Advice needed - pressure to exchange on our sale next week

[MrsDiamonds]

Hi everyone, really hoping for some advice.

We accepted an offer on our house back in April. They are living in rented at the moment. For some reason they have jumped the gun and handed in their notice to their landlord and have to be out by the end of the month. They want us to exchange contracts next week and complete by the end of the month, even though our onwards purchase is not ready for exchange yet.

We told them it won’t be possible as we have nowhere to go. They have now asked us to exchange contracts next week and complete in mid October, regardless of whether our onwards purchase is ready. They have asked we cover their extra months rent as they don’t have it apparently.

The estate agent told me we should agree to this, as it should give us enough time to find a rental should there be any delays with the property we are buying.

We were wanting to buy and sell simultaneously and not have to find a rental in between, it’s easier said than done in my area!

I understand what you're saying, but conveyancing transactions don't follow a buyer's or seller's guestimate of when they'd like to move in. Ideally a transaction would take the national average of 12-16 weeks, but that is assuming there are no issues which need resolving before exchange can take place. Buyers and sellers can agree to work to a timeline, but all kinds of issues can mean that the timeline cannot be met, as in this case.

OP's purchase has a boundary issue. OP wouldn't have known this at the outset and if the boundary issue is likely to involve, e.g., an adverse possession transaction, then you can add a further three months minimum to the 12-16 weeks national average. Therefore, the advice a solicitor will give is not to hand in a notice to a landlord before exchange. The FTB buyer did this and now they are trying to pass on their problem to the OP.

It is absolutely not reasonable for the FTB to assume an extra month would be plenty of time.

I think the thing is that the offer was accepted in April- which is a long time for any buyer. OP has said she changed her mind 8 weeks into their first purchase because the seller couldn’t find a place to go (fair enough, but 8 weeks seems a long time to work this out). And the buyers have been seeing rent leave their account for a full 6 months, their mortgage may well be about to expire and there is still no firm date. I’m not really surprised they felt that they had to force the issue.

I think none of this is really anyone’s fault in pure terms, but someone has got to put their hand in their pocket to break the chain. I can see why the buyers feel that it shouldn’t be them as they seem to have been ready to go for a while. And, pragmatically, in this market I would much rather have the money in the bank and suffer a few weeks inconvenience in a rental than lose the sale and have to start again.

OP has
Failed to communicate
Not been at all proactive
Totally ignored the impact of her lack of action
Known that August was the time frame people were working to and shrugged her shoulders and let it pass

is choosing to take no responsibility.

All of those, from my perspective, put her on the back foot and the person in the wrong.

@Tortephant Equally you could argue that the person she's buying off is at fault for not sorting out their boundaries. But it doesn't matter - at the end of the day there are 3 sets of solicitors being paid to conveyance these sales and purchases. It's their job, not the op's, to manage the chain, agree exchange and completion schedules, and advise their clients on what to do at each stage of the process. Op's buyer should have got their solicitor's advice before giving notice and that solicitor should have been liaising with op's solicitor about progress. Op didn't even know her buyers were unhappy with progress until just now.

I would tell them no. If they want to pull out and find somewhere else to buy it will take them longer than to wait for your purchase to complete.
They knew they would have to wait when they put the offer in and it's their fault that they have the notice in to vacate the property before they had to. I wouldn't pay for their interim rental either

Sometimes house sales take a long time. If they want the house they will have to be patient a little longer. If they pull out and start again they will have even longer to wait

I think it's a lack of communication all round, the 2 solicitors, the sellers and the buyers should all have been updating each other from time to time. Often Estate agents take on the task of coordinating everything. but in this case they don't seem to have been bothered but are now putting pressure on the OP as that's easier for them. All they care about is getting their fee.

It was silly of the buyers to give notice on their rental without taking advice first.

The OP has left it all the hands of her solicitors, which was also a bit of a mistake. She assumed that they'd sort everything out, after all they are the professionals right? A reasonable assumption you'd imagine. And most people only move a few times in their lives so wouldn't have the experience to know that solicitors sometimes need poking!

Your solicitor needs to pull his finger out or a into g! Six weeks was/is perfectly doable, unless there is a tardy mortgage company in the mix. We have marketed and moved in 6 weeks, albeit with no mortgage and a vacant property purchase. Before emails etc, marketed and accepted an offer, then completed on a new build within 8 weeks.

Really push all sides very hard and Tell all concerned completion/moving day 29th September or financial consequences.

My buyer also gave notice on his flat so we were under pressure to complete. Very foolish because we hadn’t exchanged on our purchase. We originally said we’d rent if we hadn’t found somewhere, but we found our new house the week after ours sold.

Our vendor’s solicitor was worse than useless, we got the fixtures and fittings document the week before we moved. My solicitor wrote the purchase contract to save time. I was on the phone harassing every side (wasn’t allowed direct contact with the vendor’s solicitor, of course) multiple times a day. I drove to my solicitor 30 minutes away twice to deliver signed documents to ensure completion happened by the end of August after an offer in May. Docusign should be the law!

You need, imo, @MrsDiamonds to be FAR more proactive. To not complete til October is unfair on your buyer.