On holiday when buying and selling

NI_Sense

HI.
I am placing my house on the market in the next week (January 2021), and hope to buy another house at the time. However, we have a 3.5 week holiday booked starting May 2021. We booked the holiday early 2020 btw.  On that (and covid 19 aside), I am now beginning to wonder if it would be ok to go on this holiday when selling my house and buying another? The thought of being asked to exchange contracts at the start of this holiday and completing immediately after arriving home is filling me with dread! Does anyone here have any advice on this matter?, or am I worrying too much. Help is appreciated.

NameUnavailable

How can you or anyone else know? Will you get a buyer, will you find a house to buy, what will the chain be like, will you be even able to go on holiday in May? Just deal with it if and when you have to.

AdrianC

You're planning a holiday in May?

I admire your optimism.

eddddy

Perhaps the best plan is to tell the estate agent up-front, so that they know to work around your dates, and they can "manage the expectations" of any prospective buyer.

Similarly, if you accept an offer and instruct a solicitor, tell them about your plans and how you want to work around them.

It's much better than everyone finding out about your holiday at the last minute, and having to change their plans etc.

davidmcn

You don't need to be around in person for any part of the process (other than actually viewing the properties). As long as you're contactable, things can be worked out. 

NI_Sense

NameUnavailable said:

How can you or anyone else know? Will you get a buyer, will you find a house to buy, what will the chain be like, will you be even able to go on holiday in May? Just deal with it if and when you have to.

I was asking from a point of view of someone who had encountered such a scenario, and how they managed it.

pinkteapot

It's fine. The dates are known. You just tell any prospective buyers early in the process that you plan to be away (Covid dependent) at that time so completion can't happen then. If they aren't happy with that they can choose a different house. Most people won't be worried about a potential few week delay.

We exchanged the day before our wedding and completed a couple of weeks after we got back from honeymoon! We hadn't planned to - just the way the chain worked out. We said no to completing over a period of about four weeks, but the chain wanted to get exchanged when ready and have a month between exchange and completion, rather than wait to exchange till we were back, in order to get exchanged and get certainty for everyone. Obviously that was years back, without Covid - at the moment same-day exchange and completion is the norm.

pinkteapot

davidmcn said:

You don't need to be around in person for any part of the process (other than actually viewing the properties). As long as you're contactable, things can be worked out. 

If they're mid-chain they will have to move out of one house and into the other on a single day - completion day*. While they don't HAVE to be around as they could pay people or beg family to sort it all for them, it's probably more stress than it's worth!

* Well, unless they emptied their old place early and put stuff in storage, but that seems a bit extreme just to go on a holiday.

steampowered

Personally, I would not complete a house purchase while on holiday. There are too many things that could go wrong, and your holiday could be ruined with stress.

Just tell your conveyancer/solicitor that completion cannot happen during those dates.

Thrugelmir

NI_Sense said:

I am placing my house on the market in the next week (January 2021), and hope to buy another house at the time. 

Aim for a June/July completion. Many variables to factor in. Not least that you haven't even sold your own property yet. 

davidmcn

pinkteapot said:

davidmcn said:

You don't need to be around in person for any part of the process (other than actually viewing the properties). As long as you're contactable, things can be worked out. 

If they're mid-chain they will have to move out of one house and into the other on a single day - completion day*. While they don't HAVE to be around as they could pay people or beg family to sort it all for them, it's probably more stress than it's worth!

* Well, unless they emptied their old place early and put stuff in storage, but that seems a bit extreme just to go on a holiday.

Sure, though the OP refers to completion after they come back so I thought it was exchange etc they were concerned about.