Buyers refusing to exchange on notice - would this worry you?

[movinghousedrama]

Sold my house last October and was transparent with the buyers that I would be moving into a new build in June. They were fine to wait but have been exceptionally slow with everything, which has been fine because we've been in no hurry.

I've been pushing for exchange now all the legals are done but have now had the below email from my solicitors.

I'm worried they're going to wait until the last minute and try to negotiate money off or something similar. Why else would they want to wait until I've had notice from the builders, or am I missing something?

Thanks

I think your buyer doesn't have the 10% cash money needed to exchange so the buyer wants exchange and completion on the same day.

The exact same situation happened to us last year. Very stressful but we got there at last

They are first time buyers so they must have the 10% deposit I think or else they wouldn't have been approved for the mortgage etc...

I don't understand, what does 'on notice' mean?

Completion on notice is where you've exchanged contracts with the agreement that you will complete with a minimum of 14 day's notice. IE you exchange contracts so everyone is legally bound but the completion date is not yet fixed at the point of exchange. You have a long stop date so that if completion isn't by X date then everyone can walk away with no penalty

I can’t think why they wouldn’t want to exchange under those conditions with your situation. I would try and find out what their objections are- I can’t think of a good reason for it.

Could they be worried that the new build will be delayed and they don't want to tie themselves in to something that might drag on till July or August? They could be keeping an eye on the market. Although having paid for all the legal side you'd have thought they were fully in.

I don’t blame them, the uncertainty has absolutely no benefit to them and only you because you are buying a new build.

Have you been able to agree a long stop? They might be concerned about the time left on their mortgage offer etc.

The new-build completion process is a pain to be honest so although it's OK for you as you are buying a new-build, your buyer has probably (albeit a bit late in the process.......) decided that they don't want the uncertainty of those timings.

What they're suggesting though is not going to work for you as you'll be committed on your purchase and your buyer might fall through which means you invariably won't be able to afford the new house.

I'd speak to the estate agent and see if you can work out exactly what the buyer ideally wants to achieve. They might just be incredibly flaky but more likely they might really be looking for you to give them a definite completion date. That would mean you'd need to move out for whatever time there would be between completion on your sale and completing on the purchase. Or they might want something a bit softer ie they'd accept the notice process but with a long stop ie you have to complete by 30th September, say, even if the new build is not ready by then.

I would say that they're worried the new build will be delayed (as they often are) and their mortgage offer will run out or they'll have to pay for another 6 months of rental contract etc (if I've understood the notice thing correctly)

What is the proposed long stop date?

I am in exactly the same position my buyers are refusing to signed the contract and we are meant to complete at the end of next week. I leant at the beginning of the week that they had applied for another mortgage because the don’t want the one they had.

I am getting to the point where I could tell them to go and…………

Luckily I am not in chain but is so stressful.

Ah I see. But as pp says - no benefit to them so I'm not surprised they don't want to do this - I sure wouldn't!