How soon to exchange?

badger09

Continental said:

Our buyer was about to exchange in mid-December and then suddenly wanted to send an
electrician round to do an inspection (which really should have been done around the time she arranged a survey in early November. Both sets of solicitors were due to close between 19th December and 4th January, only having a presence in the office (or working from home to tie up loose ends). 

The electrician couldn’t apparently go round until Saturday 19th December and we were peeved that we wouldn’t have exchanged until the New Year. However, on 22nd December due to much pressure on the solicitors, exchange did take place and we complete on 15 January at the buyer’s request. We have already moved to our new home, 3 hours away.

Unfortunately my spouse collapsed with kidney stones the next day, coming out of hospital after a stent was inserted on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately he caught the Coronavirus whilst in hospital and he’s quite ill. I’m not feeling quite right and I’m still awaiting test results. We still have some large items of furniture in the house and we’ve had to ask our estate agent to send a ‘man and van’ team to empty the house for us and take it to a storage unit. We originally planned to rent a van and do it ourselves but we are just not up to it. So even if it was a one week delay or two weeks between exchange and completion this Coronavirus can still mess up your plans, as it has done with us

Good Luck with your move 

Oh gosh that is really bad news. 
This whole hose sale/purchase thing is stressful enough without added health problems. 
Hope spouse recovers soon and that you're not also ill. Everything else can be sorted!
Good luck

annetheman

hazyjo said:

As you're FTBs I'd definitely try to do it on the same day. Why can you not all complete sooner if you're ready to exchange now?

Can you expand on this? Why is it better to do this as a FTB?

I was hoping to leave a month (20 working days) between exchange and completion, the main reason being because I need to give notice on my AST flat and don't want to until exchange and also I will receive 1 more payslip in between then, which will nicely cover removal men, full packing service etc etc vs moving with some questionably insured budget dude on Gumtree

annetheman

Continental said:

Our buyer was about to exchange in mid-December and then suddenly wanted to send an
electrician round to do an inspection (which really should have been done around the time she arranged a survey in early November. Both sets of solicitors were due to close between 19th December and 4th January, only having a presence in the office (or working from home to tie up loose ends). 

The electrician couldn’t apparently go round until Saturday 19th December and we were peeved that we wouldn’t have exchanged until the New Year. However, on 22nd December due to much pressure on the solicitors, exchange did take place and we complete on 15 January at the buyer’s request. We have already moved to our new home, 3 hours away.

Unfortunately my spouse collapsed with kidney stones the next day, coming out of hospital after a stent was inserted on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately he caught the Coronavirus whilst in hospital and he’s quite ill. I’m not feeling quite right and I’m still awaiting test results. We still have some large items of furniture in the house and we’ve had to ask our estate agent to send a ‘man and van’ team to empty the house for us and take it to a storage unit. We originally planned to rent a van and do it ourselves but we are just not up to it. So even if it was a one week delay or two weeks between exchange and completion this Coronavirus can still mess up your plans, as it has done with us

Good Luck with your move 

Sorry to hear this, I hope he gets well soon.

Mineral1

annetheman said:

hazyjo said:

As you're FTBs I'd definitely try to do it on the same day. Why can you not all complete sooner if you're ready to exchange now?

Can you expand on this? Why is it better to do this as a FTB?

I was hoping to leave a month (20 working days) between exchange and completion, the main reason being because I need to give notice on my AST flat and don't want to until exchange and also I will receive 1 more payslip in between then, which will nicely cover removal men, full packing service etc etc vs moving with some questionably insured budget dude on Gumtree

There seems to be a fear that circumstances will change between exchange and completion therefore putting you in breach of contract, as of yet I haven't heard of this happening to many people at all.

hazyjo

annetheman said:

hazyjo said:

As you're FTBs I'd definitely try to do it on the same day. Why can you not all complete sooner if you're ready to exchange now?

Can you expand on this? Why is it better to do this as a FTB?

I was hoping to leave a month (20 working days) between exchange and completion, the main reason being because I need to give notice on my AST flat and don't want to until exchange and also I will receive 1 more payslip in between then, which will nicely cover removal men, full packing service etc etc vs moving with some questionably insured budget dude on Gumtree

 Because there's nothing to sell so can move at leisure. If I rented and was buying, I'd have factored in up to a month's rent for any overlap.

Agree about not giving notice until exchange.