Long Stop Completion

[RainingYetAgain]

DC, a FTB, is ready to exchange and complete on a property, with a Mortgage Offer due to expire in April. There is a chain but the people at the top are buying a new house and have now come back asking when his mortgage offer expires, as they are looking at a long stop completion date.
Not heard the expression previously, and a google suggests that this is a date on which the purchasers can walk away and get their deposit back if the house isn't finished. So presumably the builders are not committing to finishing the new build anytime soon - he understood it was expected to be early March . Solicitor was told this in Jan.
Obviously DS is a bit concerned as mortgage rates have increased quite a bit since he got his offer.. Solicitor has sent a robust response , including suggesting the top of the chain move into rented.
Can anyone offer some re-assurance that builders get a move on when there is a deadline. ( I suppose the top of the chain might be hoping to use his mortgage expiry as a lever)

The problem with a long stop is 1) often developers don't like to agree to them and 2) if they do they are usually a fair few months away. The people we bought from went to stay with family and commuted 3 hours to work for a period of time in the end because Bellway refused to issue a long stop. Our sale fell through due to this and came back together a month later when they relented and said they'd move in with family, breaking the chain.

A long stop date is usually the last date - it doesn't mean anyone can walk away normally (but your DC should be asking their solicitor for details). The normal practice is the wording to say something along the lines of "Completion date to be agreed between the parties but with a Long Stop Date of 20 April". In that case, it just means that it can be any time up to 20 April, but both parties are agreeing a deadline of 20 April.

Oh dear! Not looking good then.
Going to be cross as he has been ready to go for a while, waiting for "a couple of matters" to be resolved further up the chain. Didn't realise that that might be the house not being completed.

Anyone dependent on a new build in a chain needs to beware if this, especially as labour and materials are in such support supply in construction at the moment.

The EA for these vendors at the top of the chain won’t want to lose the sale so I would say talk to them with some urgency about the very real deadline of the mortgage offer. Maybe they can find those vendors the perfect temporary rental…..

Great idea, thanks. The estate agent one up will lose 2 sales if DS pulls out , so maybe they can apply some pressure. TBH, DS only became aware of the new build when he went for what he thought was a pre-exchange viewing and took DH and I as well. I got the impression the vendor hadn't long been aware that the top of the chain were buying a new build.

If moving into a new build and are dependant on the sale of your existing property house to finance it (as many are) it is now common practice to complete on the sale and move into temporary accommodation.
Certainly this is what we did last year.

This is risky for your dc.

If he exchanges now he pays his deposit - if for some reason he can’t compete in a few months (mortgage expires and can’t get a new one, he loses his job) he will lose his deposit.