Our house buyer is wasting time being petty

NameUnavailable

I don't think this thread has gone the way the OP was hoping.......

Waunakee

Hardly surprising when we appear to have been told only half the saga.

The major stumbling block appears to have been the OPs inability to secure a mortgage in a timely fashion and by their own admission missing the developers deadline by several weeks,

What this has got to do with the prospective purchaser is quite frankly beyond me when the OP have themselves (through out no fault of their own) have been unable to finalise their part of the chain.

MaryNB

Bucky88 said:

On the 21st May we accepted an offer and received our memo of sale that same day. We then reserved our new build a week later.
2nd June our buyer had his valuation survey done for his mortgage and 2 days later an offer.
We were not made aware of any issues from either our buyer, his solicitor, our solicitor or the estate agents.

Just over 3 weeks later we get a call saying a surveyor wants to come and view the property and came on the 25th June. We asked our estate agents why it had taken 3 weeks for this to happen so they asked the buyer as they thought all was moving along. He didn’t say why it took so long to get this sorted and was made aware again we needed to be at an exchange quickly. We also found out he had not instructed his solicitor at this point even though he was told by the EA to do this immediately and by us once the offer was agreed.

A month from offer to survey doesn't seem unreasonable to me. When I purchased my house last year local surveyors were very busy and told me I'd have to wait a minimum of a month before they'd be able to do the survey. 

74jax

Are you using a solicitor who specialises in new build?

Is there a reason you can not complete and go into rented? Buying a new build with a property to sell is a nightmare.

You complete in December? What happens if due to bad weather, build is delayed? What happens if the building materials shortage continues and building is delayed?
What happens if it is half year end, too many Christmas completions and building is delayed? 

Are you moving out regardless, or will your buyer, who has exchanged months earlier, have to wait for you?
1) If you're moving out regardless, do it now and break the chain.
2) If you are staying put then have empathy for what you are asking.

The buyer of your property is not responsible for the fact you are buying a new build. Feel lucky they are a ftb and not in a chain wanting you to complete straight after exchange.

Your solicitor (if competent in new build) will have discussed all the above with you, it easy to get fixated on your scenario, but what you are asking a ftb to do is not the norm.

My suggestion is you complete, rent, and buy new build with no chain.

I am surprised the new build company allowed reservation etc if you weren't in a position to proceed. Are you dependent on this sale to buy, or is it just the 'ideal scenario'? 

Flugelhorn

can be a problem when people think that they are the only one moving and everything has to revolve round them - long gaps between exchange and completion are a no-no, it is not the buyers fault that the OP wants this, OP needs to sort another solution if they want the new house.

We (against our better judgment) ended up with a 8 week gap last year, aimed at 2 weeks but then turned out  that vendor who was "going into rented" hadn't actually got anywhere to go ... so 8 weeks it was, great except that 4 weeks into the 8 weeks Covid happened and it was clear that still not much had been done to expedite the move. 

Never again.

Flugelhorn

Waunakee said:

Hardly surprising when we appear to have been told only half the saga.

The major stumbling block appears to have been the OPs inability to secure a mortgage in a timely fashion and by their own admission missing the developers deadline by several weeks,

What this has got to do with the prospective purchaser is quite frankly beyond me when the OP have themselves (through out no fault of their own) have been unable to finalise their part of the chain.

Looks like Kensington Mortgages, seem to have seen some mutterings about them being slow

pinkshoes

Put yourself in the shoes of your FTB...

You are expecting them to exchange on a property with a completion date ages away. And when buying a new build, completion dates can also get pushed back.

So quite rightfully your buyer wants some reassurance that in this long time period between exchange or completion, that it will be you footing the bill for anything that goes wrong and not him.

So why not just agree a specific completion date, put your stuff in storage, then move into an air BnB? You can negotiate a good air BnB price if you are wanting to stay a few weeks.

Pagan98

We had a similar situation when we bought our first house. Our vendors were buying a new build and their builder would not commit to a completion date so the vendors kept changing the proposed completion date and eventually asked us to agree to complete at any time within a 2 month window. Funnily enough we refused, but we did have a long gap between exchange and completion, during which time the vendors trashed the carpets, didn't fix a leak in the shower and smoked so much in the house that it stank (and we were smokers ourselves at the time!). We would not exchange so far in advance again.

eidand

The buyer is perfectly within their rights to ask for assurance tbh. This isn't a normal scenario. I am surprised they're contemplating this at all. Anything could happen, including the loss of the mortgage offer, should they need a mortgage.
You can't have your cake and eat it at the same time. Hold on to these buyers cause I don't see many agreeing to this.

2bFrank

You need to bin off this buyer, im pretty much sure you will sell faster by finding a decent buyer and starting again.

That being said, this is partly your own doing. No one sensible would accept an exchange so early with a massive delay before completion, its a crazy situation, as the buyer is liable for the house at that point, yet unable to move. You are also unable to offer a 'set in stone' completion date, so this poor buyer is now liable for a house, that he has no idea when he can move in, any thing can happen, they could lose their job, the mortgage could expire, yet you have no liability.

You need a serious buyer, but you also need to be a serious seller, you need to either offer a real completion date, where you can complete, even if its to move in temp accom whilst you are waiting for your builder (they nearly always get delayed, they say November but its more than likely be longer than that).