Exchange Date discrepencies

iKarlCPFC

Hey All,

Just after some advice.

Long Story shot, bought a house, everything has gone smoothly, spoke to the owners they say they would need 2 weeks to find a place to rent before completion which is fair enough.

We told them on 25th June that we're ready to exchange/complete and proposed 19th July exchange/complete which is 4 weeks (more than enough time to find a place to rent in my eyes). They come back to us and said 20th August which kind of threw me off a little after they suggested 2 weeks whch would become 8 on 20th. We've gone back and ask for End of July if possible but they haven't responded to that request for 2 days. How long do I give it before I ask my solicitor to start chasing?

MaryNB

More than 4 weeks is generally unnecessary for renting. From my experience renting, many properties don't become available until about a month before the tenancy start date. Any chance they've decided to buy instead of rent and are dragging it out until their onward purchase completes?

iKarlCPFC

I doubt it. They've been fantastic up until this point. They're splitting up and need to find 2 places to rent or so they told us. I have got their personal contact detilas as well but don't really want to send them a message directly as this could be a sensitive subject. Just wondering how long I give it before I ask my solictior to chase them up or do I need to get the Estate Agents involved etc.

MaryNB

I'd get the EA on it. They're more driven to get exchange and completion done asap. My seller's EA was better at chasing all parties - solicitors and sellers and me. My solicitor just contacted their solicitor and waited for a reply.

eddddy

It's better to negotiate this kind of stuff via the estate agent, rather than the solicitor. 

The estate agent will get on the phone, and call people back and forth - and try to negotiate a compromise. It might get sorted out within an hour or so.


- Conversely, your solicitor will probably just send an email to the seller's solicitor, who will send an email to the seller.
- Then the seller will reply to the seller's solicitor, who will reply to your solicitor, who will reply to you.
- And each person takes 3 or 4 days to deal with each email in the chain, so the whole process might take 10 to 14 days.


Also, is there a chain above your seller? - because they'll all have to agree to the dates as well.


Once everyone has agreed dates via the EA(s), everyone can inform their solicitors. But obviously, any solicitor can veto the date, if they're not ready in time.

iKarlCPFC

No chain they jsut need to find rental.

It's great advise. I've emailed the EA to see if they can get the ball rolling.

Thanks everyone

AdrianC

iKarlCPFC said:

Long Story shot, bought a house, everything has gone smoothly
...

We told them on 25th June that we're ready to exchange/complete and proposed 19th July exchange/complete
...
They come back to us and said 20th August

You haven't "bought" anything yet.
You may not actually buy the house at all, let alone in mid-July or even mid-August.

When was your offer accepted?

Exchange cannot be before everything is ready.
That is when you are legally committed to buying.
You must have your mortgage in place, you must have done all your pre-purchase due-diligence, both legal and satisfying yourself of the condition and the extent of the property.
Until exchange, either side can simply walk away from the deal with zero comeback at all.

Besides all the due diligence, if you haven't agreed a completion date, you are not ready to exchange.

Completion is when you actually buy it...

cdp2879

AdrianC said:

iKarlCPFC said:

Long Story shot, bought a house, everything has gone smoothly
...

We told them on 25th June that we're ready to exchange/complete and proposed 19th July exchange/complete
...
They come back to us and said 20th August

You haven't "bought" anything yet.
You may not actually buy the house at all, let alone in mid-July or even mid-August.

When was your offer accepted?

Exchange cannot be before everything is ready.
That is when you are legally committed to buying.
You must have your mortgage in place, you must have done all your pre-purchase due-diligence, both legal and satisfying yourself of the condition and the extent of the property.
Until exchange, either side can simply walk away from the deal with zero comeback at all.

Besides all the due diligence, if you haven't agreed a completion date, you are not ready to exchange.

Completion is when you actually buy it...

Might I ask how being pedantic in any way assists or advises the OP in their quest for advice on how to mutually agree a completion date?

AdrianC

There is no advice that can be given, since we have zero idea where in the conveyancing process the OP is until they answer the question I asked and you quoted.

Even then, if the vendor do not want to agree a date before mid-August, then that is entirely the vendor's prerogative. They are perfectly free to dig their heels in, right up to the point at which the OP walks away in frustration, as I said and you quoted.

purplebutterfly

I'm not sure where in the country you are based but we have been seeing issues on this forum about difficulties renting at the moment.

There are some places where there is simply no rental stock available and 15+ applicants per property.  Could this be the case where you are?

Certainly we have not moved from our rented flat for 16 years because it is becoming harder and harder to find somewhere to rent that will accept pets.  I'd rather stick it out here than rehome my rescue cats and it's one of the reasons we are now buying our first home. 

It is entirely possible that your vendors are facing some of these issues and are not just being difficult. 

 If it is a couple splitting up, there will be many more issues at play than you will ever know, no matter how smoothly things have gone so far. 

iKarlCPFC

AdrianC said:

iKarlCPFC said:

Long Story shot, bought a house, everything has gone smoothly
...

We told them on 25th June that we're ready to exchange/complete and proposed 19th July exchange/complete
...
They come back to us and said 20th August

You haven't "bought" anything yet.
You may not actually buy the house at all, let alone in mid-July or even mid-August.

When was your offer accepted?

Exchange cannot be before everything is ready.
That is when you are legally committed to buying.
You must have your mortgage in place, you must have done all your pre-purchase due-diligence, both legal and satisfying yourself of the condition and the extent of the property.
Until exchange, either side can simply walk away from the deal with zero comeback at all.

Besides all the due diligence, if you haven't agreed a completion date, you are not ready to exchange.

Completion is when you actually buy it...

Not to be that guy, but I did say in my original post that we was ready to exchange/complete from the 25th.

I was only asking if going from saying 2 weeks to find somewhere to rent to 8 weeks is something that is an acceptable time. Nothing wrong with me asking the vendor why it's changed so dramatically considering we was all keen to get this done asap.