Exchanging without a Completion Date

james.olliver

Looking for some advice, we are in the process of buying a property and leaving our rental accommodation. All the particulars have been agreed and we are at the stage of arranging a completion date, however the vendor has now decided that they want to exchange without a completion date in place.

The vendor is purchasing a new build so apparently there have been delays with their own completion, what worries me is that their original date was the end of September, which then got pushed back to the end of October and now to the end of November.

We have served our two months notice on our rental accommodation and need to leave by the end of November as we have made clear throughout the process to both the Vendor and all legal representatives.

I don't want to sign without a completion date in place as it would open up the possibility of never ending delays. our mortgage offer only lasts until February and we will already be out of pocket if we need to find temporary accommodation.

Does anyone know of any options available to us? Is there any way we can insist on a completion date?

kingstreet

Completion is a compromise by the parties in the chain.

If completion on notice is required by a builder, their buyer will have no choice.

For your vendor to give you a fixed date, they would have to be willing to move out even if the newbuild isn't ready.

Some will do that. Some won't.

Your solicitor needs to put this to theirs.

PassingOutInTheParade

james.olliver wrote: »

Looking for some advice, we are in the process of buying a property and leaving our rental accommodation. All the particulars have been agreed and we are at the stage of arranging a completion date, however the vendor has now decided that they want to exchange without a completion date in place.

The vendor is purchasing a new build so apparently there have been delays with their own completion, what worries me is that their original date was the end of September, which then got pushed back to the end of October and now to the end of November.

We have served our two months notice on our rental accommodation and need to leave by the end of November as we have made clear throughout the process to both the Vendor and all legal representatives.

I don't want to sign without a completion date in place as it would open up the possibility of never ending delays. our mortgage offer only lasts until February and we will already be out of pocket if we need to find temporary accommodation.

Does anyone know of any options available to us? Is there any way we can insist on a completion date?

Why did you give notice before you had a completion date? That was an incredibly risky thing to do.

I'm in a similar situation and won't serve notice until I have a completion date confirmed by solicitors in writing. My solicitor strongly advised against serving notice with a 'long-stop' completion.

Is there any way you can extend your notice period with your landlord? Otherwise your only option is to remain beyond the end of the notice and have the landlord take out legal action to evict you.

Calls to your solicitor and landlord should be your top priority today.

jennhg88

Came here to say the above ^

davidmcn

Either you put up with the current proposal (and have a Plan B ready in case you need to find temporary accommodation), or you persuade your sellers to agree a fixed date with you and they take on the risk of finding a temp address (which I think is the way it ought to be, but you appear to have already accepted the principle of going along with the developer's timescales).

PassingOutInTheParade

davidmcn wrote: »

Either you put up with the current proposal (and have a Plan B ready in case you need to find temporary accommodation), or you persuade your sellers to agree a fixed date with you and they take on the risk of finding a temp address (which I think is the way it ought to be, but you appear to have already accepted the principle of going along with the developer's timescales).

I can't see the seller agreeing to that as the buyer has already been made fully aware of the open ended nature of the transaction, and been flexible.

Rambosmum

james.olliver wrote: »

Looking for some advice, we are in the process of buying a property and leaving our rental accommodation. All the particulars have been agreed and we are at the stage of arranging a completion date, however the vendor has now decided that they want to exchange without a completion date in place.

The vendor is purchasing a new build so apparently there have been delays with their own completion, what worries me is that their original date was the end of September, which then got pushed back to the end of October and now to the end of November.

We have served our two months notice on our rental accommodation and need to leave by the end of November as we have made clear throughout the process to both the Vendor and all legal representatives. - well that was silly, you cold well end up homeless

I don't want to sign without a completion date in place as it would open up the possibility of never ending delays. our mortgage offer only lasts until February and we will already be out of pocket if we need to find temporary accommodation. - sensible

Does anyone know of any options available to us? Is there any way we can insist on a completion date?

You could insist on a completion date of November, when you need to be out and see what the vendor says, they don't have to agree.


You could agree that the completion date is flexible within a fixed time frame (for example 6 months) as long as all parties give 1 months notice/ 2 weeks notice etc (i.e. they can't turn round and say completion is tomorrow).


You could insist completion date is whenever YOU like, but the vendor doesn't have to agree.


You could pull out.


If you go for option 2, or the vendor doesn't agree with options 1 and 3 I strongly recommend you talk to your landlord and see if you can extend your stay in your current place - they may be willing if they haven't already marketed it.


Do you need a mortgage? When is your offer valid until? DO NOT agree to completion after that point, you don't know how long it'll take to get another offer.

AnotherJoe

james.olliver wrote: »

Does anyone know of any options available to us?

-Rescind notice to LL.
-Move out to parents/friends/holiday let.
-Stay put and let LL evict you.
-Give an ultimatum to your vendors "completion date is X or we call the whole thing off". And go through with it (or, just call their bluff, and then fall back to one of the above options if they call yours)

james.olliver wrote: »

Is there any way we can insist on a completion date?

You can "insist" on whatever you want. Doesn't mean you'll get it.

If you insist with your buyers on a specific fixed date and mean it when you say the deal is off unless you complete by a specific date, and they believe you, maybe they will have to be the ones who move out to parents/friends/holiday let because they are likely to be much more on the hook with their builder than you are with them. They may even have exchanged already or be subject to all sorts of financial penalties such as losing deposit monies paid for options on the new house, etc.

Do you know if your vendors have exchanged with their builder? Also, are you buying from the people whose house you wish to buy or this a part exchange where they sold to the builder and really you are buying from the builder?

eddddy

Rambosmum wrote: »

You could agree that the completion date is flexible within a fixed time frame (for example 6 months) as long as all parties give 1 months notice/ 2 weeks notice etc (i.e. they can't turn round and say completion is tomorrow).

Developers generally give 10 days notice for completion - so the OP would get that same amount of notice. (Unless the OP's buyer can negotiate something different.)

Similarly, developers offer a 'long-stop' date (a date after which the buyer can walk-away) - so the OP could get the same 'long-stop' date in their contract.


But anything more than that would mean that the OP's seller is still might need to arrange temp accommodation - so it would be simpler just to fix completion date anyway.

AdrianC

Quite simply, your rental notice (which legally only needed to be one month) is not the problem of the builders who are trying to get the property ready for your vendor to move into... It won't move them along any, not least because I'm sure they'd quite like to sign the place off asap...

james.olliver

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

We had served the notice on our current landlords as all our verbal communications with the vendors up until this point had not pointed to anything on their new build moving past the end of November. Lesson learned there!

The vendors have agreed to an exchange with their builders with a completion date yet to be determined which is the root of the uncertainty around the dates. If we could get a date when the builders can agree they'll be done by (wishful thinking probably) then at least we can make a reasoned decision about whether to wait or pull out.

We've been in contact with our solicitors to put our point across to the vendors and enquire about any timescale they have on a completion period for their new property. Fingers crossed we can find some sort of compromise (from ourselves and the vendor) on the time or we would have to pull out.