Exchange end of August, could this get delayed?

[bebeboeuf]

Friend is buying first property and mentioned to me today that her and DH were giving notice on their flat this week as they’ve been told to expect to exchange end of August.

I always assumed these dates were exceptionally flexible and likely to get delayed for all sorts of reasons and when I suggested they hold off she was quite sure all would be fine.

Would she have anything to worry about?

Very daft move.

Unless they have exchanged contracts I wouldn’t be giving up any rental.

Nothing is secure until contracts have been exchanged prior to completion.

I thought so

They also have 3 kids so I was worried about them ending up without a place

Her solicitor should have advised her on this.

I imagine the solicitor did but she is far too excited and impatient to listen

Our last exchange date slipped 5 times in approx 4 weeks because of questions being raised by solicitors above and below us in chain.

Our solicitor helpfully said “It happens”.

Never give notice until exchanged! It’s normally four weeks between exchange and completion so that gives her the month for her notice. It could work out but in my experience (I own five properties) she’ll regret it.

When I bought last our exchange date moved 4 times by a week each time because the top of the chain weren’t ready. The completion date also moved because there was a new build at the top of the chain and the developer wanted 6 weeks after exchange to put the kitchen and bathroom in. Never give notice until you’ve exchanged as until then nothing is set in stone.

It’s chain free at least so they’ve got that going on their favour
I don’t think they even have the searches back yet

I did this - I basically had no choice because I had to give 3 months' notice to end my tenancy and I didn't want to annoy the vendors by waiting for exchange before I gave notice.

There were huge delays to exchanging and I was seriously stressed about having nowhere to live, but thankfully it happened.

If your friend has a good relationship with her landlady she could explain the situation and ask if it would be possible to extend the tenancy informally if necessary (this is what I did). Unless someone else has signed a tenancy agreement, this is probably good for the landlady.

Another option is just to refuse to move out at the end of the tenancy, if necessary. It would take the landlady several months to evict through the courts, which buys a lot of time. I don't think I could deal with the stress of doing this myself, but it's an option.

Let’s hope she has a back up plan

Hot on this press for this one...

We were due to exchange on sale and purchase on Friday last week. It slipped and slipped again until today I got a phone call saying that our buyers have pulled out. Totally out of the blue.

Back to square one...

How much notice do they have to give to end their tenancy? If it's a month, she would be very foolish to give notice now, if it's longer I can see why she doesn't want to potentially be on the hook for paying both a mortgage and rent but it is still tricky. Also exchange is immaterial here really, they can move in until completion so have they got a possible timescale in mind for that?

can't

I can see why she doesn't want to potentially be on the hook for paying both a mortgage and rent

IIRC mortgage payments are made in arrears (pay for the previous month) whereas rent is paid in advance (pay for the month to come). So even if there was an overlap of around a month, she wouldn't be having to make two payments at once.

We were told we'd be exchanged and moved in by end of April but no, we ended up moving end of May. Enquiries held us up they went on and on