Remuneration due to missed completion?

pinkteapot

Ian_875 wrote: »

For what it's worth, I'm currently a FTB awaiting completion myself on a property with no chain, and I'm more than expecting to have a month where I'm paying both rent and mortgage. I won't even think of putting my notice in until everything is agreed.

You can give notice as soon as you've exchanged contracts (your solicitor will confirm when that's happened). You can ask your seller for a few weeks between exchange and completion - they might not mind. Depends on their circumstances. So you might be able to reduce the overlap a little (though remember you have to give a month's notice to a rent payment date, so if you've just paid rent then exchange with a short completion, you could actually end up with more than a month's overlap).

aries_163

Also, general advice is to have some time between exchange and completion so you have time to organise removals etc once dates are fully confirmed.
Exchanging and completing on the same day or even in the same week would terrify me in case it all fell through.

rcast1989

aries_163 wrote: »

Unfortunately when buying whilst currently in rented, an extra months rent should be accounted for in your finances / budgeting.
What would you have done if the seller pulled out 1 day before exchange and you had given notice 3 weeks earlier?
Advice is always to wait until exchange and then give notice as nothing is certain, as you are now unfortunately finding out. It might now coat you more for temp accommodation and storage fees than that extra months rent would have.
I feel for you, as a first time buyer it’s a confusing process and the people we pay for the legal work don’t always seem to communicate in the most efficient way, but you’re just gonna have to put this down to inexperience I think and suck up the extra cost you will incur for temp accommodation/ storage.

@aries_163 very wise words this is exactly how we feel. when legal fees make up 10% of your annual NHS salary you do expect a bit more from professionals who should sympathise and offer more advice about the first time buyer process

pinkteapot

rcast1989 wrote: »

We feel that it is their blame for giving us false expectations as to the exchange/ completion date. over the past 4 weeks when we specifically asked if it was ok to give our landlord notice.

When you specifically asked "Is it OK to give our landlord notice?", what exactly did they say?

borkid

This might help the OP. My son got himself into this kind of muddle. End of year's tenancy on his rental place and completion was about 10 days later. I think there were only about 3 days between exchange and completion. He put his 'stuff' into storage and went into airBNB places for the short time he needed to. Not ideal and stressful but it worked. Do you have friends with a spare piece of floor?

wantonnoodle

You always need to budget for at least 1 months rental overlap when buying your first house, and only give notice at exchange, never earlier. This is because that is the earliest point where anything is legally binding on either party. Before exchange, either party can walk away from the transaction with zero comeback.

We bought our first house 2 years ago, and our tenancy required 2 months notice (we were within a 12 month fixed term) to break the tenancy. We only exchanged on the Wednesday, and completed on the Friday. We put the notice in on the Wednesday when we exchanged (which incidentally was the last day we could put it in without it going to 3 months notice), which meant we had 2 months where we had both houses. It was actually a blessing, as it meant that we could do the decorating before we moved in (much much easier - I highly recommend it as you don't have to work round boxes/furniture). As it happened, financially, even though we had 2 months of overlap, there was only 1 occasion where we had to pay both mortgage and rent, as we were paying rent in advance, but the mortgage was paid in arrears (they didn't want the first payment until 1 month post completion).

I guess, what I'm trying to say, is that it's actually better to have the overlap than not have it.

rcast1989

pinkteapot wrote: »

When you specifically asked "Is it OK to give our landlord notice?", what exactly did they say?

"I know it may be quite hard to answer definitively but we are also trying to plan when our rental term ends and give one months notice etc.

As such we are currently working on establishing a timeline to assist with the start of life/contents insurance/ utilities etc.
We are hoping to transfer our part of the deposit including the family gift on February 28th (minus the ISA's which should be available by this date also). Ideally and if possible we would hope to try and arrange completion for March 4th with the possibility of having access over the weekend to move boxes etc."

this message was sent 6 weeks ago

rcast1989

wantonnoodle wrote: »

You always need to budget for at least 1 months rental overlap when buying your first house, and only give notice at exchange, never earlier. This is because that is the earliest point where anything is legally binding on either party. Before exchange, either party can walk away from the transaction with zero comeback.

We bought our first house 2 years ago, and our tenancy required 2 months notice (we were within a 12 month fixed term) to break the tenancy. We only exchanged on the Wednesday, and completed on the Friday. We put the notice in on the Wednesday when we exchanged (which incidentally was the last day we could put it in without it going to 3 months notice), which meant we had 2 months where we had both houses. It was actually a blessing, as it meant that we could do the decorating before we moved in (much much easier - I highly recommend it as you don't have to work round boxes/furniture). As it happened, financially, even though we had 2 months of overlap, there was only 1 occasion where we had to pay both mortgage and rent, as we were paying rent in advance, but the mortgage was paid in arrears (they didn't want the first payment until 1 month post completion).

I guess, what I'm trying to say, is that it's actually better to have the overlap than not have it.

Again another great answer but hindsight is an awful burden at this stage. I just feel we should of been given this advice by our solicitors. It would have been no problem to arrange

Finchy2018

Ian_875 wrote: »

For what it's worth, I'm currently a FTB awaiting completion myself on a property with no chain, and I'm more than expecting to have a month where I'm paying both rent and mortgage. I won't even think of putting my notice in until everything is agreed.

Yes, its an extra cost, but ones that factored it. It also means I should hopefully have a month to move things bit by bit and do any odd jobs that need doing without the stress of it all having to be done on the one day

I think you'll have to chalk this one down to an expensive lesson learned and take the hit on some temporary accommodation, or possibly even speak to your landlord and ask if they can extend your lease a few weeks? I know they've got someone lined up, but they might also be willing to wait.

We had a 2 month notice period, so served noticed when we exchanged, there is basically a 2 month over lap, which we budgeted for and it's been a godsend as we decided to do more initial work than we had planned, so delayed our move, we've had 3 weeks at the rental whilst making our new house perfect and will move this weekend with 4 weeks (1 payment) left on the rental. I'm making the most of having time to move, as next time it's likely to be in a chain and we won't have this luxury.

eddddy

Whilst deciding about what temp accommodation to arrange, bear in mind that it could still be some weeks until you complete.


Also, there is the worst case scenario that your purchase completely falls through...

... for example, if the searches or pre-contract enquiries show up problems, your solicitor must tell your mortgage lender.

If the problems are serious, your mortgage lender might withdraw your mortgage offer.

(Or the seller might simply change their mind about selling - perhaps because something unforeseen happens.)