From contract signing to completion - how long?

o_johnston

Hi, any experiences or advice most welcome! Is it possible to pay the deposit on a house with CHAPS or in multiples of £10,000 (banking with Nationwide)?

My partner and I sale agreed on a house with no chain in November. The mortgage lender (Danske Bank) took 3 weeks to do the valuation due to "an error on their system", then the application sat in a queue for 4 weeks apparently approved but just waiting on someone ticking a box, then it took 2 weeks to send a copy to our conveyancer. 
We were assured before Christmas by the EA and mortgage broker that we'd have the keys by end of January, most likely mid Jan. We gave notice to our landlord and they had a tenant lined up for 1st Feb and we've had to practically beg to stay until 7th Feb (next Sunday). Is there any likelihood of signing contracts and completing this week? The stress and anxiety from this is becoming unbearable. Constantly unsettled hoping for an email or phone call. I'm emailing and phoning, chasing people on a daily basis. It honestly feels like as soon as we went sale  agreed, everyone involved stopped caring except us and the vendor - both parties wanted a quick sale, no chains on each side.

greatcrested

Hi, any experiences or advice most welcome! Is it possible to pay the deposit on a house with CHAPS or in multiples of £10,000 (banking with Nationwide)?

Either. Just remember there's apossibility of Faster Payments (£10K x X) taking longer,or even being held up for investigation as an unusually large transfer, so allow plenty of time.

Having said I regularly transfer £80K like this from Nationwide all in one day.

We were assured before Christmas by the EA and mortgage broker that we'd have the keys by end of January,

Meaningless.Neither is in a position to know this.

We gave notice to our landlord and they had a tenant lined up for 1st Feb

Very rash. If you've not Exchanged Contracts there is no guarantee of timescales, or even that your purchase might not fall through. What did your solicitor advise?

Is there any likelihood of signing contracts and completing this week?

Let me just open my kitchen drawer.That's where I keep all my bits of string - all of different lengths.....

The person best placed to give an indication (still not a guarantee) is your conveyancer.

Alter_ego

Contract signing is not the real question. Exchange of contracts is when vendors and buyers set the completion date. If  you have not exchanged NOTHING is certain.
Estate agents will tell you what you want to hear.

Slithery

Average transactions used to take 3 months, it's probably more like 5 now. Your EA and broker have no idea how long it is going to take so don't listen to them, you need to ask your solicitor. You have your mortgage offer but what about everything else (searches, enquiries etc)? The contract is usually signed quite early in the process, often weeks before exchange so if you haven't even done that yet I would say you still have some way to go.

As you have just learnt, you should never give notice on your rental until after exchange.

o_johnston

greatcrested said:

Hi, any experiences or advice most welcome! Is it possible to pay the deposit on a house with CHAPS or in multiples of £10,000 (banking with Nationwide)?

Either. Just remember there's apossibility of Faster Payments (£10K x X) taking longer,or even being held up for investigation as an unusually large transfer, so allow plenty of time.

Having said I regularly transfer £80K like this from Nationwide all in one day.

We were assured before Christmas by the EA and mortgage broker that we'd have the keys by end of January,

Meaningless.Neither is in a position to know this.

We gave notice to our landlord and they had a tenant lined up for 1st Feb

Very rash. If you've not Exchanged Contracts there is no guarantee of timescales, or even that your purchase might not fall through. What did your solicitor advise?

Is there any likelihood of signing contracts and completing this week?

Let me just open my kitchen drawer.That's where I keep all my bits of string - all of different lengths.....

The person best placed to give an indication (still not a guarantee) is your conveyancer.

Conveyancer wouldn't commit to a timescale, but he seems to have taken on more work than he can handle and never answers the phone. There is literally just the contracts to sign and deposit to pay. Everything else is done. He's confirmed he's happy with the mortgage agreement. 
Our landlord was very pushy to get new tenants once they found out we were sale agreed (new tenants are paying £125 a month more than us).
In hindsight I wouldn't have given a move date to them, however we've always been non committal on the date to them, saying we've had no confirmation but possibly end Jan. They listed the place in Jan as available ASAP which really put the pressure on, but really in the last month nothing has advanced except the bank sending out the mortgage approvals. Everything else was done.

o_johnston

Slithery said:

Average transactions used to take 3 months, it's probably more like 5 now. Your EA and broker have no idea how long it is going to take so don't listen to them, you need to ask your solicitor. You have your mortgage offer but what about everything else (searches, enquiries etc)? The contract is usually signed quite early in the process, often weeks before exchange so if you haven't even done that yet I would say you still have some way to go.

As you have just learnt, you should never give notice on your rental until after exchange.

Searches, enquiries etc all done. Our solicitor was against signing contracts until everything else was complete, so there's just contracts and deposit to go. Vendor is moving in with her mum and was ready to move months ago.

greatcrested

o_johnston said:

greatcrested said:

Hi, any experiences or advice most welcome! Is it possible to pay the deposit on a house with CHAPS or in multiples of £10,000 (banking with Nationwide)?

Either. Just remember there's apossibility of Faster Payments (£10K x X) taking longer,or even being held up for investigation as an unusually large transfer, so allow plenty of time.

Having said I regularly transfer £80K like this from Nationwide all in one day.

We were assured before Christmas by the EA and mortgage broker that we'd have the keys by end of January,

Meaningless.Neither is in a position to know this.

We gave notice to our landlord and they had a tenant lined up for 1st Feb

Very rash. If you've not Exchanged Contracts there is no guarantee of timescales, or even that your purchase might not fall through. What did your solicitor advise?

Is there any likelihood of signing contracts and completing this week?

Let me just open my kitchen drawer.That's where I keep all my bits of string - all of different lengths.....

The person best placed to give an indication (still not a guarantee) is your conveyancer.

.....however we've always been non committal on the date to them, saying we've had no confirmation but possibly end Jan. T...

PLease be specific, because it sounds from that as if you have not yet formally served notice. What exactly have you said or written to your landlord regarding ending the tenancy?

And on that subject, what type of tenancy?

* fixed term? Exact start/end dates (or Term) please.

* periodic (rolling)? Exact period dates please (see below)?

* CPT or SPT? (see below).

Post 4: Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

o_johnston

greatcrested said:

o_johnston said:

greatcrested said:

Hi, any experiences or advice most welcome! Is it possible to pay the deposit on a house with CHAPS or in multiples of £10,000 (banking with Nationwide)?

Either. Just remember there's apossibility of Faster Payments (£10K x X) taking longer,or even being held up for investigation as an unusually large transfer, so allow plenty of time.

Having said I regularly transfer £80K like this from Nationwide all in one day.

We were assured before Christmas by the EA and mortgage broker that we'd have the keys by end of January,

Meaningless.Neither is in a position to know this.

We gave notice to our landlord and they had a tenant lined up for 1st Feb

Very rash. If you've not Exchanged Contracts there is no guarantee of timescales, or even that your purchase might not fall through. What did your solicitor advise?

Is there any likelihood of signing contracts and completing this week?

Let me just open my kitchen drawer.That's where I keep all my bits of string - all of different lengths.....

The person best placed to give an indication (still not a guarantee) is your conveyancer.

.....however we've always been non committal on the date to them, saying we've had no confirmation but possibly end Jan. T...

PLease be specific, because it sounds from that as if you have not yet formally served notice. What exactly have you said or written to your landlord regarding ending the tenancy?

And on that subject, what type of tenancy?

* fixed term? Exact start/end dates (or Term) please.

* periodic (rolling)? Exact period dates please (see below)?

* CPT or SPT? (see below).

Post 4: Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

Strictly speaking there's no contract with the landlord. We had signed a 1 year agreement in 2016 and the house was sold a few months in and we've signed nothing since then. I thought a month's notice would suffice, so at the start of Jan (having been told before Christmas by our broker the mortgage was approved and the box "just needed to be ticked" which ended up taking 4 weeks) I told the landlord via text that we have sale agreed on a property, not sure on exact moving dates but we've been told end of Jan is possible, but not definite. I've kept them updated every stage of the process saying we haven't confirmed yet and they went ahead and listed available ASAP £125 a month more than we pay and got someone almost immediately. That tenant now has to ask to keep their place longer until we move and we're getting pressure from landlord, EA and vendor and can't actually do anything to speed up the process. 

greatcrested

o_johnston said:

greatcrested said:

o_johnston said:

greatcrested said:

Hi, any experiences or advice most welcome! Is it possible to pay the deposit on a house with CHAPS or in multiples of £10,000 (banking with Nationwide)?

Either. Just remember there's apossibility of Faster Payments (£10K x X) taking longer,or even being held up for investigation as an unusually large transfer, so allow plenty of time.

Having said I regularly transfer £80K like this from Nationwide all in one day.

We were assured before Christmas by the EA and mortgage broker that we'd have the keys by end of January,

Meaningless.Neither is in a position to know this.

We gave notice to our landlord and they had a tenant lined up for 1st Feb

Very rash. If you've not Exchanged Contracts there is no guarantee of timescales, or even that your purchase might not fall through. What did your solicitor advise?

Is there any likelihood of signing contracts and completing this week?

Let me just open my kitchen drawer.That's where I keep all my bits of string - all of different lengths.....

The person best placed to give an indication (still not a guarantee) is your conveyancer.

.....however we've always been non committal on the date to them, saying we've had no confirmation but possibly end Jan. T...

PLease be specific, because it sounds from that as if you have not yet formally served notice. What exactly have you said or written to your landlord regarding ending the tenancy?

And on that subject, what type of tenancy?

* fixed term? Exact start/end dates (or Term) please.

* periodic (rolling)? Exact period dates please (see below)?

* CPT or SPT? (see below).

Post 4: Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

Strictly speaking there's no contract with the landlord.

Strictly speaking there IS a contract, whether written, verbal, or assumed. You pay rent and receive accomodation. Ipso facto there is a contract.

We had signed a 1 year agreement in 2016 and the house was sold a few months in

irrelevant. You got a new landlord that's all.

and we've signed nothing since then.

So Same original contract.

I thought a month's notice would suffice,

When your original 2016 agreement ended you moved to a periodic tenancy - either Contractual or Statutory (see the link I gave you. Read it yet?)

The notice required depends which.

so at the start of Jan (having been told before Christmas by our broker the mortgage was approved and the box "just needed to be ticked" which ended up taking 4 weeks) I told the landlord via text

Did your original 2016 agreement state that text was an acceptable way to serve notice? If not, notice was not served properly.

that we have sale agreed on a property, not sure on exact moving dates but we've been told end of Jan is possible, but not definite.

so clearly no notice was served. Notice must clearly state the intended end date for the tenancy.

I've kept them updated every stage of the process saying we haven't confirmed yet

if you never gave a precise end date, with the required notice period, then you never served notice.

and they went ahead and listed available ASAP £125 a month more than we pay and got someone almost immediately.

That is the landlord's problem. He has found a replacement before knowing when your tenancy will end, or even IF it will end. Stupid landlord!

That tenant now has to ask to keep their place longer until we move and we're getting pressure from landlord, EA and vendor and can't actually do anything to speed up the process. 

Do not get pressured by your landlord. He has been premature. That's his problem.

Your tenancy continues. It cannot be ended unless

* you serve proper notice, which you have not,or

* your landlord serves a S21 or S8 Notice, waits 6 months, and then goes to court, or

* you and your landlord agree between you on a mutually acceptable end date. Neither of you can force the other to agree this.

Now read

Post 4: Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

youth_leader

My tenancy runs out on 6 March, I exchange on 4 March, complete on the 11th March.  My rental agent said the landlord may allow me to rent for one more week.  Are you buying without a survey? 

o_johnston

youth_leader said:

My tenancy runs out on 6 March, I exchange on 4 March, complete on the 11th March.  My rental agent said the landlord may allow me to rent for one more week.  Are you buying without a survey? 

Level 3 survey was completed in November