be much appreciated!

What size B&B are you looking for?

You do know that small B&B's with only 2 rooms to let (like ours that is for sale) are sold as residential properties and don't have any particular rules to abide by. What part of Scotland are you looking and at what price range?