I’d it possible to exchange with a flexible completion date?

AngelEyes91

Hello all,

my solicitor (rightly so) is following government guidelines and stating that right now it isn’t possible to exchange without completion being the same day. 

This is fine but I wondered if anyone knows if there is a way we can exchange to become legally bound and then have a “flexible” completion date?

davidmcn

Depends how you want it to work. It can't just be "to be agreed later" because that makes the contract pretty meaningless. If one party is prepared to allow the other party to dictate when it happens, you could have say "14 days after A/B give notice". Or as another thread has suggested, a simple way of doing it would be to exchange with a date say months in the future when it must happen, with an informal understanding that the parties would bring that forward if it seemed feasible.

But given how much is up in the air at the moment, why do you want to exchange and is the other party similarly keen?

AngelEyes91

Yes I totally know what you mean, basically this house I’ve sold is mine and my ex’s.. I have bought a shared ownership flat and I just want it all legally bound so we can then complete as soon as we are out of lockdown. 

I know that my housing association are keen for me to exchange and complete as soon as possible as my target date was Friday to exchange.. obviously these are unprecedented times so they are flexible now but I don’t know when they will start to apply the pressure so I just want everything in place ready to complete

AngelEyes91

Oh to add the buyers still seem keen to purchase the house. They did try to drop the price by £4.5k last week, which we declined.. they then said they would continue with the purchase anyway

davidmcn

If everything is ready to exchange, you could just leave it where it is at the moment and then exchange we're out of lockdown. I can't see there's much to be gained by exchanging earlier, and probably too much to risk.

Meka3256

My friends did it a few years ago .... they were in a multiple property chain and something at the top fell through.  So their sale didn't fail, they did a 6 month completion date, with the understanding it could be moved forward if both parties agreed.  This allowed the sellers to find a new house, and my friends (the buyers) to lock in the price.  It also meant all had a certain end date.

I think in the end it did take 6 months until they moved, but they found the stress had been taken out as they had a definite end date.  Also it was London, so locking in the agreed price was important - if they had waited 6 months to exchange they couldn't have afforded the market rate for the property anymore, so were glad they didn't risk the sellers trying to renegotiate the price.  I guess in this situation the possibility of market rates changing is the opposite, but it may still be important for all parties to have certainty.

Edit: you do need to have a specific date in the agreement, and any changes can only be made with both parties agree.  So technically its an end date quite far in the future with possible flexibility, rather than flexible completion.  

AngelEyes91

Thank you, I just think it would give me more confidence that everything will all go through then like I say.. we are legally bound to go ahead