Chain demanding £750 for costs!

[H0neyBee]

I am beyond livid... we are moving house and due to complete in less than 4 weeks. Suddenly the people 2 up the chain from us have demanded that 4 of us in the chain each pay £750 towards £3000 costs hich they will apparently incur as the house they are moving to isn't ready on the completion date.

Have you exchanged? If so, unlikely they can get anywhere unless you have it written into the contract. If not, you can just refuse to pay - but they could delay completion until their house is ready so depends if the rest of the chain minds risking delay.

when you say "due to complete" do you mean contracts have been exchanged?

Keep looking at other houses and try not to be emotionally invested. With houses it isn't over until it's yours.

This is just a trick to try to squeeze some money out of people.

Ignore. If they want to demand this money, let them do it via their solicitor, which they will pass on to your solicitor. Your solicitor may ask you for your view on this but you would be within your rights to say no! Solicitors strongly advise not agreeing to any financial arrangements privately, as they will not be legally binding/enforceable but instead to go through them to negotiate with the other solicitor.

I have never heard of this before and quite honestly, if the house is not ready, then they need to take it up with the developer (assume it's a new build?). New builds often have a 28 day exchange with a long completion date, but that is not your problem.

They are hoping you will all help ease their pain to keep the chain going.

You can say no, they may say that they need to pull out and the chain will collapse.

But, as ^^ said, it's not yours until you get the keys... so maybe keep looking whilst waiting to see what happens. And ask your solicitor what they think about it!