28days to exchange on new build

[SwingingFromTheChanderlier]

Hello

I have posted elsewhere but think this is probably the most suitable place!

I am looking to buy a new build (already built) and have been told they (developers) aim to exchange within 28 days.

What exactly does this mean? Out of experience it generally takes 4ish months to complete. What are the risks to me? I'm not so worried about losing the house but can't afford to lose £££s if chain goes tits up! I have not hot as far as reserving so haven't completely committed.

Advise much appreciated!

I think with new build you after have to complete within x weeks of the property being finished. That may be some months later.

Never been in that position myself but it must be a pain if you have a chain dependent upon it.

It also depends on how sought after the property is. If they're finding it hard to shift then you've got as long as you want. If there's a queue of people after it then they're putting you on notice that if you drag your feet then they'll find someone else.

When we purchased a new build we had to exchange within 28 days of placing our reservation which we did at the point the foundations were being laid. We then completed when the house was fully built and we moved in which was about 10 months in total

This happened to me too. Basically I think once you exchange you can't get out of it. But I refused to exhange on a non completed house without written guarantees of compete/moving date which they would not provide. So we didn't exchange (on our solicitors advice). The builders were unhappy - said they would re market the house - we said fine do that. They didn't. And when it was ready to move into we exchanged and completed.
I'm not sure how it's actually meant to work but we followed our solicitors advice! The builders would have just kept extending the build finish date I think.

We had the same thing when we bought our home. It was a large development so lots of purchases going on. Rather than 21 days (!) we took 4 months to exchange, partly because we had to sell our flat first but also because the developer solicitors were so rubbish.

We were never chased or pressured to exchange.

One thing to consider is, if you exchange early on then don't complete in a few months then your mortgage offer may expire, and you run the risk of not getting a new mortgage. Most mortgage offers are valid for only 6 months. My solicitor had to fight really hard to put in a clause to state that if they didn't complete before our mortgage expired then we could pull out of the purchase.

Our mortgage offer was extended and then we completed a day before it expired. This was stressful as I was then pregnant on maternity and the conditions for mortgages changed in the time the house was being built.