28 day exchange of contracts is a bit far fetched?

[binkyblinky]

Hi! So we have recently been approved a shared ownership house, After going through the application process, very excited!

We have sold our current shared ownership House and way and the buyers are currently waiting for our respective mortgages to be approved by the underwriters. Both parties have also instructed solicitors so everything is moving along nicely.

The new housing association has said that contracts should be exchanged in 28 days however this seems completely on achievable given delays with underwriters at the moment.

Our new home is a new build, could it be that the housing association just want people in there quickly and are giving unrealistic dates for exchange and completion?

If the 28 days for exchange of contracts is missed, can anything happen? Or does it just carry on. Worried about missing out!

AIBU - to think that's a ridiculous target!

It does seem ambitious - housing associations can be a bit doolally/head in the clouds about all sorts of legal stuff IMO and it doesn't help that often the person managing it from the HA side is an junior administrator or someone not really au fait with the legal process so you can get some bizarre responses.

I guess they can specify they want to exchange in 28 days all they like, and withdraw their acceptance of your offer after that period if they want, without penalty, but seems a bit counter-productive, as they'd just have to start the whole process over again with someone else (which would again likely take 28 days +). I can't see anyone who needs a mortgage being ready within 28 days at the best of times TBH, never mind right now, and surely you don't get many cash buyers for shared ownership properties? In all likelihood so long as things are progressing I'd guess it will be fine so try not to stress?

28 days can be typical of new builds, but the developers tend to work to their own time frames, taking their time and then rushing you when they're ready.

We reserved and were told to immediately instruct a solicitor and get the mortgage ready. We completed did this and asked whether they would be ready to exchange before the reservation expired.

They responded with a further letter saying 'Congratulations on reserving your new home!' with a deadline of 28 days from that date.

We think they had been hanging on to it to count the sale in a different time period, as it wasn't built until some time after.

Within those 28 days, it again took them weeks before their solicitors carried out any initial enquiries on their behalf. We worried about meeting the deadline, but as we'd been ready for ages, our solicitor assured us that this had been stated in writing and as long as the developers were the ones not responding, still asking questions, generally holding it up, we had already 'met' the deadline as far as we were able.

The home we have reserved had already fallen through a few times as I think it was 8 families who failed the affordability checks, so it has been back on the market a few times.

We've passed all of that and now it's just underwriters for both parties, so fingers crossed there won't be too much of a delay! Soooo stressful!