Sellers pressuring me to exchange 3 months before completion

[Kaltenzahn]

I'm buying a house, had my offer accepted at guide price in mid April. I'm a FTB and sellers aren't in a chain (but are moving abroad). I expressed that I was very keen to move in as soon as possible and the sellers said they would be able to move after the school term ends, which I was happy with.

After we progressed a bit the sellers then said they aren't looking at completion until the start of September. This is a pain but not the end of the world however the estate agent is now chasing me to exchange, saying the sellers are very anxious to progress ASAP and are concerned about the lack of progress. I only got my survey back on Tuesday!

I'm definitely not exchanging until I've had some additional checks done following the survey but I really don't like the idea of exchanging then waiting for 3 months, although I can't quite place why (although I would much prefer my 10% deposit to be in my 5.2% interest savings account than sat with my solicitors).

Is this normal? It would be different if I was the one insisting on a delayed completion but I'm finding it very frustrating being pestered by the estate agent when I'm desperate to move but the sellers won't be in a position to do so for over three months.

No it's not for goodness sake!

Agents fees aren't paid until completion.

@Mildura you mean until the point of completion?

Good one :-)

i personally am sitting on the fence on this one.

if you exchange then three months after you complete, if this isn’t going to be too much of a problem for you, and that you won’t be out of pocket what so ever, then do it.

Once you’ve exchanged, I understand it means it’s yours and if either you or the sellers decide they aren’t moving on completion date, suing is an option, maybe put in the terms and conditions what you expect if they change there mind.

Three months really isn’t that long in house buying language, but I fully understand that you want to get in there and get on with the rest of your life.

good luck xxx

I wouldn’t have such a big gap. What happens if the house floods or burns down or some other disaster between exchange and completion you will still be committed to buy it and all that hassle will be yours . This almost happened to our probate sale of Fils house . We were due to exchange on the 22nd dec with completion 5th Jan but chain collapsed on 19th Dec as our buyer lost their buyer. House flooded on 29th. If they hadn’t lost their buyer this would have been their problem not ours ( it took 8 months to fix ) I would have felt terrible for our buyers completing on an inhabitable house so glad the chain collapsed when it did