House selling questions

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I’ve only ever bought one house in my lifetime (and we did that badly but that’s another story) so I’m new to this and have some questions.

we’re just in the process of selling my parents house.
Weve sold the house and we’re in a chain of 5, my parents house is the top of the chain as they aren’t buying.

so the first time buyers at the bottom of the chain have a completion date of June that the estate agent have advised us of. How can that be? It’s months away. Doesn’t anybody else get a say? Is that date likely to be pushed further away when the rest of the chain have a say?

When you say you’re in the process, whereabouts in the process are you? Are you anywhere close to exchange which has to happen before completion – and which only happens after all of the surveys, legal queries, etc have been satisfied. With five houses unfortunately it is likely that somewhere along the way somewhere will have mortgage problems or a complex query regarding local authority, input or indemnity insurance for instance. If you’re only starting that process, then it could easily be June before Completion takes place.

on the other hand, if all of the paperwork is more or less in place then completion definitely shouldn’t take that long. The estate agents or solicitors need to find out where they have picked this date from and if it is genuinely unreasonable, then other parties in the chain can push back.

The people at the bottom are ready (with a completion date of June)
we’ve only just accepted the offer so no surveys done yet by our buyer. He’s only just accepted an offer on his too (which is why we’ve only just accepted his offer)

I should imagine it’s because their mortgage offer expires then, so they want to move before then. Otherwise they would need to apply for the mortgage again and potentially with a higher rate. June is plenty of time. Everyone just needs to pester solicitors to keep it moving.

I’m in a two person chain right now (investment property purchase from another landlord, no mortgage) which has still not got to exchange since offer first made in October 2023. June is optimistic on that basis 😳

Well based on your latest post then it is perfectly possible that it could take until June. Get started with the paperwork on your parents' house. Do you have a solicitor lined up? If you need to find certificates for building works, replacement windows etc do you/they know where that all is? I'm now not clear if the first-time buyers have said that won't complete before June or that they must complete by June as (as someone above mentioned) that is when their mortgage offer expires but either way the date sounds quite reasonable based on only starting the process now.

A pretty normal 3 months for your buyer to get searches and surveys and paperwork done and it's highly likely that at least one of the five will end up with renegotiation following survey ( England wales assumption here ) takes you to mid may ... so June is realistic and hopefully achievable

They’ve exchanged already and the completion date is a specific date in June

Sorry, what? They’re not buying a new build, they’re in a chain and they’ve already exchanged? That’s not how chains work. I’m really baffled.

Are you sure you’ve understood this right?

This is what the formal email confirming the sale from the estate agent says
The bottom of the chain have already exchanged contracts on their sale with a completion date of the xx June 2024. The rest of the chain would like to exchange ASAP for completion on the same day.

Yes, I don't really understand what has happened here. The first-time buyers have a specific completion date agreed with the next people in the chain. Whereabouts in the process are the second people? I have no idea why they agreed to a completion date when among the people above them you have at least two pairs who have only just had offers accepted. You are fine at the top of the chain as it is your parents' house and they are not buying anything else so hopefully have some leeway on completion. However if I was the second people in the chain I would be sweating now as they are completely dependant on everyone else getting all their ducks in a row re paperwork and legals and also - agreeing to this date in June! The date of June is reasonable in terms of timescale (which I think was your original question) but that date usually needs to be agreed between all parties. The second people face having to move out into rental or something if the date they have agreed slips. However that is not your problem, you just sit tight.

So someone has agreed to move into rented or with family rather than risk their sale but are hoping that it can all come together

They can't have already exchanged? I think someones got their wires crossed. You would normally all exchange at the same time in a chain. Otherwise if someone pulls out those who've exchanged lose their deposit!

It's not normally advised to exchange and complete on the same day. Exchange can easily slip by a day or two (missing signature on paperwork, delay in transferring funds etc) and if you have agreed completion to happen on the same day you end up with potentially a lot of full moving vans with nowhere to go racking up costs and a lot of homeless people. A couple of weeks between the two dates is usual.

Again, I'll say that while people want to exchange asap - without several parties in the chain even having started the process of legals, June may well be defined as ASAP.

I'm guessing what has happened here is that the bottom of the chain have exchanged in order to secure their buyers- probably in line owht the end of an the ftb's rental. They have said they will move out next matter what the chain status is, but are desperately trying to make things line up.

Each step of the chain is trying to secure their buyer (at current prices as they are dipping in some places; buyers are in short supply in some places) and onward purchase (using their buyers' funds).

You may have only just accepted an offer, but some of these may have been in place for some time, waiting for the chain to complete. You can't blame any of them for wanting to get this on track :)

I wasn't sure whether to read this as you though this was inordinately long or short. Either way- June is realistic (maybe even optimistic) if you have only just accepted an offer.

If someone has agreed to break the chain if it doesn't work, then it's perfectly possible. The FTBs may have a rental deadline or similar and have threatened to pull out if there is no end in sight.

It's pretty common- we once bought a place in a similar situation. The lady promised to move to her daughter's house if she didn't find anywhere/her purchase couldn't line up as we had a strict deadline we needed to keep to (buyers having baby). In the end, she didn't need to as she ended up buying an empty property with no issues.

@AlohaRose I read that as exchange asap, agree to complete on the agreed day in June.

Yes sorry, I wasn’t very clear in my post. What I was saying is that two parties in this chain have only just had offers accepted so are at the beginning of the process, I think the OP needs to be realistic about what ASAP means in terms of exchange in this scenario. Some people are further down the line, and the first time buyers have already exchanged, but it’s going to take as long as it takes for everyone else to get their surveys done, mortgages finally agreed, all queries satisfied for the solicitors etc, so they may well end up not being ready to exchange until May time anyway with completion in June. I think the OP sounds as if she thinks June is too long a timescale for completion, but to to any of us who have bought and sold houses several times June sounds quite realistic as long as nothing goes wrong. OP, is there a reason why you really need this sale to complete sooner?

Someone in the middle of the chain has potentially set themselves up for a headache!

The chances of everyone else in the chain being able to complete on the X of June are slim. So the current owners of house that has already exchanged are potentially going to find themselves homeless.

I'd ignore that date for now, and progress as promptly as the rest of the chain will allow.

FWIW, I've read the sentence "The rest of the chain would like to exchange ASAP for completion on the same day." differently to the PP - I've understood that as them wanting everyone to exchange ASAP, with completion on X June.

I guess the bottom of the chain are cash buyers so can complete on a fixed day. The people they are buying from have agreed to move out then even if their purchase doesn't complete, but are hoping all the ducks will be in a row by then.

Long. It feels like a really long time

Long. It feels like a really long time

It's really not. Average time from offer to completion is 12/13 weeks in the UK and often runs longer. Thirteen weeks from now takes you to end of May so assuming a date sometime not at the very end of June it's quite realistic.

Timescales sound about right (we had a motivated chain of 4 and it took from May to complete in September), but I wouldn’t like such a long time between exchange and completion. We had 3 weeks and that was long enough to make a few of the solicitors quite twitchy.

This is all a bit confusing with them exchanging already. But at this stage, I would just agree to the date they want in June. It's only 4 months away and a 5 person chain will normally take at least 3 months to complete anyway so it's only slightly longer than you could possibly hope for.

5 is a horribly long chain. It will fall apart unless everyone in the chain is committed to being reasonable and doing what they can to facilitate the move, including being helpful to others in the chain where possible.

June is a realistic timescale - not that long really,
But like others, I’m confused as to how they have exchanged unless the person they are buying from is going to rent or stay with family etc. Surely they wouldn’t have agreed to a completion date without having it in place with their seller and therefore the rest of the chain.
A chain of 5 sounds like a bit of a headache. I would try and get as much information about all the circumstances from your solicitor or the estate agent.

Like most, I am confused about the first house having 'exchanged', but, from your pov, if you have only just accepted the offer, then June sounds optimistic to me.
Very unusual even in the shortest of chains for the move date to be less than 4 and 1/2 - 5 months after offers accepted, in reality.