Exchange/Completion on current house

Noobie2011 · 23 April 2018 at 4:46PM

Hoping someone can help as my solicitor seems to be clueless at the moment.

We are at the end of a chain of 3 and 2 weeks a date of the 27th April was suggested for completion which our solicitor said everyone is working too and we happily agreed that.

My view was we were not far off exchange back then but in the last week we found out by chasing that the person at the start of the change had a delay with their Mortgage Offer and were also awaiting lender acceptance for a coal mining search. This dragged on but we were assured we are still working to complete on the 27th. Because of this I chased several times asking why are we not exchanging if we want to meet completion on the 27th.

It then came to light last Friday that the person above wants to complete now on the 25th May as they have paid another months rent. We are not happy and have questioned our solicitor as to why they were not aware of this as to me it seems a strange thing to be extending your rent for another month when we were only a week away from completing potentially. Because of this I have advised my solicitor that we will accept that date aslong as we bow exchange in the next day or so as we have no confidence now until exchange that the date will not change again.

My question is am I right in thinking the completion date does not have a bearing on exchange as once in a position to exchange it should happen as that is what binds everyone in?

kingstreet · 23 April 2018 at 4:55PM

You can only exchange contracts once all paperwork is in and acceptable and there is a completion date on which you are all agreed.

A tenant will be giving notice on "rent day" otherwise they could be liable for another month's rent and perhaps they thought the 27 April was getting so close and getting more unlikely...

Noobie2011 · 23 April 2018 at 5:04PM

kingstreet wrote: »

You can only exchange contracts once all paperwork is in and acceptable and there is a completion date on which you are all agreed.

A tenant will be giving notice on "rent day" otherwise they could be liable for another month's rent and perhaps they thought the 27 April was getting so close and getting more unlikely...

I agree and we signed our contract and our buyer did too on Friday so from what our solicitor said it was just the person at the start of the chain to go and then exchange would happen with an already agreed completion date of the 27th. So if that is accurate it was in the FTB hands to make sure the 27th happened so only way it could delay is if they changed things and decided not to sign the contract. But I agree there may have been other circumstances which forced them to do another months rent.

But if everything we know is correct then at the moment everyone is now agreeing to the 25th May, both ours and our buyers contrqcts are signed and we are just waiting for the FTB to sign their contract. Once they do should we be exchanging ASAP as my solicitors tone on emails makes it sound as though the pressure is off to exchange now the completion date has moved out?

AnotherJoe · 23 April 2018 at 5:55PM

I would exchange ASAP since anything can happen until that point.

Noobie2011 · 23 April 2018 at 6:20PM

AnotherJoe wrote: »

I would exchange ASAP since anything can happen until that point.

That is my view too but everyone else does not seem to be too bothered but no way do I want to be waiting another 2/3 weeks to exchange knowing anyone can just back out if they want

AnotherJoe · 24 April 2018 at 7:57AM

Then you'll have to play hardball, if exchange isn't made by date X (and Id give more than a day or two, so perhaps make it end of next week) inform your buyers the house goes back on the market. As they are the people that need to apply pressure to the FTBs.

And point out this is because you dont want the FTB leapfrogging this down the road a month at a time for the next several months, and this is your only assurance you mean it.

p.s. Make all this clear to your EA, good ones have a way of moving things along and will be much better at this than solicitors. And make sure your buyers understand its nothing personal, you are doing this so you can play the bad guy and they can present it as something they have no control over but "unfortunately" have to insist on with their buyers.

And do follow through, if you haven't exchanged by end of next week, put your house back on the market that will have a way of foccusing minds.

Noobie2011 · 24 April 2018 at 6:12PM

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Then you'll have to play hardball, if exchange isn't made by date X (and Id give more than a day or two, so perhaps make it end of next week) inform your buyers the house goes back on the market. As they are the people that need to apply pressure to the FTBs.

Thanks for this and a good point, I will chase our solicitor again tomorrow and put some pressure on with an ultimatum.

And point out this is because you dont want the FTB leapfrogging this down the road a month at a time for the next several months, and this is your only assurance you mean it.

That is exactly what I am afraid of as with no exchange in place then they essentially can to a point mess around with delays or even pull out which would be worse.

p.s. Make all this clear to your EA, good ones have a way of moving things along and will be much better at this than solicitors. And make sure your buyers understand its nothing personal, you are doing this so you can play the bad guy and they can present it as something they have no control over but "unfortunately" have to insist on with their buyers.

Was going to give my EA a call to see where we stood with putting it back on the market but the above clarifies it and gives us some control back.

And do follow through, if you haven't exchanged by end of next week, put your house back on the market that will have a way of foccusing minds.

Again hopefully acting the bad guy will spur them into action as our only issue is if we put our house back on the market and in essence decline the offer we currently have the current HTB house we have reserved would go I presume as with no offer on the house, we are not allowed to reserve a property

Noobie2011 · 25 April 2018 at 2:08PM

So I have spoken to the EA who in 5 minutes has given me more information than our solicitor did which is a joke really.

They have informed us that the hold up is something came up on the Coal Mining search which is awaiting for Lender clearance and the FTB's were unsure if this was going to be sorted in time for completion on the 27th April so ended up extending their rent by a month.

Apparently the same thing popped up when the current owner(our buyer) bought that house and it was all fine and more for the area than the specific house. The anomaly came back around the 18th April and our estate agents have said they are ringing for an update this Friday and they will update me.

So I guess I have no choice but to wait and see but is looking likely that exchange will not happen this week and will drag on.

So still stuck between a hard place and a rock as if we list the house again(which EA says takes 2 mins to do) we lose the offer we currently have and also likely lose the reserve on the new build property and although we still have 4 months to the new house there is no guarantee we will get another offer and that does not have more chain problems. But if we carry on with the current offer then we could be strung along for weeks but on the plus side still have an offer and a reserve on the new house.

Thrugelmir · 25 April 2018 at 5:46PM

Noobie2011 wrote: »

So I have spoken to the EA who in 5 minutes has given me more information than our solicitor did which is a joke really.

No, it's perfectly normal. The EA's are the ones to facilitate the transaction through to completion. Keeping eveyone in the chain informed. Your solicitor has better things to do with their valuable time than deal with speculation.

My view was we were not far off exchange

People tend to keep their own business to themselves. When everyone is ready it'll happen soon enough.

Exchange/Completion on current house

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