Chain of 5 - can we complete in 2.5 months?

[MoHunter]

WWYD??

Top of chain has only just agreed their sale, us (middle of chain) and the two buyers below have been waiting for months.
We've had a mortgage offer made back in March which expires 30th September on another property which fell through before finding our current purchase. The chain is complete as of today but our vendors and their vendors are right at the start of their conveyancing process.

Our mortgage broker is confident that he can get the lender to change our mortgage offer from March to apply to the new house, but only if we still complete by 30th September.

I'm sure I already know the answer to this, but is there any chance in hell that we could complete that quickly?

My instinct tells me there is no way this will happen, and we should make a new mortgage application ASAP before rates go up further... but we can't have two mortgage offers on the go apparently, so would have to close our original mortgage application and start new.

Old rate was 1.97% and the best now is 3.14% 😭but if we gamble on completing by 30th September, and then don't, God knows what rates we will be offered then.. what would you do?

Can't you apply for a mortgage with a different lender? We had 2 applications going last time because our preferred lender took months to confirm our offer. Finally they both came through and we chose which one to proceed with.

We were in a chain of 5 last year and it took exactly 3 months from when we made the offer to completion, but a couple of weeks were lost by our sellers finding a property. So if the chain are all good to go and you all have decent solicitors it could work out. good luck!

@SunnydayeverythingsAOK

Well, our mortgage broker can't as I asked that very question... but I'm not sure whether we could make an application direct or via a different broker - won't the lender see that there is another mortgage offer on our file? Not sure how exactly it works, but I was worried it could stop second lender from offering a mortgage...

@minuette1 that is good to hear! Just been hearing that things are taking longer this year, so it seems very hard to say...! Thank you 🙂

Which lender is it? We’ve been in this situation recently and Nationwide wouldn’t transfer the mortgage to the new property. Our previous sale fell through, all costs were the same. He said in his experience most weren’t now because of the interest rate rises.

@BlodynDaisy It's Halifax, yeah I was dubious but our broker was sure they'd do it...

My brother is a mortgage broker. He currently has two remortgage offers on the table for me and it's for me to decide.

He said the problem isn't that your broker can't find another deal, it's that interest rates have rocketed since March so whatever they find, will likely be more expensive.

Thankfully, the offer I will be taking is secure, but my remortgage offer from my own bank came through this week and the monthly payment is £90 more expensive than I'm paying now because of the interest hike.

We've just completed from a chain of 4 and the top three houses all agreed sales within 1 week of each other but it still took us 4 months to complete even though we were all at the same stage along the process x

@TokenGinger that's interesting. I asked our broker about keeping the Halifax offer open but also getting a current offer from a new lender should we not complete in time, and he said it wasn't possible. Perhaps it's just my broker then?
Would it be underhanded to get a second mortgage offer through a different broker?

@sarahc336 that is kind of what I'm expecting...

We’re a chain of 4 and solicitor is saying it’s “too early to talk dates” even though all searches are back and everyone’s had their survey. Think the top of the chain sales were agreed in mid-May, ours was April. Vaguely anticipating end of august move so 3.5 months?

I'll be honest and say that it would be unlikely you could complete in 2.5 months with 5 in the chain.

That's 5 solicitors working on the legal aspects of transferring the properties from one person to the next.

If any of the enquiries raised by those 5 solicitors involve liaising with the council, a management company, a freeholder, Help to Buy agents, the lenders. If any of those properties are leasehold/freehold but with management agent/probate or being sold by executors, then those enquiries will take more time.

If all the properties are freehold (no managing agent), no extensions and alterations requiring building regulations, no title issues, then you could potentially make that timeline.

Bear in mind also that the conveyancing industry is struggling to cope with demand. A lot of conveyancers never returned to the industry after lockdown and so there is a staff shortage and also a lack of qualified, experienced conveyancers. The industry needs an overhaul, but what, when and how is impossible to say.

Our chain completed end of April and we are hoping to complete end of this month

I think with a chain of 5 it would be unlikely in that short time frame. We bought a house in April, just us and the vendor in the chain, no mortgage or survey required. We completed in 2.5 months and that was pushing it.