How does a 21 day deadline for completion effect other parties in the chain?

wisdom17

Hi,

We had an offer accepted on a property in September. We were given the impression that the seller is not in a chain, however once our offer was accepted it became apparent that the seller needs to buy in order to sell to us.

A few days ago we were informed by the estate agent that the vendor has had an offer accepted and that it has a 21-day deadline for completion. Given how things have been, I am taking this news with a pinch of salt as I get the impression the estate agent is simply trying to keep us on the hook for as long as they can to maximise the chances of the sale going through.

I am trying to be hopeful of the sale going through as we like the house a lot and have struggled to find anything similar (in terms of size and price).

My questions are:
- How does a 21-day deadline for completion on the property our vendor is supposedly buying affect us? Does this mean our solicitor has to also abide by this deadline? 21 days seems highly ambitious and unrealistic.

- How soon can our solicitors expect to receive the first draft contract from the vendor's solicitors?

Appreciate any advice

Linton

A completion date can only be fixed when both sides agree and contracts are exchanged. So at the moment the 21 days is purely the vendor's wish. If you could make 21 days assuming that all the legal and financial aspects are sorted in time you can say so. If you wished you could say that to achieve 21 days you would need exchange of contracts some short time beforehand, say 1 week.



It is unlikely that the vendor's vendor would pull out if the date slipped provided completion was within sight as it would take them much longer to get completion with a new buyer. However it is a theoretical possibility. But there is nothing you can do about that.

AdrianC

Sorry, he's just put in an offer, and has to complete in 21 days...? And you haven't even had the first draft contract?

Wow. Good luck with that.

Even auctions are usually 28 day...

wisdom17

Yeah the highly unrealistic deadline makes me think that the estate agent is just fobbing us off

davidmcn

As Douglas Adams said "'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing noise they make as they go by".

AdrianC

You ain't going to make 21 days. It's that simple. So don't try. Wait for the draft contract, then start work against it.

If the 21 day deadline is hard, and the OP loses their purchase, then...
If it isn't, then situation normal.

ethank

Is the vendor buying a new build or something similar? If vendor is a dependent as you say, then they cannot exchange with you until they've exchanged, and they may not want to exchange on their sale unless they are guaranteed to exchange with you, otherwise they might be homeless.

G_M

Just tell the EA you will do all you can to achieve that. That's true - if you and your conveyancer can achieve it I'm sure you'll be happy!

If you fail (as you probably will) well, you tried!

But don't say no you can't as you'll just turn it into an issue before you've even started!

wisdom17

I spoke to the 'Sales Progressor' person to clarify the situation. She said the vendor is buying from someone who is going to part exchange so I guess the 21-day deadline is coming from that transaction.

I mentioned to her about how unrealistic the deadline is and she agreed, however she said it will be extended if there is reasonable progress in the transaction.

Is a week a reasonable timeframe for my solicitors to expect anything from the seller's side?

AdrianC

wisdom17 wrote: »

I spoke to the 'Sales Progressor' person to clarify the situation. She said the vendor is buying from someone who is going to part exchange

I wonder if there's some Chinese Whispers there...

A is your vendor.
B is the current owner of the house A is buying.
B is PXing to the builder - and may well be on 21-day completion notice. But that's irrelevant to A.
A is not buying from B, but from the builder. So long as they don't lose too much money on the PX, they'll just be happy to have flogged a new house to B...

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

As simple as that.

G_M wrote: »

Just tell the EA you will do all you can to achieve that.

It doesn't mean that you will skimp on enquiries or cut corners on the conveyancing process, just that you will do your best to keep things moving as fast as you can.