Top of the chain causing delays to exchange - stick with it or move on?

jonnydeppiwish!

Op, I would just sit tight - it’s not a long chain and is likely to complete by February for you.

A bigger concern is that the mortgage would be unaffordable if your current offer ran out - are you overstretching yourself that much? You possibly need to reevaluate your purchase as to whether it is viable financially.

That said, we’ve all pushed ourselves financially at some point, and if you have a 5 year fix then you may be earning morning when it comes to remortgaging. Don’t expect interest rates to come down very much though.

Ksw3

I think you're in the horrible position of interest rates rising but house prices haven't quite adjusted to take them into account. 

If our offer expires we would be looking at a 40% increase in our monthly mortgage payments. I'm not sure how anyone can plan for that in one hit! 

pinkshoes

Your rental notice period is irrelevant - you will likely need it as a home for another month so just pay another month.

The only critical thing is your expiry of your mortgage.

You need to put it in writing to the vendor that you need to exchange by 01 February and complete by X February otherwise once your mortgage offer expires you will not be able to afford their property unless the price is dropped by £XXXXX due to the rise in interest rates. 

The vendor needs to then pass this up the chain. You're probably not the only ones in the chain with this issue, so just sit tight for now.

You're unlikely to get another purchase completed before the mortgage deadline.

hellabella999

@housebuyer143 thanks for the reassurance - yes that confirmation that the top of the chain would be ready for 23 Nov came from the top of the chain sellers estate agent, so I now have no faith in anything the estate agents say as the top of the chain buyers solicitors said quite the opposite a week later! 3 months is time to get this sale over the line, but not much time to start on a new property...

TheJP @ NameUnavailable apologies - I didn't put the point about my solicitor very clearly - I made an unrelated complaint about our solicitor earlier in the process (not returning phone calls/answering emails, losing important docs). My complaint was not that other parties were not moving fast enough! I just mentioned the complaint to explain that my solicitor is a bit useless generally...

Tiglet2 the solicitors agreed the 23 November completion date, not the estate agents. Only in the week that we were supposed to exchange did the solicitors at the top of the chain say that actually they were not ready at all. The estate agent was copied into the solicitors' correspondence (which they forwarded to us) so they seem to be across the conveyancing process to some degree...

jonnydeppiwish! the interest rates have risen so much since we got our mortgage offer that the difference is about £500 per month. The difference would currently leave us with the ability to save very little, which we are not comfortable with. So I suppose when I say "Can't afford" I mean "not willing to tie up all our spare cash in 1 investment". How interest rates will look in 5 years is anyone's guess but yes, we would both expect to be earning more in 5 years time

From responses and Googling, it seems a lot of solicitors are saying purchases are taking a long time at the minute due to backlogs. So it seems doubtful that completing on another property before our mortgage offer expiry is a real option. There is probably nothing to do but sit tight (stressful as it is) and regularly chase for updates in an effort to keep the transaction at the forefront of the minds of the solicitors representing the parties at the top of the chain!

If there isn't discernible movement by mid December, I think we will ask our solicitor to write to the sellers and we will write to the estate agent (can't hurt to try both...) to inform the top of the chain of our mortgage offer expiry and explain that we won't be going ahead with the purchase if our mortgage offer expires. So the top of the chain needs to get on with it or move into rented.

Sarah1Mitty2

hellabella999 said:

@housebuyer143 thanks for the reassurance - yes that confirmation that the top of the chain would be ready for 23 Nov came from the top of the chain sellers estate agent, so I now have no faith in anything the estate agents say as the top of the chain buyers solicitors said quite the opposite a week later! 3 months is time to get this sale over the line, but not much time to start on a new property...

TheJP @ NameUnavailable apologies - I didn't put the point about my solicitor very clearly - I made an unrelated complaint about our solicitor earlier in the process (not returning phone calls/answering emails, losing important docs). My complaint was not that other parties were not moving fast enough! I just mentioned the complaint to explain that my solicitor is a bit useless generally...

Tiglet2 the solicitors agreed the 23 November completion date, not the estate agents. Only in the week that we were supposed to exchange did the solicitors at the top of the chain say that actually they were not ready at all. The estate agent was copied into the solicitors' correspondence (which they forwarded to us) so they seem to be across the conveyancing process to some degree...

jonnydeppiwish! the interest rates have risen so much since we got our mortgage offer that the difference is about £500 per month. The difference would currently leave us with the ability to save very little, which we are not comfortable with. So I suppose when I say "Can't afford" I mean "not willing to tie up all our spare cash in 1 investment". How interest rates will look in 5 years is anyone's guess but yes, we would both expect to be earning more in 5 years time

From responses and Googling, it seems a lot of solicitors are saying purchases are taking a long time at the minute due to backlogs. So it seems doubtful that completing on another property before our mortgage offer expiry is a real option. There is probably nothing to do but sit tight (stressful as it is) and regularly chase for updates in an effort to keep the transaction at the forefront of the minds of the solicitors representing the parties at the top of the chain!

If there isn't discernible movement by mid December, I think we will ask our solicitor to write to the sellers and we will write to the estate agent (can't hurt to try both...) to inform the top of the chain of our mortgage offer expiry and explain that we won't be going ahead with the purchase if our mortgage offer expires. So the top of the chain needs to get on with it or move into rented.

Many others will also have hundreds of pounds added to their monthly mortgage payments so why not just wait a while and buy when prices have dropped?

lookstraightahead

I hate chains and I always break them, because I'm not patient enough to hang around while others dawdle about window shopping, effectively using my money while they save theirs.

I think you should state your dates about completion and let everyone know so that you and they know where you stand.

Personally I would have pulled out by now (but don't take my advice as I'm totally happy to look elsewhere, much happier than most it appears).

Sarah1Mitty2

Ksw3 said:

I think you're in the horrible position of interest rates rising but house prices haven't quite adjusted to take them into account. 

If our offer expires we would be looking at a 40% increase in our monthly mortgage payments. I'm not sure how anyone can plan for that in one hit! 

That`s right, many people seem to believe that their money is somehow "locked in" to a property and they can get it back easily enough, it will take a while for people to understand that they can make a loss with property.