Can someone explain this letter to me

[jimmyeatworld]

We’re breaking the chain selling my house and moving into a rental because we don’t want to lose our buyers, it’s going to take another upto 12 weeks for our purchase to complete and it’s stressing me out that we’re going to go back to square one as buyers are keen to get in.
Told my solicitors and they’ve just sent me this to sign and send back, I don’t understand the bit I’ve circled though. Does this mean they won’t work for us any longer regarding the purchase ??? So confused !!

No, it just means they can't guarantee the timeframe for completing your purchase, and asking you to acknowledge that if there are extra costs to you because of the delay in your purchase, it's not their fault.

It means they can't guarantee if or when the other transaction will take place. There will be costs for you as result and they want to make sure that you are aware of these and acknowledge that they have not advised you to break the chain.

It’s just cya, standard practice when people have the temerity to act outside the ‘norm’

Oh okay thank you.
what extra costs should i be expecting ?

I just want to sell the house it’s stressing me out all this messing about from vendors solicitors. Realistically I know the risks, we could lose our onward purchase and then we don’t have our house anymore, but we need to move regardless as current house doesn’t have enough space anymore, so I guess if the worst was to happen we would have to rent while we find another house.

Am I missing something else ?
current house is mortgage free so no worries about having to pay rent and mortgage.

What are these extra costs the solicitors are on about ?

If it takes longer than expected to complete you will probably have to pay additional rent, or storage costs etc. This just says you won't go after the solicitors for the costs if you think they're why it's dragged on.

Also this looks like their standard 'breaking the chain' letter, which they would also send if you were breaking it in the other direction, i.e. buying your new house without having sold your existing one. In which case you'd have the expense of running two properties and extra stamp duty etc.

Oh I understand now !! Thank you Mumsnet! Didn’t want to sign something I didn’t really understand

Once I sign this would you say I’m okay to go ahead and sign the tenant for the rental ? As I said no mortgage on current property

I think moving costs would be a main extra cost if you are using professionals. 2 moves and storage in between.

It means if you sell you are left homeless (or most likely need to rent so costs incurred)

If you buy you then own TWO houses which will incur fees such as double income tax, possibly second home costs, two lot of running and insurance costs etc...

In both cases the other person you rely on might pull out leaving you to start again so the time frame is unpredictable. Say you sell and move into rented for 6 months, then 4 months from now your seller pulls out you then need to start looking for a house again. Which could take months to find somewhere suitable, you then need to go through the whole process again which on average takes 3-4 months and that sale could collapse too starting it over again. Suddenly 6 months rent might be a year and a half and then what if 6 months in the landlord wants to sell and serves notice, now you have more moving fees etc...

I wouldn't sigh the rental agreement until the buyers have exchanged. Specify a 28 day completion to give you time to sort the rental and move out .
You don't want to commit to the rental until you know the buyer is legally committed to go ahead.

The biggest risk, to my mind, is that your purchase falls through, prices shoot up while you're off the property ladder and you can't afford to buy again. Worse case scenario but could happen.

Thanks all.
Yes the risk is the house falls through. Risk that I guess we’re willing to take.
We’re on pretty good terms with the vendors though and know they are moving 100% and already have their house sorted and paid for. It’s just the waiting, their solicitors have been very slow so far and I’ve had to become pushy

No they just mean that they can't predict what the timeframe or costs are going to be. They are supposed to be open and transparent about costs and they can give you their prices upfront for acting in a "normal" situation of selling house A and buying house B. It's normal for the solicitors to receive the funds from the sale of house A, then sort out all their own fees including the fees for work in the purchase of house B and the stamp duty and anything else due out of that money before following your instructions for the remainder - depending on how much house B costs and whether you have a mortgage you are porting it moght go to a bank or to the vendors of house B and there might be some leftovers for you if you are downsizing. As you will still be in the process of buying house B but not ready to complete that, it's going to work differently for you. If they send you the proceeds from the sale of A in full, you might accidentally spend too much and not retain enough to cover stamp duty, legal fees and other costs you will need when you are ready to complete for house B.

Thank for this. I want them to take their fees and then transfer me the remainder, is this what they should do ?

Sorry another question - when house b (our purchase) is ready I’m aware that we can pay the stamp duty separately aslong as it’s within so many days of the sale, because we have that money kept separate, is this something the solicitors are likely going to push back on ?