If seller agrees, can we reduce the agreed time to complete after we have exchanged?

[OooPourUsACupLove]

We are hopefully in a pretty straightforward situation. No chain, it's a second property on both sides and we are cash buyers.

The seller needs to complete fast as possible.

The money for the purchase is in tax efficient investments so I don't want to take it out and incurr fees and tax until there's no risk of the sale falling through. The max time to get the cash is 4 weeks. It should be more like 2 but we can't guarantee that.

Is it possible to exchange with a maximum 4 week completion date but if the money comes earlier (which it likely will) just complete earlier? There is no payment chain to worry about, just the one payment to this vendor.

Your solicitor will know the answer to this question

If you buy a new build you often exchange early with a long stop date (the very last date completion will happen), with the ability to agree a completion date before then.

If it's possible with a new build, I don't see why it wouldn't be possible for you.

ETA, I'd give 5-6 weeks though, in case of delays. As if you get it late in the day on the last day of the long stop period, you're buggered if you can't get it to your solicitor fast enough for completion to take place.

Ask your solicitor but I don't see why not.

You can have as long or short gap as you like as long as all parties agree, we had 5-months between E&C on our previous house but E&C same day on a recent sale.

If however you are asking if the completion date can be changed AFTER you have exchanged on a normal sale then I don't know. I know it works like that on NB (been there, done that with nearly 12-months between exchange and a moving completion date) so a call to your solicitor would be advised.

Yes asking about changing after we have exchanged. I have to protect myself from uninvesting the money then the sale not going ahead, but ideally want to avoid locking us into a worst case scenario timeframe when it's very likely not to be necessary.

I wanted a MN sensecheck of whether this is a common thing to do or not before I raise it with the solicitor.

I guess every sale is ultimately a bespoke contract, so putting something in like "complete on date X or earlier by agreement" must be possible. But not sure if things like BACS transfers are all set up in advance and the faff to change would mean we'd only end up completeing a few days sooner anyway.

You can do it, if everyone agrees but you'd need to check what notice the seller wants - they may be happy to complete early on a week's notice, but not 2 days notice, for example. You can only ask.

I should add that in more than 20 years conveyancing, I only saw amendments to the contract about completing early/late/after occurrence of a specific event a handful of times, most of those relating to someone vacating the property, the exception being where the buyer was purchasing a new build, which almost always complete on notice rather than an agreed completion date.
So it's not common practice.

Yes you can exchange and complete on or before the completion date with x days notice. As @DelphiniumBlue says it’s not common practice. It will depend on how competent your solicitor or, what I really mean, is if they’re a conveyancer who is unqualified and inexperienced. As it will blow their minds.

I’m a property solicitor. I exchanged a contract just this week that had a completion date of “x or earlier by agreement”. Speak to your solicitor

I would probably put “completion on or before X date” with a contract rider setting out what notice is required (and who can serve that notice - presumably it’s only you) for an earlier completion date. 📆 Is the vendor living there? As they’ll want to be able to arrange removals etc.

And yes, you can do it after exchange. A simple variation agreement can be entered into. Needs to be done by solicitors as there are specific requirements to make sure it’s valid