Buyer wants to bring completion date forward because he's booked a trip to India

prowla

Titus_Wadd said:

We had the buyers at the end of our chain trying to dictate the completion date for the whole chain.  It's tough when really they should be the most flexible if they're not selling.  Just stay calm and consistent and civil, whilst standing your ground.

Well, I guess if nobody pushes and tries to set a date then things will tend to just meander along willy-nilly?

JJC1956

None of this makes sense, who on earth would book a trip anywhere in the World whilst in the middle of purchasing somewhere to live and all of the complications that involves, unless he is going to a Funeral he needs to reconsider his actions. Any money he is saving on rent he is losing on the badly timed trip.
I think yours and his solicitors to need to have a chat ASAP

Jeepers_Creepers

amancalledalex said:

Hi

Wonder if you lovely people can help me?  We've sold out flat to a chap who is wanting to move in three weeks earlier because he's booked a trip to India (to go see relatives I presume). We were working on the basis that we were going to complete on the 4th Sept. He now wants to complete it before he goes to India., Ideally this is going to be on the 12th August, but I've spoken to my solicitors and they don't think the purchase will be finalised in time. The reason he wants to move before he goes away is that he doesn't want to pay rent on his rental property. We were willing to move out before our sale was completed so he could move in. As you probably know India is on the red list, so he'd have to quarantine on his return so we're in a bit of a pickle.  I've got a meeting with our estate agents on Monday so I need to be prepared with a few suggestions. 

 I feel a bit miffed as the goalposts have changed massively.  I'm now a bit concerned that he's going to back out and leave me in the lurch. We are in a chain and our buyer is moving from a rental property into ours.  Has this ever happened to anyone else? What did you do?  This is our first time moving and we're scared that we're going to miss out on our dream house if our seller doesn't want to go ahead with our purchase.

Thanks in advance!

Alex

Blimey!

If you were to complete on just your property on the 12th Aug (tho' fat chance), what would you do, Alex? Where would you go?

If the answer is you have nowhere to go, so cannot complete on your place without the whole chain also completing, then that limits the options; you can only complete when everyone else does, and that - currently - is planned for the 4th Sept, and is surely unlikely to change, at least not by much.

If, however, you could move out, say in with your parents or relatives for a few weeks (or longer...), then that's an option for you - it would be one link in the chain taken care off, and even if the worst were to happen and you still lost out on your planned house, you'd now be chain-free and a better proposition for a future purchase. (But you'd have to be 'happy' in your 'temp' accommodation...)

As said by others, this person is taking the Mick, and their excuse seems unreasonable and entirely selfish. The obvious thing is to say "We will encourage thinsg to move as quickly as possible, but this is out of our hands so we cannot provide an earlier completion date. Big soz."

BUT, if that - unreasonable and selfish - is the calibre of the person, what are the chances they'll act in a churlish manner and pull out? If they do, you'll almost certainly be stuffed as far as your chosen property goes. You've already said you'd consider one of these 'webuyanyhoosie' type companies, so you are effectively saying you'd consider taking a multi-£k hit on your property if it helps move things forward? So, on balance, I don't think Luckbox's suggestion is daft.

If the only reason that your buyer wants to move quickly is that they begrudge forking out one more month's rental - how much can that be? - then perhaps you could offer to cover that, if it's needed? "We will continue to push our conveyancer to move as quickly as possible, but in the likely event they cannot bring it forward to the 12th Aug, we would be prepared to offer to cover the amount of one month's rental at your property, on your agreement that the 4th Sept is still acceptable." 

That might be completely nuts, I don't know - talk it over with your conveyancer. I'm just thinking that, if it does make all the difference, in the long term you may be glad you did.

Tiglet2

amancalledalex said:

Hi

Wonder if you lovely people can help me?  We've sold out flat to a chap who is wanting to move in three weeks earlier because he's booked a trip to India (to go see relatives I presume). We were working on the basis that we were going to complete on the 4th Sept. He now wants to complete it before he goes to India., Ideally this is going to be on the 12th August, but I've spoken to my solicitors and they don't think the purchase will be finalised in time. The reason he wants to move before he goes away is that he doesn't want to pay rent on his rental property. We were willing to move out before our sale was completed so he could move in. As you probably know India is on the red list, so he'd have to quarantine on his return so we're in a bit of a pickle.  I've got a meeting with our estate agents on Monday so I need to be prepared with a few suggestions. 

 I feel a bit miffed as the goalposts have changed massively.  I'm now a bit concerned that he's going to back out and leave me in the lurch. We are in a chain and our buyer is moving from a rental property into ours.  Has this ever happened to anyone else? What did you do?  This is our first time moving and we're scared that we're going to miss out on our dream house if our seller doesn't want to go ahead with our purchase.

Thanks in advance!

Alex

When will people cotton on?  When the solicitors have done all their working investigating the property and preparing everything for their client, they will be ready to proceed.  Until then, all dates are just wishful thinking, regardless of anyone jumping up and down with their supposed "deadline".  While clients are asked for their preferred completion date, it can never be guaranteed.  If the solicitors think that 4th September is realistic, then three weeks earlier just to suit one person on a flimsy excuse is not going to happen.