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Hello Forumites! In order to help keep the Forum a useful, safe and friendly place for our users, discussions around non-MoneySaving matters are not permitted per the Forum rules. While we understand that mentioning house prices may sometimes be relevant to a user's specific MoneySaving situation, we ask that you please avoid veering into broad, general debates about the market, the economy and politics, as these can unfortunately lead to abusive or hateful behaviour. Threads that are found to have derailed into wider discussions may be removed. Users who repeatedly disregard this may have their Forum account banned. Please also avoid posting personally identifiable information, including links to your own online property listing which may reveal your address. Thank you for your understanding.Sale completes in 3 weeks but purchase yet to exchange!
exoteric
Posts: 86 Forumite
Hi guys,
I’d be really grateful for any advice you can give on our situation which is getting quite stressful. I know there are a lot of people on here who have much more experience in this area, so any help would be appreciated! Apologies in advance for the long post.
We have been looking for a very specific house in a very specific area for almost a year and were thrilled when one came up. We had an offer accepted mid-Feb and accepted an offer on our house the same day. Everything was progressing in tandem until our sellers changed their purchase property in May and everything went out of step.
Our mortgage offer (and our buyers’ mortgage offer) expires at the end of July; the bank won’t extend and would only issue a new offer at an increased rate, so we and our buyers were aiming for completion by the end of July to avoid extra costs.
Before exchanging on our sale, we sought an assurance from our sellers that they would complete on the sale to us by end of July and they agreed since their sellers were also pushing for the same date. Based on that assurance, and as our buyers were nervous FTBs who needed to give 2 months notice to their landlord, we exchanged on our sale to get it locked in. Bit of a risk, but we are keen to sell our house. That was about 2 months ago which at that stage still left plenty of time to get our purchase done.
Things were moving along fine until this week when our sellers have again changed their purchase property - they apparently got cold feet because of a dodgy extension. They are extremely naive and seemed to think we can still all complete by the end of July - their agent rightly told them this was impossible. They now say they want to exchange on their new purchase by the end of July and, if this happens, they will complete with us as agreed and move in with family for a few weeks until their purchase completes. The problem is that I don’t think there is enough time for them to be ready to exchange on their purchase in three weeks as they’ve not even had a survey yet, and even if they can manage it we probably won’t know for sure until that week and I’m not willing to leave things that late.
So, as things stand, we have agreed to sell our house three weeks today, at which point we (and our 1 year old) will effectively become homeless. We have no family we can stay with so would need to rent, which usually means a minimum term of 6 months and it will take some time to get a lease arranged.
Our buyers will not push completion back because doing so would mean them re-applying for a mortgage at the new higher rate and they’ve already given notice on their rental; similarly, if we don’t complete by the end of July we would have to get a new mortgage offer which would cost us £150 more per month which we can’t afford.
Our sellers have previously indicated they could move in with family but there’s a big difference between saying that and doing it. In an ideal world, they would agree to complete at the end of July and move in with family regardless of the state of their purchase, and we would exchange this week and get it locked in. We have asked them to discuss this scenario over the weekend and get back to us on Monday.
If they refuse to exchange this week on that basis, as I see it our options are to either pull out of our sale (not really an option - the house was tough to sell and we want to leave the area) and also lose the purchase, or go ahead and sell and then rent in our new area until our sellers are ready. If this happens, we would look to pass the costs of the increased mortgage, storage, additional moving costs etc on to the sellers, who may of course refuse to pay.
I’m a bit stuck as to how we proceed. We have three weeks until we need to complete on our sale and we are going to spend next week pushing for exchange on our purchase. However, if we get to next weekend without exchanging, I think we need to start viewing rentals and maybe even begin arranging one. Our sellers are massive procrastinators so I suspect even giving them an exchange deadline of Friday and threatening to pull out may not get a response - I don’t think they’re 100% committed to selling considering this is the 3rd property they’ve been “purchasing”, so actually threatening to pull out may just cause them to decide not to sell after all.
As you can probably tell, I’m going round in circles a bit and I feel like we’re between a rock and a hard place with very little time left! What do you guys think we should do?
Exoteric
I’d be really grateful for any advice you can give on our situation which is getting quite stressful. I know there are a lot of people on here who have much more experience in this area, so any help would be appreciated! Apologies in advance for the long post.
We have been looking for a very specific house in a very specific area for almost a year and were thrilled when one came up. We had an offer accepted mid-Feb and accepted an offer on our house the same day. Everything was progressing in tandem until our sellers changed their purchase property in May and everything went out of step.
Our mortgage offer (and our buyers’ mortgage offer) expires at the end of July; the bank won’t extend and would only issue a new offer at an increased rate, so we and our buyers were aiming for completion by the end of July to avoid extra costs.
Before exchanging on our sale, we sought an assurance from our sellers that they would complete on the sale to us by end of July and they agreed since their sellers were also pushing for the same date. Based on that assurance, and as our buyers were nervous FTBs who needed to give 2 months notice to their landlord, we exchanged on our sale to get it locked in. Bit of a risk, but we are keen to sell our house. That was about 2 months ago which at that stage still left plenty of time to get our purchase done.
Things were moving along fine until this week when our sellers have again changed their purchase property - they apparently got cold feet because of a dodgy extension. They are extremely naive and seemed to think we can still all complete by the end of July - their agent rightly told them this was impossible. They now say they want to exchange on their new purchase by the end of July and, if this happens, they will complete with us as agreed and move in with family for a few weeks until their purchase completes. The problem is that I don’t think there is enough time for them to be ready to exchange on their purchase in three weeks as they’ve not even had a survey yet, and even if they can manage it we probably won’t know for sure until that week and I’m not willing to leave things that late.
So, as things stand, we have agreed to sell our house three weeks today, at which point we (and our 1 year old) will effectively become homeless. We have no family we can stay with so would need to rent, which usually means a minimum term of 6 months and it will take some time to get a lease arranged.
Our buyers will not push completion back because doing so would mean them re-applying for a mortgage at the new higher rate and they’ve already given notice on their rental; similarly, if we don’t complete by the end of July we would have to get a new mortgage offer which would cost us £150 more per month which we can’t afford.
Our sellers have previously indicated they could move in with family but there’s a big difference between saying that and doing it. In an ideal world, they would agree to complete at the end of July and move in with family regardless of the state of their purchase, and we would exchange this week and get it locked in. We have asked them to discuss this scenario over the weekend and get back to us on Monday.
If they refuse to exchange this week on that basis, as I see it our options are to either pull out of our sale (not really an option - the house was tough to sell and we want to leave the area) and also lose the purchase, or go ahead and sell and then rent in our new area until our sellers are ready. If this happens, we would look to pass the costs of the increased mortgage, storage, additional moving costs etc on to the sellers, who may of course refuse to pay.
I’m a bit stuck as to how we proceed. We have three weeks until we need to complete on our sale and we are going to spend next week pushing for exchange on our purchase. However, if we get to next weekend without exchanging, I think we need to start viewing rentals and maybe even begin arranging one. Our sellers are massive procrastinators so I suspect even giving them an exchange deadline of Friday and threatening to pull out may not get a response - I don’t think they’re 100% committed to selling considering this is the 3rd property they’ve been “purchasing”, so actually threatening to pull out may just cause them to decide not to sell after all.
As you can probably tell, I’m going round in circles a bit and I feel like we’re between a rock and a hard place with very little time left! What do you guys think we should do?
Exoteric
0
Comments
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As you have exchanged on your house, dropping out will cost you.
As you have not exchanged on the house you are buying the extra costs you will get back is £0.0 -
As you have exchanged on your house, dropping out will cost you.
As you have not exchanged on the house you are buying the extra costs you will get back is £0.
Hi cjdavies,
Thanks for your response. Pulling out of our sale isn’t really an option - as you say, it will cost us and frankly we are glad to be leaving this area so the sale will proceed.
What I’d really like a steer on is how to play this tactically so as to avoid having to end up signing a 6 month lease and the hassle of moving twice. Obviously if we do have to do that, we can try to pass the costs on to our sellers by negotiating a reduction in the purchase price when (or rather if) we do exchange, but my goal is to convince them that really the reasonable course of action is for them to sell to us by the end of July and for them to stay with family as they said they would. I suspect we may have to threaten to pull out to get any sort of traction.
Exoteric0 -
I think you have made a big mistake here, you should have exchanged on your house and the one you are buying at the same time, this is the norm. The reason for doing this is exactly the situation you are in...
You could try to reduce the price you pay but you risk them pulling out, you have committed to sell your house without a commitment that you are buying another.
I would be seriously looking at rental properties right now or you could be homeless, I am really surprised your solicitor did not advice you against this action, for the sake of paying a likely tiny increase in interest rate you are going to have to pay out on 6 months rent with still no guarantee you will ever buy the place you want, it could be back to searching and hoping house prices do not increase too much.
I hope the place you are buying can be sorted out quickly but I think given the tone you kinda know its not likely and you made a bit of a mistake. There is no easy answer i'm afraid.0 -
I too am suprised your solicitor did not stongly advise you against this. We just sold our house to move in with parents while our purchase goes through and we had to give a written statement confirming that arrangements for alternative accommodation had been arranged before our solicitor would exchange on our sale.
You can not pull out of your sale after exchange or you will be in breach of contract and liable for huge costs. Its not an option you can consider.
Start looking at getting a rental property sorted ASAP.0 -
Can someone lend you - or can you rent, a caravan?
You would have to pay site fees and for storage of your furniture of course, but it could be done on a week to week, or even day to day basis.....and it would be a temporary solution to get over this blip.0 -
Your sale is a done deal not a lot you can do about that one.
You need to be working on getting your sellers to exchange and complete even if they have nothing to buy.
How motivated are they to sell and move if this is their 3rd property in 2 months?
I think you need to cover all angles here, look at rentals start looking at new houses, push the current sellers to exchange complete.
Have rates really moved up that much in 2-3 months that it will cost another £150pm?
5y fixes are around 2%
On a 25y loan of £200k(£850pm) that needs a rate rise of of over 1% to go up to £1kpm0 -
You have three weeks to pack up your stuff and arrange a storage/removal company.
You are NOT going to be moving into this property by the end of July.
Either find a rental and move for 6 months, or put your stuff in storage and get yourself a caravan, holiday rental, or strike up a deal with a local hotel.Should've = Should HAVE (not 'of')
Would've = Would HAVE (not 'of')
No, I am not perfect, but yes I do judge people on their use of basic English language. If you didn't know the above, then learn it! (If English is your second language, then you are forgiven!)0 -
This time of year I'd go with a caravan.
Find a local caravan park that'll take your caravan for the rest of the season. Google "seasonal pitches"
Buy one cheap on ebay (£500-999)
Tow it there yourself or hire a driver to collect/deliver it...
Stuff into storage.
Dongle for Internet if no wifi on site.
Redirecting post needs to be thought about, you need an address.
Looks like it'll be a good summer, so very doable.0 -
Tricky
You will have to complete on the sale. I think you have nothing to lose now by giving the Vendors an ultimate as they sound as though they are not to bothered about selling anyway. I would forget trying to drop the price with them but given the 1 week to exchange with completion to tie in with yours.
That is the only way you will avoid renting but still think it is lkely you will end up having to rent or live in a caravan.
In hindsight the only assurances you should have accepted from the vendor was an exchange of contracts.
I am also surprised your solicitor did not clarify the risks.
I did a similar thing but I was getting a very good price for the sale and wasn't too bothered about the house I was buying. In the end I gave an ultimatum and they caved and went into rented.The problem was due to a new build further up the chain. we still ended up spending a few weeks at my mother in laws.0 -
Could you have a look at short term rentals like Airbnb and similar in your area?0
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