Seller at top of chain holding things up

The_Logans

It's 12 weeks today since we had our offer accepted on the house we are buying. We (and our sellers) were hoping for a quick turnaround however their onward purchase hit a snag in conveyancing with an issue in the searches. That was resolved last week and everything is in place ready to exchange. However, the vendors of their onward purchase seem to be delaying moving as much as they can. Here we are one week on from reaching the 'ready to exchange' point and there is still no completion date on the table. It seems they want at least 3 weeks between exchange and completion (for some reason that seems to be a mystery to everyone but themselves) and need to find somewhere to rent.


Is there anything we can do to progress this or do we need to just sit tight and wait for the vendors to sort it out?

Thanetia

This is where a decent Estate Agent really earns their fee - speak to them and get them working on this if they're not already. 12 weeks isn't exactly unusual in terms of time, especially if there is a chain.

Grampus8

The_Logans wrote: »

It's 12 weeks today since we had our offer accepted on the house we are buying. We (and our sellers) were hoping for a quick turnaround however their onward purchase hit a snag in conveyancing with an issue in the searches. That was resolved last week and everything is in place ready to exchange. However, the vendors of their onward purchase seem to be delaying moving as much as they can. Here we are one week on from reaching the 'ready to exchange' point and there is still no completion date on the table. It seems they want at least 3 weeks between exchange and completion (for some reason that seems to be a mystery to everyone but themselves) and need to find somewhere to rent.


Is there anything we can do to progress this or do we need to just sit tight and wait for the vendors to sort it out?

Is that not the reason?

martindow

I'm not sure that wanting three weeks between exchange and completion is excessive. Dates to exchange and complete are up for negotiation. If you turn it round why do you need it to be less than three weeks?

As has been said this is where agents should be earning their fees. They will be very eager to keep everything together.

Victor_the_Gink

Is having a small gap between exchange and completion a new phenomenon? I think we've always had somewhere in the region of a month gap.

LandyAndy

Victor_the_Gink wrote: »

Is having a small gap between exchange and completion a new phenomenon? I think we've always had somewhere in the region of a month gap.

A month would be pretty unusual now. Two weeks would be more common.


I wanted a month when I last bought 11 years ago (to allow my AST to run down on my rental) but the best I could get was 12 days.

Ithaca

Victor_the_Gink wrote: »

Is having a small gap between exchange and completion a new phenomenon? I think we've always had somewhere in the region of a month gap.

We exchange the night before completion day, and although we found it quite stressful it's apparently more and more common.

The request/transfer process for mortgage funds is a lot quicker now - our solicitor requested funds at 10am in time for a 2pm completion - so that takes out one of the historic reasons for the gap between exchange and completion.

Where we live estate agents and solicitors also prefer as short a gap as possible between exchange and completion as they deal with a lot of older vendors (i.e. in their 80s/90s) and certainly our estate agent said they've had more than a few cases where the vendor has died in the three weeks between exchange and completion which puts everything into probate and causes all sorts of problems! It's a particular issue in our town as it has a high percentage of people who bought in the post-war building boom and who are now looking to downsize or more into residential care, but the upheaval of leaving a home they've been in for years can do funny things health-wise.

LoopyLoops

Finding somewhere to rent takes time. They won't want to sign a lease until exchange and there isn't much point looking at rentals until close to exchange as they come and go much quicker than a for sale house. Once you find the right property you have to wait for checks to happen, and most agents so to allow at least 5 days for that alone. We are moving out to rented this time and I will want at least 2 weeks between exchange and completion.

wantonnoodle

We completed the day after exchange. The conveyancers didn't want to exchange until they had the funds in their account ready for completion. We wanted a week between, but due to delays and holidays, we were unable to complete the week before, and then, due to the short timeframe, our conveyancer didn't want to risk failure to complete so wouldn't commit until he knew the money was there. It was stressful, but we got there in the end. If the vendors are going into rented, then should they not have already identified somewhere and be signing a contract. Its pretty well expected that going between rented and owned, whichever direction, there is going to be an overlap. How big that is can vary (we had 8 weeks) but they need to suck it up and get on with things.