Opinions, please: appropriate completion delay?

therealslimcj

Hi, I'd appreciate any thoughts on my situation.

The house I'm buying is in probate and empty. I am not in a chain, so neither buyer nor seller are. The offer was accepted in September and I was very 'on it' with instructing solicitors, making sure everyone had all the id, proof of funds etc they needed. Mortgage was all set up, everything fine. We hoped to be in by Christmas.

However, the seller has been slow getting documents in and responding to queries, so things have dragged a bit. Now, in the past week, the searches have been completed, and the vendor is very keen to get completed by Christmas and I'm getting pressure from the agent, too.

The issue is that I am not able to do the move this side of Christmas. I advised all parties that with work commitments, mid December onwards is too full on. Apart from anything else, I'm not even in the country for 6 of the next 10 days (up to the deadline for completion).

My preference would be to complete as early as possible in the new year.

My question is around how acceptable this is, or what has been your experience in terms of setting that completion date?

Usually, there's a chain and it wants done as quickly as possible; I appreciate that in NOT wanting to move pre Christmas, I'm in an more unusual situation, but is it reasonable for me to say 'I said I couldn't complete mid December, and I can't, and let's do it start of January'? Or is that unreasonable?

Interested to hear your thoughts...

davidmcn

I don't see a problem - it's not as if they're going to flounce off and find anybody else able to complete faster than you.

AdrianC

therealslimcj wrote: »

The issue is that I am not able to do the move this side of Christmas. I advised all parties that with work commitments, mid December onwards is too full on. Apart from anything else, I'm not even in the country for 6 of the next 10 days (up to the deadline for completion).

Just because you complete doesn't mean you have to move in on that day.

You aren't chaining a sale, so it's not as if you have to move out of the old place on that day...

bouicca21

If you are not in a chain, could you not complete any time and move in later?

Alfrescodave

Would your vendor be happy with you exchanging contracts NOW with a completion date in early Jan?
I can't believe that they would be able to arrange a removal company for moving before Christmas - unless they've already spoken to one.

PasturesNew

Not a problem. It's empty so you're not holding anybody else up.

You choose and set your dates. You are the buyer and they won't be finding another.

State your dates, end of conversation.

G_M

Either Exchange now to Complete in the New Year (seller won't find anyone quicker than that!) or if they refuse, Complete befote Xmas and move in later.


What's the problem?

diego_94

When my parents were selling my grandparents probate house a few years back, they were exactly the same as your seller. Wanting to get it all done by a certain date etc, and in my opinion they were being really unfair and unrealistic to the buyers.

They got themselves so obsessed with it having to be done by a certain date, for no reason other than their own mind, it got them so stressed.

I said to them that they need to chill out, as it will make no difference to anyone whether it completes by a certain date. Luckily they took my advice and let it run. All went smoothly after that.

Some vendors can be very dramatic over things, my parents kept telling everyone that the house sale was horrendous, it was far from it.

therealslimcj

Thank you, all, for your responses. The proposed 'exchange asap but complete in January' is the most sensible approach, and I'm happy that this is a perfectly valid approach to take following the responses gained.

Of course, we could take the keys and not move in for a few weeks, but the house needs work before anyone can move in, which won't be able to happen until January, and (especially because I made it clear that mid Dec was a non starter for me if it crept into that territory) I don't want to be paying rent and mortgage at once.

Thanks, again.