Would you complete with your buyer and seller at different times?

[Chocolatealllllday]

Our seller is buying a new build which has almost finished being built and all hopefully for January. However they are pressuring him to do a long stop completion, so exchange but put mid March as completion incase something happens to slow it down.

Our buyer can't get their mortgage extended further past beginning Dec. They are buying our house as a buy to let. It has been suggested to us that we could exchange with our buyer and seller and also complete with our buyer but stay in our house and rent from him in a 'gentleman's agreement' until our seller is ready to complete. Apparently our seller is not in a position to move into rented. Is this feasible? Sensible? Stupid? We would exchange on both sides first before doing so.

If the buyers are willing to do it but if i was the buyer it would be a hard risk for me. what if the purchase falls through and they refuse to move out, what if they damage something. esp atm where you have to give six months notice.

be prepared to rent somewhere else until the house is sold.

@Bells3032 sorry Bells which buyer do you mean it would be a risk for? We are in the middle so would be the ones renting our own house off of our buyer whilst waiting for our new house to be completed on. (As their new build won't be ready until later).

The risk would entirely be on your buyer renting out to you. if you then chose not to move out they will have a nightmare getting rid of you.

If your buyer is willing to do that then they can but it's not a risk i'd take in their position

@Bells3032
Our buyer is willing to do that. I thought that if we all exchanged first then none of us can really pull out though?

If they're happy to then legally nothing stopping you.

They may need to consider their mortgage though as most residential mortgages will require empty possession.

You will become their tenant short term. You maybe perfectly good as a tenant and vacate exactly when you say you will...but the buyer cannot know that with certainty. You might refuse to move out (lots of tenants do this) and they may have to go through legal proceedings to evict you which take months at the best of times and even longer during Covid.

Any solicitor will advise your buyer against doing this. It doesn’t matter how decent you are, there is a risk to the buyer if this strategy.

So they might a bit naively think this will work but their solicotr will soon out them straight or their mortgage won’t be be valid doing this or their insurance or something.....so somewhere along the line they will come back to you are regretfully say they would have liked to do this but can’t. And then youlll have to look for alternative accommodation short term. So it’s just best to know now that this is the very very likely outcome of it all. Sorry as it would nice if it would work but it’s just too risky and not something any buyer should be offering.

@WombatChocolate our buyer is getting a buy to let mortgage - would it not be valid then doing this?

We’re in the process of doing this now having just exchanged on the house we’re selling. We won’t be exchanging on the house we’re buying for a few more weeks as we’re still waiting on the searches.

It’s slightly stressful as we have 2 dogs, but at the same time it’s been a huge weight off our minds knowing we’ve 100% sold our house.

I’d go for it in your position but it’s more risk to your buyer. Have they sought legal advice? The mortgage being a BTL should make a massive difference vs a residential one.

In a not dissimilar position our solicitor told us not to sign the contract and thought we would lose our buyer if we did. He said new builds can drag on and not be finished for months. His advice was the contract was changed and those purchasing the new build went elsewhere to await the build completion. This is what happened and if it hadn’t we would have pulled out of the sale.

I dont see anything wrong with the idea. it is possible the new build date will move again. Just be prepared for that. If your buyer was intending to let your property anyway they wont be so worried about a slight delay.

The only thing I'm worried about is that we must complete with our sellers by the end of March for the stamp duty holiday!