Islamic mortgage - exchange and complete same day?

Bluey27

Hi
We are hopefully near the end of our house selling/buying journey. We are a 3 person chain (with us in the middle). 

We accepted the offer on our house back in January and so it's taken a long time to get to where we are now. Our buyers solicitors seem to be very thorough which we don't mind but its to the point of slowing everything down massively.

Our solicitor is not very good at communicating with us. She said a month back that all the solicitors have agreed 1st August as the completion date.  I chased a few days ago to see when we will exchange contracts as we are so close to the proposed completion date but she just keeps saying 'all parties are in agreement to the completion date' and she will chase the exchange when our buyers have the last enquiry (apparently there is one question with our management company - its a freehold but with an estate charge due it it being a newer property).  

We asked our estate agent to chase the sellers solicitors to see what is going on. They were told that there is the one enquiry outstanding and that as our buyers are having an Islamic mortgage, the exchange and completion need to be on the same day. This is news to us and our solicitor has not mentioned this (we are trying to contact her to see if she even knows this and if our sellers solicitor is also aware).

The vendors of the house we are buying seem to be getting fed up of waiting and their estate agent rang yesterday to say they are frustrated and its getting to a 'critical point'. 

Is it true that exchange and completion need to be on the same day for an Islamic mortgage?

Should we be concerned about this? Of course we know that nothing can happen until the last enquiry is dealt with and the completion date can change. However, our main concern is how are we supposed to organise removals and time off work if we have no time between exchange and completion? 

Apologies for the long post. I just seem to be in the middle, constantly chasing each side and keeping everybody informed. We are pretty much boxed up and ready to go but now it feels like the 1st August is a not going to happen or it might just all fall apart!

user1977

Never heard of it being a general requirement for an Islamic mortgage (and can't think why it ought to be).

As for the practicalities for simultaneous exchange/completion, you'll generally have an agreed date for everybody to work towards, so you organise the move in the usual way - you just won't have any contractual remedy if it fails to happen (though the flipside is that you also can't be in breach of contract if you fail to do your bit).

Bluey27

user1977 said:

Never heard of it being a general requirement for an Islamic mortgage (and can't think why it ought to be).

As for the practicalities for simultaneous exchange/completion, you'll generally have an agreed date for everybody to work towards, so you organise the move in the usual way - you just won't have any contractual remedy if it fails to happen (though the flipside is that you also can't be in breach of contract if you fail to do your bit).

Thank you, that puts it into perspective. I think in our heads we started to panic thinking any day they could turnaround and say it is all happening tomorrow! 

In regards to the Islamic mortgage, I will specifically ask our solicitor to check that it is definitely a requirement if this isnt standard.

I appreciate your response

TripleH

I thought Islamic mortgages were more about the interest aspect of the mortgage?

Is it a specific term of the lender that is the issue? (It could be a global lender who include Islamic mortgages in their portfolio).

Jaybee_16

Paragraphs 10 and 11 suggest same day is not necessary  

https://www.islamicmortgages.co.uk/index.php?id=113

eddddy

Jaybee_16 said:

Paragraphs 10 and 11 suggest same day is not necessary  

https://www.islamicmortgages.co.uk/index.php?id=113

I'm no expert, but that website seems to have a very poor description of Islamic mortgages - it sounds more like it's describing a 'standard' mortgage.

In fact, it seems to have chunks of text copy/pasted from a different website which describes 'standard' mortgages :   https://www.medwaymortgageshop.co.uk/house-buying-tips

...with a disclaimer added in the final paragraph, which seems to nullify the content of some of the previous paragraphs.


So perhaps that's not the best website to rely on.

Flugelhorn

it seems pretty unfair that because someone is getting and islamic mortgage they can insist that the whole chain has to exchange and complete on the same day - I have done that when not moving directly  but if I was packing up and moving in one day I would want some notice of it all happening 

andy444

I'm no expert on the subject but I've never heard anything about Islamic mortgages needing to be exchanged and completed on the same day. The main tenet of Islamic mortgages is the lack of interest rate.

I really don't think it's a mandatory requirement.

Scotbot

andy444 said:

I'm no expert on the subject but I've never heard anything about Islamic mortgages needing to be exchanged and completed on the same day. The main tenet of Islamic mortgages is the lack of interest rate.

I really don't think it's a mandatory requirement.

I agree. There are plenty of legit sites https://www.comparethemarket.com/mortgages/content/islamic-mortgages/ that talk about them. 

I think it's being used an excuse by someone hoping you will be too ignorant to check

sheramber

It may be a requirement of the bank buying the property for the Islamic mortgage.

TripleH

Is the Islamic mortgage on the property you're buying or being used to buy your property?

Is the issue around redemption of the mortgage?