Sale exchanging before purchase is ready...?

Thurlow40

Hi all
I’m in a long chain 6/7 links. My house purchase is at the top. I’m buying from someone that has been renting the house out. Those tenants move out tomorrow so the house will be empty.  My sale has moved a lot faster and there is a build up of pressure and people wanting to exchange tomorrow.  The agents have agreed with my vendor that I can rent the property I’m buying until the purchase of it completes in roughly a month.  The hold up is due to an error on the title document regarding the garage (not attached to the house, it’s in a free standing block of 3 garages). 

What are the risks? I’m desperate for this move to happen but don’t want to do anything silly.
My first thoughts are this, most importantly, what’s to stop my vendor suddenly not wanting to sell me her house?!  Or can this be written into the agreement?

Also, as I’m porting my existing mortgage I guess I could face an early redemption charge for paying it off completely after the sale of mine and not carrying it into my new property simultaneously.
Any thoughts? Is this too risky?

greatcrested

The risk is much greater for your sellers. What if you back out/change your mind/ find there's a structural issue? They are stuck with you as tenants, for probably 9-12 months minimum.......

Plus of course they have to comply with all the tenancy laws, declare your rent to HMRC, and if they have a mortgage get their lender's consent.

Oh and their insurance will be invalid too unless they change it.

They must be mad.

For you? well again if your purchase falls through, you are now a tenant not a home-owner.

hazyjo

Bloody hell, they're mad!

And their solicitor is okay with that? I hope they've advised them of the risks!

iwb100

What’s your mortgage redemption fee? Because that will be payable. Assuming you were porting it? Your solicitor should be advising you on this course of action. I think your risk is being homeless. Your sellers risk is huge. Just wait for purchase and sale to be ready. Chain always has a pressure somewhere. It’s not your fault.

Thurlow40

Thanks everyone.
I suspect my solicitor will advise me against this today, this all came from the agents late last night as a desperate solution to hold the chain together.

If there’s a risk in being homeless then I won’t do it, I kind of wondered whether I could exchange on the purchase too to give everyone a bit of reassurance?  Maybe not!
Also, can land registry ever be expedited? Even for a fee?  This is a fault from a solicitor that acted 10 years ago, it’s no ones fault that’s involved currently, very annoying.
I’ll look into my redemption figure today, I seem to recall around £2k.
I’d much rather sit tight and wait so can today only hope the rest of the chain will.

Thank you

babyblade41

you can ask LR to expedite showing proof of a transaction going through 

getmore4less

greatcrested said:

The risk is much greater for your sellers. What if you back out/change your mind/ find there's a structural issue? They are stuck with you as tenants, for probably 9-12 months minimum.......

Plus of course they have to comply with all the tenancy laws, declare your rent to HMRC, and if they have a mortgage get their lender's consent.

Oh and their insurance will be invalid too unless they change it.

They must be mad.

For you? well again if your purchase falls through, you are now a tenant not a home-owner.

its already a rental so those won't be new issues for the seller

SMR710

We ported our mortgage with santander recently. Ended it 10th July and paid £3200 early repayment charge but as we ported within a 3 month window (activated it again 21st August) we have just received our £3200 back from Santander 👍

Thurlow40

SMR710 said:

We ported our mortgage with santander recently. Ended it 10th July and paid £3200 early repayment charge but as we ported within a 3 month window (activated it again 21st August) we have just received our £3200 back from Santander 👍

Thanks, that’s good to know.  

I guess now the only worry is whether I go ahead and run the risk that my vendor suddenly decides not to sell to me. I think the risk is small and I’m starting to prefer this option to having to go back to square one with this whole house move.

Mickygg

I don’t think the risk is small. I would never take this risk. You can rent and find major issues or things you are not happy with. Actually let me rephrase you are bound to find things you are not happy with, each house I have moved into I’ve found hidden or annoying things. What do you do then? You’ll want to go back to vendor.

huge risk for you, huge risk for vendor. I presume a lot of detail in the contract will need to be drawn up such as no coming back on anything you find while renting and maybe taking an early deposit from vendor? What If chain collapses.... can of worms. 

Thurlow40

Mickygg said:

I don’t think the risk is small. I would never take this risk. You can rent and find major issues or things you are not happy with. Actually let me rephrase you are bound to find things you are not happy with, each house I have moved into I’ve found hidden or annoying things. What do you do then? You’ll want to go back to vendor.

huge risk for you, huge risk for vendor. I presume a lot of detail in the contract will need to be drawn up such as no coming back on anything you find while renting and maybe taking an early deposit from vendor? What If chain collapses.... can of worms. 

Yes, you’re right.  I hadn’t fully considered those things, particularly elsewhere in the chain collapsing and impacting us all. Thank you