Hoping for a sales completion before April 2016

[Jerry131415]

I have had my offer accepted and my solicitor received the draft paper from the sellers solicitor on 12 Jan 2016.

In parallel I am going through with my bank for the mortgage application with surveys done and now awaiting approval.

I have to have the completion before April 2016 to avoid the special stamp duty.

How confident in matching the timeframe given my present situation?

I tried to call the solicitor a few times followed by emails but without reply....

It really depends on the length and make up of the chain. In theory you have more than enough time. I have known people do the whole think in a couple of week on the other hand a few months of my moves have taken six months.

A few typos there but you get the gist!

Also, keep in regular contact with the Estate agent and solicitor. Never hurts to make sure you are kept in the loop.

Thanks and to elaborate:-

The sellers have purchased a new built property. They are likely to move out in May. I have asked via the estate agent and see if the completion could take place earlier while I provide the sellers to stay as-is by a rent back and similar arrangement.

I am doing fine with the bank mortgage but what worries me is about the solicitors progress.

Perhaps I am being too pushing as they just received the draft papers on 12 Jan but any single day counts in achieving a completion before 31 March 2016.

Shall I keep chasing my solicitor?

I am living abroad so technically I need some more time to physically coming, at least for the completion.

Thank you.

I would definitely ring the solicitor and agent up on a weekly basis I for updates.

I am sure you can come to some arrangement re the house you are buying, you will have to look at the various options., The main problem will of course be if the new build is delayed (bad weather etc).

How much would the extra stamp duty amount to if you don't mind me asking?

The extra stamp duty would come over 6,000 for any completion after 31 March, which is very significant.

This is why I have to chase the parties.

I have written very clearly to my solicitor on the time frame. In their client care letter which states it takes 4 to 6 weeks to reach exchange of contract. So, assuming on the far end, 6 weeks from 12 Jan will be 23 Feb, if the searches are normal.

Assuming so, my solicitor will forward me the contract for review and it will not until early March would the contract be exchanged. Plus some 1 to 2 weeks for completion.

Overall, the timeframe is very tight and thats why I need to chase the solicitor as my feeling is that the legal works take longer than the mortgage work...

Well worth doing then for £6k!

Good luck, hope all goes according to plan.

rent back is no doubt possible, but I'm not sure how you set it up given that an AST cannot be shorter than six months.

would it be cheaper to pay to put their stuff in store and put them up in a holiday let or similar? The problem there could be that new builds can run very late.

The client care letter will probably state that it takes an average of 4 to six weeks to reach exchange. This assumes that all parties (including third parties) respond to requests/enquiries within a day or two and that all paperwork and responses are satisfactory and do not require further investigation. Bear in mind, local authority searches can take a few weeks to come back.

Now that your solicitors have the draft papers, they will examine them and raise enquiries with the seller's solicitors. Don't forget that the seller's solicitors then have to respond to the enquiries and they may have to seek responses from the sellers or other parties in order to answer satisfactorily.

Your solicitor will want vacant possession on completion so you would need advice on your plan to rent it back to the sellers. Also, new builds can often exchange quite quickly but with a long completion date.

If your sellers want to move in May then I would say it's very unlikely you are going to complete by 31 March as the sellers will not feel a sense of urgency to meet your deadline.

We are in a similar position, ( our buyers need to complete before the new changes) We have a very short chain but I am beginning to get concerned...I phoned up earlier this week to see how things were going and our onward purchase hadn't exchanged contracts so the searches hadn't been started!! ( we agreed a sale late Dec). However our solicitors were confident that it's still an achievable time frame, but I will now be ringing very regularly for an update.

( our sale however is well underway so at least one positive)

What are the new changes coming into effect in April? I thought the stamp duty changes only effected landlords or buy to let?

Asking as I'm waiting to complete on a house bought for £235,000 - what's the impact if it doesn't happen by 31st March? The mortgage broker or solicitor hasn't mentioned anything

it only affects houses that are not going to be owner occupied - buy to let or holiday properties.

no-one else. Unless, of course, you are in a chain with such a property.

New stamp duty for buy-to-let homes. But also a 3% surcharge on second homes. If it's your only house and you won't be renting it out, nothing changes.

new info here

Thanks for confirming - that's what I hoped.

Does anyone know the score re stamp duty if we buy a property (as our main residence) after 5 April 2016 but before we manage to sell our current house, which we then hopefully sell a few months later? (we'd be using bridging finance to avoid missing out on the new property)

Will we be liable for the extra SD even though the new property will be our home (not BTL or second home)?

TIA

PS sorry for hijack

I'd have said you'd probably have to pay the 3% surcharge. Ask your solicitor.

Thank you. We haven't quite got that far yet, but it seems that way, yes