Completion date close to expiry of mortgage offer

samkenn

Hi all,

This is my first time posting, so let me know if anything could be clearer! And apologies for the length, I'm trying to give extra detail in case it's helpful.

The crux of this post is that I am unclear how much risk I am taking by agreeing to a completion date close to the expiry of my mortgage offer.

A bit of background:
My partner and I are first-time buyers and we had an offer accepted on a flat back in November last year. We were originally planning to exchange contracts in February but on the day agreed for exchange the top of the chain pulled out, saying they'd found subsidence in the place they were buying. However, the chain didn't collapse entirely and the rest of us agreed that we'd wait for them to find a new place to buy or, failing that, move into rental.
Since then, they've had an offer accepted elsewhere and the whole chain is getting ready to exchange on the 20th April. The only outstanding issue appears to be agreeing the completion date.

The current question:
As a result of the earlier delay, my partner and I had to get our mortgage offer (from Virgin Money) extended. It now expires on the 16th May and we're told it won't be extended again. The upper chain have asked for a completion date of no earlier than the 4th May as they are still breaking the chain and would like two weeks to find a rental property. However, my partner and I are on holiday from the 3rd until the 9th of May (booked long, long before we knew that the upper chain were originally going to pull out!) and we would like to be around on the completion date, so we are considering suggesting the 10th or 11th of May instead. My question then becomes how much of a risk am I taking that, after exchange of contracts and agreeing a completion date, the agreed date is missed for one reason or another, completion is delayed by 3/4 working days and our mortgage offer expires?

I've asked both my lender and solicitor about this and both suggested it was very unlikely - especially as all our paperwork is in order and has been for some time! - but I'm just after another opinion. Does anyone have any experience of completion dates slipping, and if so what happened?

Given the earlier collapse of the chain, I don't have much faith in this process or the people involved, which is I suppose why I'm being ultra-cautious.

Our options:
As I see it, these are our three options:

1. Agree a completion date of the 11th. This would suit us well as we would be in the country for completion, but are we cutting it fine only allowing three working days as a 'grace period' should completion be delayed?
2. Complete on the 4th as the upper chain requested. This is the path of least resistance and is annoying as we wouldn't be in the country for completion. Given how things have gone so far, I'd like to be around in case anything goes wrong or I need to chase anyone. Also, it feels a bit irritating to be paying for a property when we can't take up residence and begin enjoying it. I know this happens all the time, whenever anyone goes on holiday, but still! It particularly smarts as we're currently living rent-free. Further, we'd still only have 8 working days' grace were completion to slip. Has anyone else completed on a property purchase while away?
3. Complete earlier, say the 30th April. I think this is an unlikely outcome given the upper chain have already said no to this twice. I'm not in any mood to oblige them after they initially caused the delay, but I can see that they might need a bit of time to find a short-term rental place. Further, as with option 2, I'm not inclined to pay for accommodation I won't be using while we're away.

Any advice would be much appreciated, particularly around the likelihood of completion dates slipping once contracts are exchanged. If I can feel comfortable that isn't going to happen, I'd happily plump for option 1.

Thanks very much for your help, and sorry again for the monster post!

Slithery

It's incredibly rare for completion not to happen after contracts have been exchanged.

samkenn

Thanks very much for this. It does ease my mind a bit. But do you know of any reason why completion might slip, or does it just never happen?

VintageHistorian

The few threads I've seen on this forum about completion not going ahead on the day has mainly been to deluded/idiotic vendors who haven't realised completion day = GET OUT. If you seem to have fairly sane/on the ball people then you should be fine!

samkenn

Well, the people above us seem fairly switched-on, one actually is an estate agent, but it's the people above them in the chain who completely pulled out, who worry me. But I suppose if something happened due to them, I wouldn't be liable for the delay in the sale and the expiry of the mortgage...