Exchanging and completing on the same day

[alanpartridgefromtheoasthouse]

Our buyer is pressuring us to exchange and complete on the same day because of the risks of Covid. e.g. if someone in the chain (we are the middle link in a chain of 3 properties) suddenly has to self-isolate, a removal firm goes bust or a mortgage offer gets rescinded. He has also said that if we don't complete before the stamp duty window ends he will pull out.

We are absolutely unable to do simultaneous E&C because we have a toddler at nursery and have to give a month's notice, and don't want to do that or pay a removal company unless we know it's definitely going ahead. We are relocating 60 miles away. Our buyer has been flaky throughout and has had three price drops so far. We don't trust him not to do it again just before exchange. I also don't think our seller will be up for simultaneous exchange and completion.

If we can't figure it out I'm pretty sure he'll walk away as he's been threatening to throughout. We need to move! So we're not in a strong position.

Any ideas on options we can suggest?

To add, I will be talking to our solicitor about it tomorrow as well but am stressing out today!

If you are ready to exchange I would discuss with rest of chain when they want to complete and agree a date between everyone. It would need to be before end of March for stamp duty, you could suggest a months though imagine others may also want it quicker and need to check no-one's mortgage offer will expire. I wouldn't do same day exchange and completion with a flaky buyer. I would seriously consider giving notice to nursery now unless its commutable from new house. 2 weeks would seem a reasonable compromise but see what everyone wants.

Agree to it on the written condition that any losses incurred due to him being a dick at the last minute he will reimburse. eg moving fees lost due to late cancellation. Make the date in a month and give notice to the nursery (if the worst happens you just take back the notice, they're unlikely to say you can't still attend), book the removals.
It sounds as though you want to exchange and complete a month later? I would want exchange asap too but house buying doesn't often lend itself to being easy! I assume all 3 parties actually have the written mortgage offers?
It's perfectly doable so don;t worry about that but if you place the onus on him to cover costs then he'll probably show his true colours.

Our buyer insisted on this in January and we just had to go with it. It was nerve wracking and we would have lost £2500 in removal fees if it had fallen through. It worked out though. My solicitor did say you can have covid clauses written into contracts though. Might be worth checking?

Thank you for this advice, much appreciated.

Sadly I don't think he'll be willing to commit to any costs himself. He knows he's got us over a barrel.

I will ask my solicitor about Covid clauses for sure.

And yes, I think we'll give notice to nursery on Monday, hopefully they'll be understanding if we need to cancel. We have to put down a deposit at our new nursery too, it's all getting even more expensive

Any issue about a completion day after exchange could also happen on a simultaneous exchange/completion, in fact I think that's more risky. So I do not understand his argument. Once exchanged you are all committed to the completion date.

He's got you over nothing, if he pulls out or you choose not to meet his demands then he loses the stamp duty date too. If he's serious then he should be able to say he'll cover some relatively minor costs if he doesn't meet his own demands!

The issue is that he's threatened to walk away repeatedly throughout this process, he's a first time buyer who wants to renovate the house and immediately sell it on so there's no emotional attachment to it and we're not even sure if he'll be living here. He probably wouldn't get something else before the end of the window now though, that's true.

He demanded to come and see the house again yesterday and when we asked to wait until after exchange he threatened to pull out again. It's so stressful, he is very melodramatic and clearly fancies himself as a bit of a wheeler dealer. He was the only person who made an offer though (out of 22 viewings!) so we decided to plough on with him.

Our sellers are also not particularly motivated as they're going to be renting for a while anyway while they try and find somewhere they want to buy.

Rock - us - hard place

Exchange now with a Covid clause.

But if he pulls out after exchange he forfeits his deposit anyway.