Exchange deadline date

[Bakingmom]

Hoping for some advice I cannot seem to get the answer to. We are buying a house as FTB. The sellers are moving in with family so no chain. They are buying a new build so selling through a part-exchange company. This means all our communication has been through this company not an estate agent. When our offer was accepted, 3 weeks ago now, the company said they are working towards exchanging in 6 weeks time. That seemed like a very short amount of time from what I had heard about the length of conveyancing and buying a house. On the memorandum it says exchange deadline- 5th of July. So here we are only 2 weeks away from that date, and I’m starting to wonder how and why they have come up with that date. Surely it will take much longer for our solicitors to work through the paperwork, return searches ect? It has taken us just over two weeks to get our mortgage approval, which slowed down all our paperwork for the solicitors regarding that. Has anyone experienced a short exchange date deadline and has it happened that quickly for them? We are rented so need to work out when we can hand our notice in but I can’t work out what kind of timeframe it would be as 2 weeks to exchange seems unlikely to me.

I bought a repossession a few years ago so it was being sold by a third party acting on behalf of the bank/mortgage provider of the previous owner.
The time frame for completion from the offer date was just 4 weeks.
It was tight but only because the conveyancer went on holiday in that time.
We also had to apply for and get mortgage approval in that time.
It can be done, make sure your conveyancer is aware of the timescale.
Buy yourself an extra week of overlap with the rented property so there is room for error and time to get moved out/cleaned up.
Good luck and congratulations!

Don't hand your notice in until you have exchanged.

Unless you have agreed to pay a financial penalty if the date goes beyond 5th July I would take that date as something hopeful to work towards rather than a fixed date.

Talk to your solicitor about it & the EA may also be helpful. The part exchange company obviously want a quick process but these things can’t always be rushed where people need to get mortgages arranged & searches done etc.

We also bought through a part exchange company and they were very “on it” with regard to getting the deal done as soon as possible. The EA working for them phoned us up every week for a progress update. But there were no financial penalties for us if things had taken longer than the 2 months it did take us.

I offered and had a simultaneous exchange and completion. Took four weeks.

What does your conveyancer say? Is totally doable if they push their fingers out.

that said the part exchange company will fill we’ll know that as much as they want it sorted in six weeks many will take far longer. It’s mostly chains that delay things, and as you say you don’t have one.

Definitely don't hand in your notice on your rental until you have exchanged, under any circumstances.

If they are buying a new build that is probably where the ambitious date has come from- new build companies often come up with these but they usually go over. The conveyancing takes as long as it takes, the fact is a deadline is nothing more than a dream until everything is done.

I'd just smile and nod and say you want it all done as soon as possible too.

And yeah you don’t want to give notice until you have exchanged. Even if everyone says “we will exchange next Monday” wait until it actually happens.

we had huge last minute issues with our lender that delayed exchange by several days.