Bump in process just before exchange

sapness

Just wanted any advice. We only have a chain of 3 in the transaction

After 7 months of convayencing  we are now at stage of selling our property and buying our new one. All the draft contracts have been signed and enquiries answered so I thought now would be the easy part. How wrong I was.

Our sellers live abroad and so want two weeks between exchange and completion so they can fly back, self isolate and then pack their house and then leave on day of completion. Our solicitor is refusing to allow two weeks between exchange and completion due to COVID and wants to limit this time just in case any party has to self isolate and can’t complete. In current climate this does seem reasonable because if can’t complete then will cost money for those who default. However the sellers won’t travel back to UK until exchange has happened. With lockdown 2 just been announced the sellers also need to be back before 5th November or they have said they won’t complete until lockdown is over in December. Seems like we are caught in a never ending circle of them wanting two weeks and our solicitor refusing that. We really can’t wait another 4 weeks till end of lockdown either and also don’t want to lose our buyer who I know what’s to get a completion date in as well. 

On another note, our buyers solicitor spends forever replying to any exchange/completion query that dates have changed again and so the process of asking everyone starts again. Why they can’t all do a zoom call and just arrange all this together beggars belief. 

Now causing a lot of stress and sleepless nights wondering will this process ever end or cross the finish line and right at the last minute we have hit this snag that seems to have reached a stalemate.

Any comments would be appreciated. 

coachman12

YOU employed your solicitor. What you do is called INSTRUCTING him/her. So decide what YOU want to do and INSTRUCT your solicitor to carry out his/her employer's instructions. 

greatcrested

sapness said:

Our sellers live abroad and so want two weeks between exchange and completion so they can fly back, self isolate and then pack their house and then leave on day of completion.

Seems very reasonable given the circumstances

Our solicitor is refusing to allow two weeks between exchange and completion due to COVID and wants to limit this time just in case any party has to self isolate and can’t complete.In current climate this does seem reasonable ...

Indeed. Very reasonable.

. However the sellers won’t travel back to UK until exchange has happened.

Understandable. What if they fly back and then the deal falls through? They are being reasonable.

With lockdown 2 just been announced the sellers also need to be back before 5th November or they have said they won’t complete until lockdown is over in December.

Understandable

 Why they can’t all do a zoom call and just arrange all this together beggars belief. 

Because with everyone being so reasonable, the zoom call would rapidly degenerate into a slanging patch.

Any comments would be appreciated. 

Either a compromise will need to be reached, or one party will have to defer to the other, or the chain will collapse.

AskAsk

coachman12 said:

YOU employed your solicitor. What you do is called INSTRUCTING him/her. So decide what YOU want to do and INSTRUCT your solicitor to carry out his/her employer's instructions. 

solicitors have their own procedures to follow and in the current climate, they won't take instructions from you.  we had a problem when selling our flat recently as the buyer's solicitors wouldn't agree to exchange until they got the money from the bank in their account, and they couldn't do that until we had agreed a completion date.  it ended up being a week between exchange and completion.

pinkteapot

To get a date agreed with your buyer, get the EA to ring round - it’s far quicker than going through solicitors. Then the buyer can tell their solicitor which date has been chosen. 

princeofpounds

The solicitor works for both you AND your mortgage company. The stipulation for simultaneous exchange and completion may be coming from the mortgage company, in which case the solicitor simply cannot budge.

It's also considered best practice at the moment (personally I'm a bit dubious about the merits of this, but it is). You may be able to instruct the solicitor to proceed if you acknowledge you have been provided advice to the contrary. However, the solicitor can also refuse to act for you if you proceed contrary to his advice. I don't think that's likely, but it's possible. 

You need to ask your solicitor directly if instructing to proceed without simultaneous exchange and completion is an option. If not...

Your seller's solicitor really should be aware of this situation and advising their clients of it, but they may be doing so and the vendors would simply prefer to wait. I am also not sure why they would not consider returning during lockdown - during the first lockdown moving house was considered a valid exception to the rules, I'm not aware that's changing this time around. 

Overall, whilst both sides are being reasonable in their own way, the sellers really should be the ones to take the risk if they want to sell the property. The question Sapness proposes - 'what if they fly back and the transaction collapses' - isn't really much of a question when if don't fly back, the transaction will collapse anyway. The question is more whether they are prepared to suspend the chain and wait.

Another idea might be to figure out exactly why they will not fly back. If they are simply worried about wasted costs, then surely there is some way you could essentially fund their travel on a non-returnable basis, but that the cost is reimbursed if the transaction proceeds. That's a risk for you - they could in theory back out for any reason - but one you may be willing to take if it's the only obstacle to proceeding. Perhaps one of the solicitors could hold the money in escrow.

And of course you can always sound out your buyer on how they feel about postponing. They may not mind that much, you never know.

Good luck - you might be surprised by how compromises can spring up when the other party realises that it's a necessity.

coachman12

AskAsk said:

coachman12 said:

YOU employed your solicitor. What you do is called INSTRUCTING him/her. So decide what YOU want to do and INSTRUCT your solicitor to carry out his/her employer's instructions. 

solicitors have their own procedures to follow and in the current climate, they won't take instructions from you.  we had a problem when selling our flat recently as the buyer's solicitors wouldn't agree to exchange until they got the money from the bank in their account, and they couldn't do that until we had agreed a completion date.  it ended up being a week between exchange and completion.

You obviously believe in employing a different sort of solicitor to the one that Has worked for me for many years. "They won't take instructions" !!!!!  I suppose it depends on who gives the instructions.

Scotbot

Where are your sellers? Realistically they will have problems getting a flight back in November so not surprising they won't fly over during lockdown.  Your options are to complete on your house and move into temporary accommodation if you have family who are agreeable  or delay exchange which risks your buyers pulling out. My guess is if it is only a months delay they won't.