Contract signing date pushed back, but we have handed in our current notice!

sheramber

You do realise the signing may or may not take place in November. You could be living with family or friends for many weeks.

You will not be paying a month's rent for nothing. You will be paying for the security of a roof over your head.

davidmcn

EmmacaJ11 wrote: »

we were advised to do this by the Housing Association (in interest to all parties). When an expert advises you to do something, generally you listen if you haven't been informed otherwise.

As stated, we are first-time-buyers, so are hopeful that when (what should be) a reliable source provides an instruction, it be correct and advisable to do.

The housing association aren't acting in the interests of all parties, they're the other party in the transaction and only have to act in their own interests. And they're not experts! You should be taking advice from your own experts i.e. your solicitors, since that's what you're paying them for.

EmmacaJ11

sheramber wrote: »

You do realise the signing may or may not take place in November. You could be living with family or friends for many weeks.

You will not be paying a month's rent for nothing. You will be paying for the security of a roof over your head.

Thank you. Yes, I do understand that the signing may be delayed for a long period of time, but thank you for reiterating.

And again, there is a misunderstanding here with regards to rent. Yes - now, we would be paying for security - but it is unfortunately too late to extend.

The money we would have paid for nothing would have been if the original contract signing date had been met. Handing our notice is something we had to decide upon fairly blindly, as if we hadn't given notice when we did, we'd have had to paid rent on our current tenancy until the end of November, regardless of whether we still lived there. This was a gamble, yes, and it seemingly didn't pay off in our favour. If we hadn't given notice when we did and had moved into the new property when expected, we'd be paying a large amount of money in rent for our current property, for no reason. I hope you understand this now.

Again, we were advised to do what we did by people who should have been a reliable source. We were also informed that there was little chance of the signing date being moved as the new-build is fully built and there is basically no reason for paperwork to be delayed. Based upon this, we did what we thought was best - something that had been advised. Indeed, it seems that this was the wrong decision - but everything considered, this issue shouldn't have really arisen....(probably why the Housing Association so confidently informed us to to the above).

EmmacaJ11

davidmcn wrote: »

The housing association aren't acting in the interests of all parties, they're the other party in the transaction and only have to act in their own interests. And they're not experts! You should be taking advice from your own experts i.e. your solicitors, since that's what you're paying them for.

We did take advise from our solicitors, who advised the same. Thank you.

HouseBuyer77

We did take advise from our solicitors, who advised the same. Thank you.

Your solicitors advised you to hand in notice on your rental before exchange? This is certainly poor advice and they should have at least advised you of the potential risk. Uncertain if you would have an actual claim against them (maybe you could hold them liable for your extra accommodation costs incurred if you end up having to stay in a holiday let or B&B for a while) but certainly worth a complaint at least.

Do you have this advice in writing (or email) or was it by phone call or in person?

Have you talked to them about this?

00ec25

EmmacaJ11 wrote: »

Are they allowed to to this?

yes they are

you are the ones who took a gamble in order to try and avoid a tenancy/purchase overlap period. That gamble has not worked and you now face the consequences of your decision

saajan_12

EmmacaJ11 wrote: »

Hi all,

Thank you all for your suggestions on our situation. Some of the replies are getting a bit confused with what the real issue is we are facing, but it is incredibly difficult to convey the totality of the situation in words. - what's the real issue?
The question in your OP "Are they allowed to do this" has been answered - YES. The rest is explaining why / how you should proceed / how you could avoid this next time.. all helpful so I don't see your problem with responders. Again, I do appreciate your responses - even if some are worded slightly more strongly than perhaps necessary.

I want to clarify that we have not had 'unrealistic expectations' with overlap in rental - it is unrealistic to assume completion will happen on a particular date and thus you will have certain shorter overlap until you actually exchange. - this is an issue that has been confused within the thread. We always knew there would be overlap and have budgeted for this. - you suggest you havent budgeted for 'an extra month' that would be the case if you only give notice if/when you exchange.

Whether or not we made the right decision to hand our notice in when we did (it seems not), we were advised to do this by the Housing Association (in interest to all parties)-
HA are the other party, not expected to act in your interest.
, so as far as we were aware - this was something that everyone was doing (there are other people in our situation currently)- relevance? other people do stupid things all the time. . When an expert advises you to do something, generally you listen if you haven't been informed otherwise. - HA aren't experts. If you haven't been informed by YOUR advisors/experts its up to you to find out.

As stated, we are first-time-buyers, so are hopeful that when (what should be) a reliable source provides an instruction, it be correct and advisable to do. - no, it's buyer beware.
You pay your advisors and rely on that alone. In hindsight (which is a wonderful thing) we perhaps should not have given our notice, but we were not to know this was not commonplace, as we were lead to believe it was! - Your fault for being led to believe anything by the HA. You should have found out whether it's the best course of action, what's commonplace is irrelevant.
Furthermore, if we hadn't handed in our notice and the contract dates (as aforementioned) had been adhered to, we would be paying an extra months rent for absolutely no reason- the reason is security that you only give up the current accommodation when your purchase is guaranteed.
whatsoever...which where we live, is A LOT of money to just throw into our landlords pockets for 4 weeks of not even living there.- you can live there, and slowly move things.


So in response to "You have to budget for this when buying a house, if your finances are so tight you cannot afford an "extra" months rent, you cannot afford to buy a house, with all the financial risks that come with it." - we have budgeted. You haven't budgeted enough. You may have budgeted for a short overlap but needed to be able to cover whatever overlap arises if you wait until exchange actually takes place before giving notice. If that's at the start of a tenancy period,
then you could have 2 months more rent to pay, less the time before completion. Believe me....and have paid for many mistakes made by others already - this isn't anyone else's mistake, it's yours. Whatever indications on dates before exchange should be interpreted as 'probably this date'. - however, we were not prepared to pay another months rent for no reason at all. This would have been throwing money down the drain. - No, its paying for security. This extra month is what you haven't budgeted for.
Also, we are buying through a shared-ownership scheme - designed for people trying to get their foot on the ever-more-challenging property ladder. These schemes are tailored for people who may not have quite as much money in the bank as people who buying outright.- So you didn't need a deposit / affordability for a mortgage on the full property value unlike people buying outright. However even on SO & just moving between rentals, you need to have money for the full overlap in moving dates in order to secure the next place before you give notice.. sounds like you don't have / aren't willing to spend the funds for even that.

I also want to clarify that our tenancy is not very flexible - wherever this assumption has been made it is false. If our tenancy was flexible, we would not be having such an issue.-
It is flexible in that you can give one period's notice.

Again, I really appreciate everyone's responses and I agree that perhaps we should have waited to hand our notice in. However, this may have resulted in the case where we'd have been paying a large sum of money in rent, for not even living there anymore.- well, that's your choice then, why are you complaining. For us, this amount is too much to potentially just throw into our landlord's pockets which is why we made the decision we did - which again, was advised by a (supposedly) reliable source - we have this in writing. - No one's saying the HA didn't say that. We're saying it's your mistake to rely on that as they are the other side.
I wish we were in the position where we could happily pay a months rent for no reason (lucky you, if you are in this position)! - If this was the case, we'd not have had to make the gamble we have had to make. - Exactly, it's a gamble YOU chose.. saved the month's rent if all went well,
but potentially double rent / higher rents of a holiday let if it doesn't.. lots of renters can't afford that risk.

I expect the route we will need to take is living with friends/family until the legal works on our new build have been done and a contract signing date has been re-assessed.-
as said that could be indefinitely.. what will you do if it all falls through or is longer than your friends/family can accommodate?

The answer to your question is YES, they can change the date.. the HA have no contract with you to the contrary. The rest of the advice here explains why this is the case / to suggest next your next steps as well as advice for next time.. all helpful stuff.

You employ advisors and should rely on what they say, NOT the HA who are the other side. Besides, it seems clear logically that if you haven't exchanged then there is no contract to purchase yet, so things can fall through and it would be unwise to do anything you can't undo assuming you will be moving.

aneary

saajan_12 wrote: »

You employ advisors and should rely on what they say,

Their solicitors said the same thing.

G_M

1) The HA may (or may not) be 'professional'. But they are 'the other side' (the enemy!). You have a solicitor to check everyting because the 'other side' cannot be fully trusted - even when it's a 'professional' HA.

2) I find it hard to believe your solicitor advised you to hand in your notice. What exactly did they say and in exactly what context? Ie was it in response to something specific you told them about your circumstances.

However if the solicitor did advise you to hand in your notice before Excange, without warning you of potential consequences, and in a situation where there were no other mitigating circumstances, then that could well constitute poor professional advice, and you might have a claim against your solicitor.

3) You say your tenancy is not 'flexible'. Yet earlier you said:

our current tennancy ends October 30th, if we hand our notice in any later than September 30th we will have to stay until November 30th

* If you have a fixed term which ends on Oct 30th, then you do NOT have to hand in notice by Sept 30th. In fact you do not have to hand in any notice. You simply leave when the fixed term ends

* which suggests you have a monthly periodic tenancy and have to hand in notice a month (strictly a 'tenancy period') before ending the tenancy. In that case, if you miss the deadlne to hand in notice on 30th Sept, you simply do it a month later and end the tenancy a month later.

That is the 'flexibility' described earlier, which comes from a periodic tenancy.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

EmmacaJ11 wrote: »

We did take advise from our solicitors, who advised the same. Thank you.

Can you explain the exact circumstances of this please.