Buyers want to delay completion in case interest rate falls

[foodiefil]

We are due to complete on our sale and purchase this week - Friday.

Our solicitor just called and said our buyers want to delay completing until 8/11 because they think interest rates will come down and there will be cheaper mortgages available. They’re first time
buyers.

Any thoughts on this? I understand there is a meeting in Nov and the interest rate could come down again but doesn’t mean banks will change their deals that Quickly does it ?

If you're completing on Friday, then yes, the keys should all be handed over on Friday and the FTB's will own your house and you should own the house you are buying!

Hope it all goes well. This is the worst part timing wise of moving home. Lot's of things can and frequently do, go wrong

Also, sorry to say you should never complete on a Friday, too many things can go wrong!

For something to go wrong after exchange, even when completing on a Friday, is incredibly rare.

What kinds of things? Eeep!!

Why haven’t they gone for a tracker mortgage if they are so sure about this? That’s their own problem for going with a fixed rate. The costs would likely be negligible anyway. By doing this they’d need a whole new mortgage offer. I’d say no.

This is why exchange and completion on the same day is usually a bad idea. All depends how much you can afford to lose them vs how much they can afford to lose you.....

Do not want to worry you, as I am sure you have enough stress but normally the advice is not to complete on a Friday, if there are delays, predominantly with funds being transferred (it does happen) then you will be stuck, as banks and solicitors are unlikely to be a full strength over a weekend.

Make sure you get your funds transferred to your solicitor way before Friday, hopefully your buyers will do the same.

Signing the forms in advance for exchange is standard,you need to put pressure on your solicitor to ensure all parties involved exchange before Friday otherwise you risk your buyers saying on Friday they are going to delay to check other mortgages.

I hope, of course, it all goes well but I think it will be less stressful if you can exchange now.

Too many people will be waiting for the budget to see what changes there are going to be and I foresee 01/11 being a very busy day for house moves.

@foodiefil I'm in Scotland, so maybe different, but I have friends/relatives over the years who had worries and delays with the transfer of monies on the day they were moving out/moving in. Sister, a few years ago had the van packed to go - and there was a delay with the money being transferred. That was a Friday afternoon so it all needed to be sorted by 4pm - or it wasn't going to happen until the Monday. Phone call came to say it was all ok at 3.55pm!!!

Hope the moneys can all be sorted before Friday

normally the advice is not to complete on a Friday, if there are delays, predominantly with funds being transferred (it does happen)

To give some balance, it's incredibly rare!

Yes I agree it is rare but it does happen and is easily solved by completing on another day if possible!

You can exchange and complete on the same day, it happens reasonably often. But the norm is to exchange a few days up to a couple of weeks beforehand. It’s odd that your solicitors haven’t wanted to do this, without there being a specific reason to do exchange and completion on the same day.

The Friday thing is just that if anything is delayed, it’s delayed until Monday, which is a pain, whereas on Mon-Thurs it can be solved the next day.

I would not exchange and complete on the same day. There can be lots of delays with exchange, mostly relating to the moving of money.

Most trackers are about 2% more than the lowest a FTB can get, and, amazingly, a lot want to lock you into a two year fixed term.

Unless you have a ton of equity, trackers don’t make much financial sense.

It sounds like it might be all sorted now, but just in case they waver again...if better rates become available after completion there is nothing to prevent them from re-mortgaging...they'd just be doing it whilst already living in the house, and not creating a nightmare for the rest of the chain.

stand firm OP, mostly FTB's just don't realise the chaos they could cause with stuff like this, but equally there are plenty of CF's about who realise perfectly well, and don't care!

Glad to read that they have seen sense. Hope your new home is all that you are hoping for.

there is nothing to prevent them from re-mortgaging

Probably a whacking great early-repayment charge!

Whilst the view is that rates are likely to drop down a bit, probably not enough to offset the ERC.

Glad they saw sense. I do expect the base rate to fall in November but that doesn’t mean that all mortgage rates will, as others have said. Their lender could easily be one that doesn’t respond to the lower rate as they already priced it into their calculations.

So you would relist instead of a short delay? You would relist, wait for a new buyer, wait for them to appoint a lawyer, go through compliance, contract check, etc etc, which could be at least 12 weeks instead of just a short delay? What’s that phrase? Cutting your nose off to spite your face?

We've delayed our moving date due to the BoE rate meeting. Out of a 5 chain house, 4 are mortgaged so we've all agreed to postpone by 3 weeks to allow for new mortgage offers. It's not unreasonable, we all have mortgage offers locked but even a 0.1% drop would save us thousands.
I guess the difference is we've all agreed it, in advance!

Rare or not, it happened to two separate close relatives!!
One set had to move in with us for a week, and the other had to move in with in-laws and sleep on the floor for 2 nights.

That is quite unfortunate, definitely not unheard of, but thankfully rare. Although if it happens to you being a rare event is unlikely to be any consolation.

Having to move somewhere for a week suggests more of an issue than just mortgage funds been delayed.

We had trackers for about 7 years and they saved us loads! Only fairly recently have we been on a fixed contract (within last couple of years). They weren’t much different to the fixed rates tbh. Maybe as we dont have high LTV

They haven't exchanged.

Yes, I realise in this particular case exchange hasn't happened, I was making a more general comment that completing on a Friday isn't the world of horrors that it was being made out to be.

We have exchanged now and had a notification from NatWest that the mortgage funds will be transferred on Thursday. Currently packing like a mofo

Excellent news! Congratulations.
Good luck with the move.