Can the developer cancel my reservation if I can't sign the exchange contract on time?

1886travel

We are buying a new build and we are in a chain - waiting for our buyer's buyer to sign the exchange contract first. 
We've done the solicitor part for both purchasing and selling. However ,we've been chased by our new home developer to sign the exchange contract as we reserved it in April and they mentioned the completion date would be May/June. Our buyer's buyer won't be able to sign the exchange contract until mid of July. 

Would this affect us buying our house if I can't sign the exchange contact by the end of June? The chain doesn't fail and the only problem I can see is we can't sign the exchange contract until the chain is moving forward....

*updates

Our developer contacted the bottom chain people and apparently they gave another reason that they couldn't exchange the contract until July. Glad my developer understands that it's not our fault so they are willing to wait for a bit longer although we found they are struggling to get a new buyer. 

diystarter7

Bottom line, it's up to the seller, 100% to sell to you or not.

diystarter7

Btw, did you pay a deposit and what were the T&C's?
Most likley IMO the T&C's give you x amount of weeks/days, failing that they can back out. Makes sense as a buyer in a chain may not be able to sell for xx years a developer cant wait for ever.

pinkshoes

If your buyers buyer can't exchange until mid July then neither can you.

If this breaks your agreement with the developer then yes they can put the property back on the market again.

1886travel

diystarter7 said:

Btw, did you pay a deposit and what were the T&C's?
Most likley IMO the T&C's give you x amount of weeks/days, failing that they can back out. Makes sense as a buyer in a chain may not be able to sell for xx years a developer cant wait for ever.

Our solicitor has received our deposit and on the reservation form it says the completion date is 18th May. They did mention the completion date can be in June and they have just recently completed it. (That's why they didnt cancel our reservation straight away i guess)...

Understand that houses are in demand now but normally people have to wait for half year to move into a new build after you pay for the reservation. We actually saw it on Rightmove in Feb/March but didn't view and reserve it until mid of April. they might not be that popular? also there could be a chance that it may take a bit longer for the developer to find a new buyer? They would only need to wait for another 1-2 weeks honestly as we definitely want to buy it. 

but thanks! it clearly makes sense

diystarter7

Good luck.

Slithery

When the contracts are signed is irrelevant.

It's only when the solicitors exchange the contracts that a binding deal is made...

Golden_Glow90

We are going through this right now and the developers have said they will put the house back on the market on 1st July us we don’t exchange and complete. The buyers buyers are still waiting for the sales pack to be sorted which won’t be done on time so we’re gutted

Silvertabby

Sounds like nothing has changed in nearly 30 years.

The new build we really wanted had already been reserved, but the developer registered our interest in respect of similar houses in the next stage of the estate.

Then we got a phone call saying the sale of the first house had fallen through (chain had collapsed)  and were we still interested - with a discount if we could complete in less than 2 months?

We were in Armed Forces married quarters at the time, so the answer to both questions was 'yes' - but I did feel sorry for the first chap and did think it must be awfully difficult to buy a new-build when you have to sell a property first.

diystarter7

Silvertabby said:

Sounds like nothing has changed in nearly 30 years.

The new build we really wanted had already been reserved, but the developer registered our interest in respect of similar houses in the next stage of the estate.

Then we got a phone call saying the sale of the first house had fallen through (chain had collapsed)  and were we still interested - with a discount if we could complete in less than 2 months?

We were in Armed Forces married quarters at the time, so the answer to both questions was 'yes' - but I did feel sorry for the first chap and did think it must be awfully difficult to buy a new-build when you have to sell a property first.

It's a business. If you disagree with that and felt very "sorry for the other.." you could have backed out.
It is supply and demand.

Silvertabby

diystarter7 said:

Silvertabby said:

Sounds like nothing has changed in nearly 30 years.

The new build we really wanted had already been reserved, but the developer registered our interest in respect of similar houses in the next stage of the estate.

Then we got a phone call saying the sale of the first house had fallen through (chain had collapsed)  and were we still interested - with a discount if we could complete in less than 2 months?

We were in Armed Forces married quarters at the time, so the answer to both questions was 'yes' - but I did feel sorry for the first chap and did think it must be awfully difficult to buy a new-build when you have to sell a property first.

It's a business. If you disagree with that and felt very "sorry for the other.." you could have backed out.
It is supply and demand.

Not that sorry!  30 years later, we are still in the same house, with no intentions of moving.