Almost seven months into a sale - a week after we agreed to exchange - the buyer’s bank have flagged an “issue”

[Suitcasesuitcase]

We accepted this offer almost seven months ago. It has been an endless, tortuous sale with excruciatingly slow back and forth from their solicitor. We have threatened to ditch these buyers twice, but haven’t because of promises that an exchange could happen “next week” if we just hang on (those “next weeks” were months ago).

We finally agreed on a completion date (end of this month). Every day last week we were supposed to exchange.

At 5:30pm on Friday, we discovered exchange won’t happen because the buyer’s solicitor said the lender’s legal department have flagged a problem that the solicitor has answered and now they have to wait for the bank to okay it all. My experience with these buyer’s solicitor says to me that no completion will happen this month.

How is it that the bank - SEVEN MONTHS after we accepted their offer - have JUST flagged an issue?!

And what kind of issue would it be anyway?!

Not completing this month is going to have a bit of a disastrous financial impact for us. I don’t know what on earth to do.

That’s very interesting! I wonder which it is? They wouldn’t say when we asked. Just blanked the question (which is the normal way communication has gone!).

How annoying. Their mortgage will have expired or the product pulled.

I think you need to re-list the house. Sorry.

As previous posters have said, 5 days notice is common for mortgage lenders (to draw down the funds for completion) although it can be done sooner if necessary (and they have some notice).

I think the extra Bank Holidays may be causing a bit of an issue too, you can complete any day and not just a Friday but there is a weekend where even the Thursday is a Bank Holiday which is unusual.

Hope it gets sorted ASAP for you, OP.

It wouldn’t necessarily be too late after Monday as it doesn’t always take 5 days and there is such a thing as simultaneous exchange & completion.
What could the problem
be though? Maybe he has gone over the 6 months (but surely would have been warned of that before now) or have you recently renegotiated the price?

Agree with pp. your house will have gone up in value. Put it back on the market, get the increased sale value and that will pay you for the Months of hassle (and whatever you have to do because you needed to exchange by may- it will cover the cost of the bridging loan too if that's what you need)

I'm sorry this is happening to you @Suitcasesuitcase. We've had an nightmare securing a mortgage and it's because the banks can't keep up with BOE interest rate rises and so their previously advertised products are suddenly being pulled off the market which means a fresh new application (what we've been told by our broker). I know it's not your fault and beyond frustrating but it must be excruciating for your buyer too. To add, the difference between your buyer and us is that we've been 100% transparent with everyone and given detailed updates when our agent calls us every week (?!) to check progress. I hope it's something simple for your buyer and you exchange/complete soon.

Our buyer has been communicative - but I’m never quite clear on what’s going on, or what the delays are. There’s always a “reason”, but it’s vague and hard to get.

I have just emailed my EA to tell him that we complete the end of this month or we have to relist.

Our problem is - and this isn’t the buyer’s problem, but their constant promises of “next week” for exchange that we naively believe have made it this way for us - we have already relocated so on June 1, we’ll have to pay another (hefty) mortgage bill for it, plus rent where we are now.

We absolutely couldn’t put off relocating any longer, and had been promised completion would happen by the end of May. I wish we hadn’t believed them.

What we’ll have to do if they don’t make the deadline, is relist and put a tenant in. The property is in a desirable area and that will be very easy.

I have just looked and it would cost the buyers at least £25k more (and I mean at least!!) for something equivalent in the area. I’m wondering if I should have told them if they wanted to delay to June, they need to pay more? Not sure if that’s inappropriate or not.

But I did tell the agent they’re out of this doesn’t happen by the end of May! And I was very clear about it, so probably can’t go back now and say they can stay in the running for more!

(And - to be honest - if it doesn’t go through in May, after almost seven months of feeling strung along, I kind of want these buyers and their solicitor out of my life!)

"relist and put a Tenant in" Whoaaa eh? That is a major undertaking. Do you have any experience as a Landlord? This plan is a potential minefield.
Offer the property to somebody as a home and then try and find a buyer? (I wouldn't look at a house with a sitting Tenant if it was for sale, what if the Tenant doesn't want to leave? how can you guarantee vacant possession? Implications for a buyer needing a mortgage, I could go on........
Why had you not exchanged on 16th? If the query was raised on the 18th you would have exchanged by then.
I think you are at the end of your tether ( rightly so) stop believing what you are being told and get your house back on the market ASAP. Dont do it for any other reason than to find a new Buyer. If it is the kick up the arse that is needed to finally exchange then brilliant. But drop the plan to rent it out.

You can't put a tenant in and have it up for sale. . An ast is minimum term of six months, they don't have to allow viewings, and you can only complete vacant possession. Can you afford to have it stood empty?

It sounds like all/part of their deposit is coming from a third party, and the solicitor has only just found this out, so highlighted to the bank, who need to approve they can still go ahead.

The above isn't a huge issue; it happened to my buyers when previously selling, but they sound like awful buyers.

I haven’t really thought through the practicalities of getting a tenant, I must admit! I was more thinking about a short term let. In our old community WhatsApp there was always someone looking for a short term while they got a kitchen extension done (our property is in the land of many side returns!).

You're probably right though. Oh gosh what a mess!

Why do you have to complete by the end of May? You say it a number of times but don't say why.

Personally I would pull out and relist. He has had his chance and isn't playing the game. If you wanted to go a bit more softly you could ask the agent to put it back on the market and see what sort of offers you get and it may spur the buyer on to complete.

I'd pull out tbh. Sounds like the offer has expired but you could be waiting a while for their new one. 7 months is a long time to have not exchanged, although mines taken 3 months to get to exchange, which I thought was ages. I'd give your buyers a clear message that if you don't exchange this coming week, the property will go back on the market. See if it lights a fire under them to hurry things up.

I read back at all our email exchanges, and this one from our EA, which is forwarded info from our buyer from their solicitor:
“I also need confirmation from XXX bank that everything is in order in relation to the mortgage advance.”

if it is what you think, do you know how long that delay would usually take?

It’s our fault entirely but we relocated before the sale completed. We had to for work reasons and we had put it off as long as possible, but we went earlier this month. That has left this property empty. We’re really going to struggle to afford the mortgage and our new rent together. We can make it this month but we will barely be able to eat after that! The mortgage is really expensive! We were leaving the area anyway, but also leaving the hefty mortgage behind was going to be another relief.

The next mortgage payment comes out on June 1st, as does our rent - and all the bills we’re still paying associated with the property - council tax, etc etc.

We did get ourselves into this mess by going early, but we (stupidly!) believed they’d complete by the end of the month.

OP has said why. This has been going on for 7 months! They are now paying rent and will also have to pay the mortgage.

Good luck OP, hope it all works put. Some people just don't care how their actions affect others.

I had a similar issue but was the buyer in our case. The bank spotted a title issue that our solicitor had missed.

I just want to add that it might be the banks fault.

House 1. Buyer made a mistake on the form about the property, easily corrected. But bank decided we needed a full drainage survey and to follow any recomendations. Drainage wasn't on the property, and wasn't within the sellers responsibility. Had to pull out because bank wouldn't lend.

House 2. We had a mortgage offer, after survey bank insisted a wall built before they'd lend, if done offer stood. Seller complied.
Went back to bank with proof. Bank said actually we want the house rewired now too. Obviously totally unreasonable.

Nothing I could do about those, nothing solicitor could do.

On Monday start looking into other options. Maybe there's a real cash buyer who can move quickly. Find out what those webuyanyhouse companies would offer. Look into auctions. It sounds like your house will be worth more than when the sale was agreed, which might offset the cost of this type of urgent option.

Oh crikey!!

If it’s something like that here - and it might be - I suppose I don’t know why it’s happening after the agreed exchange date when they could have flagged something weeks - or even months - ago?

One of the people who offered when we accepted this one (we had 4 offers and it went into best and final) was a cash buyer. They offered the least (under asking price rather than asking or over, like the others) but I wish I’d accepted their offer now!!! The EA actually steered us towards this buyer as they were so “keen” and there was no chain so it’d be fast.

I don't know why you're allowing an end of month completion. If they exchange tomorrow they can complete the day after. If no exchange tomorrow, then get your house on the market again tomorrow.

You could ask them to pay the equivalent of your mortgage payment. We did similar when buyers stuffed us around and they were amenable to that rather than house going back on market.

Walk away