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Original poster

Vendor is buying a new build

34 replies

Al991 · 27/04/2023 14:04

We have had an offer accepted on a house. Vendor is buying a new build and gave us a 3 month window for completion of their new property, therefore our move in date.

I was willing to go ahead with this as I thought that they would be able to give us a date nearer the time, say in a couple of months, of completion.

Vendor now says they want to exchange in 1 month to 6 weeks, but when I asked if they would have a completion date by then they just said talk to your solicitor. I’m concerned that the contract is going to have no completion date on it. I’m pregnant and going on maternity leave eventually, so we could lose our mortgage if the offer expires before completion.

Has anyone had experience of this situation? Were you pressured to exchange contracts with no completion date?

I will talk to my solicitor but concerned about whether they will try to pressure us into signing a vague contract. I could lose my life savings if mortgage offer the expires and they won’t give us a new one because I’m on Mat.

OP posts:
Unbridezilla · 27/04/2023 14:08

How much do you love the house?

Your vendors will be on a tight deadline to exchange. But the new build is unlikely to give them a completion date until long after that. And then it will almost certainly be delayed. There should be a clause in the vendors contract that they can pull out if completion hasn't happened within x months (often 12) of exchange.

If I were you, I would find out what that long stop completion date is and work out whether I can work with those timescales.

Heroicallyfound · 27/04/2023 14:12

Your solicitor should be representing your interests so shouldn’t pressure you into signing anything you’re not comfortable with. You can refuse to exchange until you have a completion date if that’s what you’d prefer.

I think you need to weigh up when you’d need to walk away - press your solicitor to achieve that timescale for you, or you need to find something else that meets your timescales.

But be prepared builders never seem to be in a hurry. When I bought a new build as a first time buyer the builders gave me a rolling ‘ready in one month’ timescale - it ended up being 6 months in all.

gogohmm · 27/04/2023 14:13

Do not exchange contracts until you have a completion date

updin · 27/04/2023 14:15

Yes this is very standard, you'll need to exchange within 6 weeks and there will be a long stop completion date, a window. That said, it's not something you have to accept, we were the vendor in this situation and we felt it was unfair on our buyer so broke the chain going into rented, our date actually got brought forward 2 months so we only rented for 1 month, but I'm glad we didn't mess our buyer around. If you accept make sure your mortgage (if you have one) covers the whole window and doesn't expire.

WeAreTheHeroes · 27/04/2023 14:15

It's a two way street. You need to get your solicitor to let them know when you need to complete by. They won't want to lose their sale if they've signed up for a new build.

Ilikewinter · 27/04/2023 14:29

I would be very wary if I were you. When we purchased a new build our completion date moved 4 times and we have to renew our mortgage twice, which was fine for us as we had no change in circumstances. If your vendors give you a completion date I would take that with a pinch of salt.

rainingsnoring · 27/04/2023 14:47

I wouldn't feel comfortable with a long lag between exchange and completion personally. Completion dates on new builds often get pushed back.
You will be taking a lot of risk on yourself in this situation because of your seller's choice.

Original poster
Al991 · 27/04/2023 15:12

Thank you all. I have spoken to broker now and made him aware of my planned mat leave start date in the hope that we can communicate to lenders that I will be going on maternity leave and therefore establish which lenders would be able to help us if we did reapply when I am already off.

I agree though that it feels very uncomfortable to sign without a completion date, but at the same time we are attached to the house so might accept eg a long stop completion date if it worked with our mortgage. I was hiding pregnancy from lenders before but to be honest I feel better having come clean!

OP posts:
BlueMongoose · 27/04/2023 16:17

Under no circumstances would I, personally, ever sign a contract with no completion date. Ever. It's bad enough getting mucked about up to contract, but no chance would I risk being mucked about after that point. However, in your circs, if the long-stop date is enforcable, it might work for you. But I would want to know from my solicitors exactly what would happen and what my rights would be if the vendors just refused to move by that date.

EggInANest · 27/04/2023 16:19

Your vendors will be needing you to exchange, to secure their new build, so you have the bargaining hand. Agree to Exchange with a long stop date that suits you, wrt mortgage offer and moving date, and then the pressure is on them to accept, and move into rental if their house is not ready.

pinkpanther84 · 27/04/2023 16:26

We are the vendors in the same situation as this. We are moving into a new build and had to exchange within 6-8 weeks without having a completion date. All we could tell our buyer was that the house should ready in the summer, and luckily they were happy to wait. If we didn't exchange, the developer would have pulled out, however our estate agent made our circumstances clear to anyone who viewed our house

instantpotnoodle · 27/04/2023 16:28

Last time we sold we were told you legally have to set a completion date at exchange by our solicitors.

ExhaustedPigwidgeon · 27/04/2023 16:29

i bought a new build which was delayed by 2 months - we had to go into rented which is what your vendor should be doing

MrsBlondie · 27/04/2023 16:29

You cannot exchange contracts without a completion date. Solicitor won't let you.

updin · 27/04/2023 16:30

@instantpotnoodle yes but it can be a long stop completion, ie "by X date", usually a 3 month window for new builds.

EggInANest · 27/04/2023 16:35

MrsBlondie · 27/04/2023 16:29

You cannot exchange contracts without a completion date. Solicitor won't let you.

Usually a set completion date, yes, but it could also be a ‘long stop’ completion date. I.e you must complete by a certain date. You might complete earlier, but if not completed by the long stop date, the deal is off and the deposit returned.

pinkpanther84 · 27/04/2023 16:44

MrsBlondie · 27/04/2023 16:29

You cannot exchange contracts without a completion date. Solicitor won't let you.

It's called completion on notice, we have exchanged with our buyers but do not have a completion date set

feeona123 · 27/04/2023 21:29

We had this when we bought our home. There were a few months between exchange and completion but I made it clear we would only buy with a date set for completion. Our sellers moved out with family until their house was ready.

TheFairyCaravan · 27/04/2023 22:22

We were buying a new build, but pulled out because they kept changing the completion date in the first 6 weeks while at the same time pushing us to exchange contracts. They get you to exchange so early on so they have you buy the balls and you have no option but to sit and wait. This is what your vendors are doing to you. I absolutely would not do it.

Original poster
Al991 · 27/04/2023 22:48

EggInANest · 27/04/2023 16:19

Your vendors will be needing you to exchange, to secure their new build, so you have the bargaining hand. Agree to Exchange with a long stop date that suits you, wrt mortgage offer and moving date, and then the pressure is on them to accept, and move into rental if their house is not ready.

I think this is best way forward as we don’t mind waiting - just not willing to exchange on notice. I will put it to our solicitor.

OP posts:
AuntieJoyce · 28/04/2023 03:24

I had a thread on this recently as the buyer like you. I would just smile and nod regarding completion date until you are in a position to exchange, having done all your searches etc which will take a while.

Once we got to that position, I refused at that point to exchange until we could agree a completion date. To do that they needed to get a satisfactory NHBC Inspection on their new house so there was a pause for a couple of weeks for that to go through. Once their house passed, they came back to me with a completion date and off we went

Beware as not all builders will offer a long stop date to your vendor. Therefore you can’t piggy back on this in your contract.

updin · 28/04/2023 07:50

@AuntieJoyce the only risk with doing this is the builder could pull out, they get very angsty about exchanging quickly and ours very nearly did when our buyer was dragging their feet (for other reasons). I was on some threads at the time where builders did pull out on people when they didn't meet deadlines, they even lost the money they spent on extras! That said it is much more of a buyers market now so builders might not be able to be so ruthless, but if the build is months away they will not be in a position to produce the NHBC certificate prior to exchange.

Original poster
Al991 · 28/04/2023 09:22

Hey all, we got a letter today from EA saying that the conditions of the offer is exchanging within 6 weeks - not something that was ever said when we made the offer. We knew about the new build and that completion would be in a few months but didn’t know this. Also worth noting searches haven’t started and no mortgage offer through yet.

Still waiting to hear from solicitor - I’m guessing I shouldn’t send any kind of response until I do.

Seems like they might be trying to force us to sign within 6 weeks as a condition of getting the house but this just seems so unreasonable when our offer was accepted less than a week ago. I have no control over half the time scales and like I’ve said, won’t sign on notice. If it comes to it I will pull out if it’s that or sign on notice. I’m hoping they’ll agree to a long stop as I’m happy with this.

OP posts:
AuntieJoyce · 28/04/2023 15:53

updin · 28/04/2023 07:50

@AuntieJoyce the only risk with doing this is the builder could pull out, they get very angsty about exchanging quickly and ours very nearly did when our buyer was dragging their feet (for other reasons). I was on some threads at the time where builders did pull out on people when they didn't meet deadlines, they even lost the money they spent on extras! That said it is much more of a buyers market now so builders might not be able to be so ruthless, but if the build is months away they will not be in a position to produce the NHBC certificate prior to exchange.

I did go through this whole thought process at the point of exchange, but ultimately why would you agree to buy a property that the seller needs to move out of which is dependent on another property that they may never be able to move into
without a long stop date. You would lose 10% of your purchase price or could be waiting indefinitely. And that’s without considering mortgage offers etc

The builder involved in my process was Taylor Wimpey, and their intermediary told me that they never agree a long stop date on their properties. I am not sure whether that was true or negotiation.

updin · 28/04/2023 16:02

@AuntieJoyce not disagreeing with you, just explaining the risk of doing that, buying our new build was horrendously stressful, but we opted to not put our buyer through it by breaking the chain, plenty don't do that though.