Selling house

[Disneymaddaddy]

Hi everyone

After a bit of advice

We are currently selling our current house and a young couple living with parents have brought it. We are moving into a new build which will not be ready until Dec or Jan.

We have made it known to the estate agent that we only wanted viewers that were prepared to wait until then and at first the buyers were happy with this.


The sale is progressing and should be getting contracts next week but we had a message from our solicitor to say that the buyers have been flexible but now want us to commit to moving out by 31dec2022 which we don’t think we can commit to as we don’t know if the house will be ready? Has anyone any experience of this I am going to look at the cost of putting everything into storage and is moving into a hotel for 4 weeks just to get a feel of the pricing.

I know the buyers are keen to get in but we have no where to go to other than a hotel. We don’t want to lose the house we are buying 😕

[vhm672]

Did your memorandum of sale specify the conditions on timing. If not did you have an agreement with the buyers that completion would be linked to your purchase?

If yes I would remind the buyer if the agreement ( through solicitors) and hope they don’t push back.

If it wasn’t properly agreed and you are relying on the estate agent having told them about completion rather than reached a specific agreement then you can either push now to agree what you want or commit to a completion date.

In the case of the latter you still want to ensure they will complete earlier if your house is suddenly ready otherwise you won’t be able to complete your purchase.

On storage it really depends on where you are, how much you have to store and who will be your removal and storage company. Get some quotes in your locality.

One other point your buyers may be pushing for the date due to their mortgage. The offer will expire so this may be driving the request.

[TheHughesCrew]

I guess it depends if you're prepared to lose your buyers? I think it's a fairly long wait tbh, so you might find new ones if they pull out. Airbnb might be a better bet than a hotel for a month...

[tspill]

I guess this is now decision time. The buyers seem to have been more than accommodating with December and now want definite plans - which is totally understandable.
I think this is now down to negotiation as it is contract time.

[mitch84]

Maybe that’s when their mortgage offer expires and are concerned about interest rates etc.
They are also living with parents and will be desperate to get in.
December is much longer than I would have been willing to wait so just worth debating whether it’s worth losing them. They could buy something else now and be in by December but will have wasted money on solicitors fees. Just have a calm chat

[Sally42]

We were fortunate to part exchange our home for our new build and the people who subsequently bought our house went into rented for a short time.
I honestly think 31/12 is reasonable as it gives you plenty time to chase the builders and explain your plight, or make arrangements.
Good luck x

[Posiesmum]

We had this. We did sell then lived in a holiday let over the winter (December to April). It worked out well as the owners were not likely to have any winter lettings and we acted as kind of caretakers for the property over that period. He gave us quite a good very reduced rent and in return we maintained the garden etc. We did put our stuff into storage which wasn’t too expensive.
It was more complicated as we were moving from Wiltshire to Scotland!

[SquishTheWhale]

Like said above, this may not have been totally communicated to the buyers, or they may think end of Dec is reasonable with 'Dec/Jan' given as the timeline.

It's up to you to decide how much you want to push back and if you are bothered about potentially losing the sale. As far as I understand it, with new builds they want you to have a buyer lined up before you purchase from them so it could be you'd lose your new house if you lost your buyer. I had a friend who's buyer pulled out, and the developer only gave her 2 weeks to find a new buyer.

When we were purchasing our house, someone higher in the chain suddenly wanted to complete urgently, which would mean we had to pay a months mortgage and months rent simultaneously as we hadn't yet given notice on our rented place. They agreed to pay half our months rent as a compromise to complete earlier than expected. You may be able to negotiate something like that as regards storage and hotel costs.

[Lell]

I think it’s reasonable of them to set a deadline, I definitely wouldn’t be so patient😊 We moved into our new build in October last year and rented from May until October. We are in Scotland and that seems to be the norm. Everyone I have spoken to in our estate did the same. We rented a storage unit which was about £220 a month but we didn’t have anything bulky like sofas, wardrobes etc as we sold / donated most of these items, so mainly boxes.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

OP. Just be careful about the Builders completion date as they speak with forked tongue!

Not always their fault as there is a shortage of Tradesmen and gear. My Son and Partner had a December completion date and were being pressurised by their buyer who they didn't wish to lose. In the end that December date became March and our Son moved in with us for 3 months and his Partner went to her Parents. Not ideal but they did have 'homes' to go to fortunately.