Gap between exchange and completion

rainbow_fountains

[deleted].

davidmcn

It can be any period, and it's up to the parties to the contract, not their solicitors or anybody else.

rainbow_fountains

davidmcn said:

It can be any period, and it's up to the parties to the contract, not their solicitors or anybody else.

This is exactly what I thought, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. So either someone is being dishonest (which wouldn’t surprise me) or their solicitors are out of line.

eddddy

rainbow_fountains said:

davidmcn said:

It can be any period, and it's up to the parties to the contract, not their solicitors or anybody else.

This is exactly what I thought, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. So either someone is being dishonest (which wouldn’t surprise me) or their solicitors are out of line.

Solicitors and sellers/buyers are all free to specify their requirements for exchange and completion.

(But perhaps it's poor customer service for a solicitor to try to insist that they want 2 weeks between exchange and completion, if that's not what their client wants.)

Essentially, some parties will have to negotiate until a compromise agreement can be reached (that agreement could be 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks or any other time period).

If an agreement cannot be reached,the transactions won't happen.  Sometimes it becomes a 'game of chicken' - everyone refuses to budge, in the hope that somebody else will budge first.

annetheman

What it can be and what it ends up being changes until everyone is ready to exchange.

I had planned to leave 4 weeks, it ended up being 2 (exchanged on the 11th Feb completing 26th) and that's because the seller solicitor wasn't ready.

Really, it makes sense to make the time between exchange and completion flexible depending on the situation(s) within the chain and when everybody is ready - so everyone agrees an ideal completion date and work backwards, settling on the largest gap required, be that 2 weeks or 4 weeks. Flexibility is needed otherwise yes, it'd be silly to break up the chain due to a "policy"!

Thrugelmir

rainbow_fountains said:

davidmcn said:

It can be any period, and it's up to the parties to the contract, not their solicitors or anybody else.

This is exactly what I thought, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. So either someone is being dishonest (which wouldn’t surprise me) or their solicitors are out of line.

The risk is that something happens in that 4 week period.  Someone is hospitalised, someone dies, someone loses their job, someone is furloughed.  Which causes the chain to collapse and all sorts of problems to ensue.  Solicitors will be protecting their own clients interests , both the potential purchaser and also the mortgage lender. Who may be imposing their own conditions on the mortgage advance.