Is EA bluffing? Seller will remarket if we don't complete

[AC1977]

We're currently in the process of buying a house, have mortgage in place, searches back from solicitor, about to book building survey. House was on the market for 6 months prior to our offer, price reduced, another party accepted then dropped out (personal circs apparently.) EA tried to get a higher offer from us but the other party we were apparently bidding against suddenly disappeared.

For various reasons we've put forward mid Sept as completion date. We've offered to exchange asap but don't want to complete until then. We're currently in rented and house needs a lot of work so completing prior would take away our budget. EA has come back and said this is unacceptable to vendor and that he will remarket if we don't complete asap. Apparently he took our offer over two others now as we are renters.

We like the house but don't love it and as I said, it needs a lot of work. Basically just trying to work out if EA and seller are bluffing? DH reckons offer early Sept and see what happens...

Unless you and they have brilliant solicitors, I'd be surprised if you could complete much before September anyway
It's only the 2nd week of June, and the sale has been going best part of 6 weeks already!! The system in this country is slow, but it's not that bad!!

The EA does sound dodgy and pushy and I can see why you would be dubious about what they said.

It might be worth contacting the sellers direct if you can and trying to work out a compromise.

@mildura is that 12 weeks between offer and exchange or 12 weeks between offer and completion. Just wanted to check.

Our solicitor advised they could get to exchange within 4 to 8 weeks but we are no chain and keen to buy asap.

@AC1977
12 weeks from offer to exchange.

@Flexoset The EA does sound dodgy

From the information provided within this thread it really is impossible for anyone to make that judgement accurately.

its usual to have 4 weeks between exchange and completion. Have you considered that our survey may throw up problems that you haven't thought of?

your

Spoke to EA and they reckon vendor happy to proceed as normal so no unrealistic expectations re completion. In which case given what @midura says it almost seems better to just carry on as normal and take the extra financial hit for a few weeks rather than serve up an ultimatum.

@sunshine we're almost expecting the survey to throw something up which is one reason we've opted for the building survey.

12 weeks from offer to completion

But as I understand it you made the offer 6 weeks ago?

@Mildura says offer to exchange?

It isn't usual to have four weeks before exchange and completion at all though that might have been your experience sunshine supernumerary, it depends what everyone agrees in terms of completion date. If you are renting and giving notice to move from rented place to the house you're buying you'd typically want around a month.

Agree that it's 12 weeks between offer and completion, normally only a week or so between exchange and completion (although as I said upthread, we had a month once because our buyer's buyer was renting and wanted to give notice) - so if you are already 6 weeks in then they'd be expecting to complete at the end of July, not September or the end of August.

Ask them what date they are working towards (the vendors).

According to Martin Lewis' Money saving expert the average times are

• offer to exchange - 2-6 weeks
• exchange to completion - zero (some complete on exchange day) to 4 weeks

www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/buying-a-home-timeline Obviously individual circumstances may add on or subtract weeks from these averages and holiday periods can also delay

The average time is not from "offer", it's from "receipt of draft contracts".

At the time of an offer, a solicitor may not have been instructed. You would now have to instruct one but until the seller returns all the forms, pays a retainer etc the seller's solicitor cannot start work on drafting contracts, which need to be sent to the buyer's solicitor - so he can start work.

Leasehold - average 12 weeks from receipt of draft contracts to completion.
Freehold - average 10 weeks from receipt of draft contracts to completion.

However, problems with the title and/or the lease will delay matters and no-one can predict at the outset what problems might arise.

I would let it run its course. Why get so hung up on a completion date, it really isn't something that can be predicted. Once the solicitor has all the information he needs, he will be able to discuss suitable dates with you. Until then, it's best to remain "flexible" and let everyone think that you're happy to complete whenever.

You really don't come across as committed though eg. Saying you had to jump through hoops to have it take off the market and the example being you had to instruct your solicitor. This is normal not jumping through a hoop. All this doing one thing at a time is why they are getting worried that you are not committed to the purchase.

*According to Martin Lewis' Money saving expert the average times are

• offer to exchange - 2-6 weeks*

That is a wholly unrealistic expectation to be giving people and I have emailed MSE to ask them to consider changing that statement.

Op

You are being unfair. I’d never have sold to you in the first place.

I’m very very surprised your mortgage is in place without a survey? And even more surprised that your solicitor has conducted searches without sight of a survey!

It’s not good that you are saying you don’t love the place either.

@Melliegrantfirstlady To repeat my post from: Wed 13-Jun-18 16:54:16

In the vast majority of cases all a bank requires to confirm they are prepared to offer a mortgage is a valuation report, very, very rare for the bank to insist upon a more detailed survey being carried out. It is up to the individual purchaser to decide if they wish to have the property more thoroughly inspected by a surveyor.

Thanks so much to everyone who has offered up advice and / or constructive criticism. As I mentioned we are FTB so this process is all new to us. Lessons learnt wrt being upfront about times and being on the ball a bit more. To be fair, the sellers haven't exactly been on the ball themselves so the delay so far hasn't entirely been to do with us.

We're going to proceed as normal and see where that gets us timewise.

Good Luck OP

Just remember that 'proceed as normal' normally means pushing your solicitor to keep the momentum going. You don't just sit and wait for it all to happen.

FWIW my last house sold in exactly 6 weeks from going on the market. Offer was made at a viewing 1 week after going on rightmove and then exchange and completion happened within a couple of days of each other.

You do need to be proactive throughout all of this otherwise your sellers will continue to be unsure about you. Good luck!