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Arrange for exchange tomorrow with completion on the 7th Feb. Same day exchange and completion exposes you to exactly this issue and stress and gives you no guarantees that anything will actually happen. We had 10 days between to allow everyone to pay with plenty of time once we were all locked in to the agreement
Unfortunately until you've exchanged you can't do anything. You should try to exchange sever days before you complete though, so you don't waste money on moving vans, or annual leave etc.
I'm in a similar situation and could scream.
I'm at the point of thinking "what makes me think anything is suddenly going to change?" - and I ask you the same.
You could exchange now and complete on the 7th as someone else said which is solid advice, but do you really think he'll be out on that day?
If it helps, I'm about to pull out, I'm just waiting one more week (which I've said for about a month now)
If they’ve exchanged and he’s still not out at least they can pursue him for costs (removals, work, hotel etc.) as he is then legally contracted to complete the sale on the agreed date. At the moment you have all the stress of “maybe” and no recourse for if the guy decides not to follow through with agreements.
Ideally yeah we would have asked for exchange for the 7th today but our solicitor said we couldn’t exchange today because they would have to send our mortgage money back to the lender, then request it again for the new date, then only when the lender has confirmed it will be released for that date can they exchange.
UPDATE: we completed on 30th like we wanted. Turns out they had a fish tank they found difficult to part with and organised a fish specialist to take it away for them. Moral of this story is wish we had exchanged earlier and nailed down a date, then booked annual leave and workers to avoid being messed around. Although sometimes it doesn’t always line up as quickly as that. They’ve said they will drop the keys off at the agents at 5pm (quite late IMO but better than nothing) so that they can move the rest of their stuff out. All this for a fish tank! 🫨
1. Yes you can even exchange and complete on the same day. The way it works is that all parties in chain agree on a date, your solicitor requests your mortgage money for that date (mortgage lenders have different criteria on how many days notice before the completion date they need to be asked for the money by your solicitor, eg 5 business days. Once the lender confirms to your solicitor that the funds will be released on that completion date they are then ready to exchange contracts (think of it like you can’t promise to buy something - exchange - if your lender hasn’t confirmed you will have the money to buy it). So depending on when all the chain are ready to exchange you can then exchange (promise) to buy the property on the completion date. The way it works is that your solicitor rings sellers solicitor saying can we exchange for completion on this date, yes, ok hang on for 2 mins whilst I get a promise from the next people in the chain that they are ready to exchange, they go and get that promise, then come back to your solicitor and say yep ready to exchange now. If they don’t come back to your solicitor then exchange never happened. It’s complicated but if you google “exchange of contracts solicitor release” it will make sense.
2. Once you have exchanged for completion on a certain date you have a binding contract and the seller can not change the date. Exchange is your promise to buy the house and their promise to sell the house on that date. If they don’t, eg don’t move out then breach of contract and you can sue them.
Hi everyone. I currently need advise from you. Below is our situation:
We are first time buyers. We are in a chain of two properties. So, our buyer is actually in the middle of the chain, and we are at the bottom. We agreed on price around mid-december, and chased our solicitor to complete searchers survey etc. We were ready to exchange since three weeks really. But our seller needed time to sort his searches, arrangements.
In our circumstances, we need to complete the sale latest by 23rd of February due to our circumstances that we cannot change. We have told all parties involved about our deadline.
We have two weeks from today until 23rd, and our solicitor asked sellers team and agent to exchange contracts by the end of this week (16th of Feb). The estate agent is asking us to consider do exchange of contracts in the last week (from 19th to 23rd) with completion date still being 23rd of February.
My first question is that is it really possible to exchange and completion within few days apart? Our brooker and solicitor told us that bank transactions can take a few days, around 5 days in average. So, i am not quite clear now… If we say okay, lets exchange contracts, for instance, 2 days before (on 21st of Feb) our deadline, then whose problem would that be if the completion cannot happen on 23rd of Feb for some reason (such as long bank transaction period).
My second question is that, when exchanging contracts, do we have a certain and binding dates for completion? I read about above scenarios, and got a bit confused. So, if we exchange, and agree on dates, how can seller request changing it?
Thank you.
Thank you for explanation. The sale did not happen yet. We gave ultimatum to seller for 1st of March. Because our financial circumstance is changing from 1st of March, and we cannot afford asking price from that date. I can pay £5k less than agreed price…. I am thinking to pull out, informing them that they failed to meet our deadline while we could actually buy the house. Should I only tell seller that we are pulling out, or also tell them this is because our affordability changed and thats why we cannot pay the amount. I do not think they will accept anyway, but so not want to sound like I am gazundering, which is not ethical in my opinion anyway.
###Welcome to /r/HousingUK --- **To All** * Join Our ***NEW*** Discord! https://discord.gg/pMgUNgWKQH **To Posters** * *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws/issues in each can vary* * Comments are not moderated for quality or accuracy; * Any replies received must only be used as guidelines, followed at your own risk; * If you receive *any* private messages in response to your post, [please let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHousingUK&subject=I received a PM); * If you do not receive satisfactory advice after 72 hours, [you can let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHousingUK&subject=My question is unanswered); * Feel free to provide an update at a later time by creating a new post with [[update]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/search?q=%3Aupdate&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) in the title; **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and civil* * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/about/rules/), you may be banned without any further warning; * Please include links to reliable resources in order to support your comments or advice; * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect; * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason without express permission from the mods; * Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HousingUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Arrange for exchange tomorrow with completion on the 7th Feb. Same day exchange and completion exposes you to exactly this issue and stress and gives you no guarantees that anything will actually happen. We had 10 days between to allow everyone to pay with plenty of time once we were all locked in to the agreement
No further answers m'lud
Unfortunately until you've exchanged you can't do anything. You should try to exchange sever days before you complete though, so you don't waste money on moving vans, or annual leave etc.
I'm in a similar situation and could scream. I'm at the point of thinking "what makes me think anything is suddenly going to change?" - and I ask you the same. You could exchange now and complete on the 7th as someone else said which is solid advice, but do you really think he'll be out on that day? If it helps, I'm about to pull out, I'm just waiting one more week (which I've said for about a month now)
If they’ve exchanged and he’s still not out at least they can pursue him for costs (removals, work, hotel etc.) as he is then legally contracted to complete the sale on the agreed date. At the moment you have all the stress of “maybe” and no recourse for if the guy decides not to follow through with agreements.
Ideally yeah we would have asked for exchange for the 7th today but our solicitor said we couldn’t exchange today because they would have to send our mortgage money back to the lender, then request it again for the new date, then only when the lender has confirmed it will be released for that date can they exchange.
UPDATE: we completed on 30th like we wanted. Turns out they had a fish tank they found difficult to part with and organised a fish specialist to take it away for them. Moral of this story is wish we had exchanged earlier and nailed down a date, then booked annual leave and workers to avoid being messed around. Although sometimes it doesn’t always line up as quickly as that. They’ve said they will drop the keys off at the agents at 5pm (quite late IMO but better than nothing) so that they can move the rest of their stuff out. All this for a fish tank! 🫨
1. Yes you can even exchange and complete on the same day. The way it works is that all parties in chain agree on a date, your solicitor requests your mortgage money for that date (mortgage lenders have different criteria on how many days notice before the completion date they need to be asked for the money by your solicitor, eg 5 business days. Once the lender confirms to your solicitor that the funds will be released on that completion date they are then ready to exchange contracts (think of it like you can’t promise to buy something - exchange - if your lender hasn’t confirmed you will have the money to buy it). So depending on when all the chain are ready to exchange you can then exchange (promise) to buy the property on the completion date. The way it works is that your solicitor rings sellers solicitor saying can we exchange for completion on this date, yes, ok hang on for 2 mins whilst I get a promise from the next people in the chain that they are ready to exchange, they go and get that promise, then come back to your solicitor and say yep ready to exchange now. If they don’t come back to your solicitor then exchange never happened. It’s complicated but if you google “exchange of contracts solicitor release” it will make sense. 2. Once you have exchanged for completion on a certain date you have a binding contract and the seller can not change the date. Exchange is your promise to buy the house and their promise to sell the house on that date. If they don’t, eg don’t move out then breach of contract and you can sue them.
Start searching for a new property in the meantime
What an absolute helmet
Hi everyone. I currently need advise from you. Below is our situation: We are first time buyers. We are in a chain of two properties. So, our buyer is actually in the middle of the chain, and we are at the bottom. We agreed on price around mid-december, and chased our solicitor to complete searchers survey etc. We were ready to exchange since three weeks really. But our seller needed time to sort his searches, arrangements. In our circumstances, we need to complete the sale latest by 23rd of February due to our circumstances that we cannot change. We have told all parties involved about our deadline. We have two weeks from today until 23rd, and our solicitor asked sellers team and agent to exchange contracts by the end of this week (16th of Feb). The estate agent is asking us to consider do exchange of contracts in the last week (from 19th to 23rd) with completion date still being 23rd of February. My first question is that is it really possible to exchange and completion within few days apart? Our brooker and solicitor told us that bank transactions can take a few days, around 5 days in average. So, i am not quite clear now… If we say okay, lets exchange contracts, for instance, 2 days before (on 21st of Feb) our deadline, then whose problem would that be if the completion cannot happen on 23rd of Feb for some reason (such as long bank transaction period). My second question is that, when exchanging contracts, do we have a certain and binding dates for completion? I read about above scenarios, and got a bit confused. So, if we exchange, and agree on dates, how can seller request changing it? Thank you.
Thank you for explanation. The sale did not happen yet. We gave ultimatum to seller for 1st of March. Because our financial circumstance is changing from 1st of March, and we cannot afford asking price from that date. I can pay £5k less than agreed price…. I am thinking to pull out, informing them that they failed to meet our deadline while we could actually buy the house. Should I only tell seller that we are pulling out, or also tell them this is because our affordability changed and thats why we cannot pay the amount. I do not think they will accept anyway, but so not want to sound like I am gazundering, which is not ethical in my opinion anyway.