Sale agreed but delayed

buttercups88

We've gone sale agreed, but have just been told that the house the vendors, vendors are buying wont be ready until September earliest.
We are first time buyers and ready to go with mortgage approval. Our solicitor has said the contracts will be ready anyway in 2-3 weeks.

Our current mortgage approval will run out end of June so would we need to reapply or if we have contracts signed would that be enough?

davo10

Leave the offer/agreement in place, until contracts are signed, you can pull out. In the meantime, look around and see if another property you like comes onto the market. If it does, bid on it, if accepted, then pull your offer on the current property, you owe them nothing and they should not have gone sale agreed and then told you that they couldn't complete for at least 6 more months, that is messing.

Graham

davo10 wrote: »

In the meantime, look around and see if another property you like comes onto the market. If it does, bid on it, if accepted, then pull your offer on the current property, you owe them nothing and they should not have gone sale agreed and then told you that they couldn't complete for at least 6 more months, that is messing.

+1

My biggest concern if I were faced with this scenario is in 6 months time the vendors realise their house has increased in value by another €XX,000 during the stringing-along time.

Captain Flaps

Yeah, I'd similarly call this one written off and get back to looking.

Re the approval, our broker advised us that approval could be extended by another 6 months if we found somewhere, went sale agreed but couldn't close within the initial 6 months. Might be worth having a chat with your bank? If you're back to square one you'd probably have to reapply at the end of the initial 6 months.

super_furry

Captain Flaps wrote: »

Re the approval, our broker advised us that approval could be extended by another 6 months if we found somewhere, went sale agreed but couldn't close within the initial 6 months. Might be worth having a chat with your bank? If you're back to square one you'd probably have to reapply at the end of the initial 6 months.

That's the way it was with us. Our six months approval was reset the moment we went sale agreed and we had another six months from that date. Didn't need the whole length of it, but because the house had to go through probate, we still needed that extension.

the_syco

buttercups88 wrote: »

We've gone sale agreed, but have just been told that the house the vendors, vendors are buying wont be ready until September earliest.

Sounds like their house completion date got pushed back. And it could be pushed back again.

JDD

With BOI, their approval in principle lasts for six months. We got ours in January and it would have expired mid June. We then put a booking deposit down on a house in February. We're nearly at the point of signing contracts, so we've submitted all the outstanding documentation that they looked for in the Approval in Principle letter. This should lead to them issuing a Letter of Offer. The Letter of Offer resets the clock, so it will last until the end of September. If our new build is delayed by a month or two, BOI have said that they'll extend the Letter of Offer as long as we submit updated current and savings account statements (just to show our circumstances haven't changed). So our letter of offer could possibly extend to October or November, but no longer than that. If the build was delayed longer than November we'd have to go through the whole mortgage approval process again.

Cash_Q

If this is the right house for you and you're in a position to wait the 6 months, then sign contracts asap to lock in your price and insist that they return their signed contracts within 2 weeks. At least you'll know where you stand then.

If you're happy to shop around then do so, but it is a risk as you stated that the house would sell for more in 6 months so if you don't lock in the contracts soon then you risk them pulling out later or you being required to stump up more cash.

We went sale agreed in November knowing that there were tenants in the house until March. When we went to sign contracts in January, we learned that the tenant would be there until August owing to an issue with her notice.

We signed anyway, knowing that we got a good price and that we could save in the interim.

Lo and behold the tenant found somewhere else and we got our keys today rather than August.

These things can work both ways, yes there could be further delays but things can speed up unexpectedly too. If it's the right house then go for it, if not then shop around.

Bob24

buttercups88 wrote: »

We've gone sale agreed, but have just been told that the house the vendors, vendors are buying wont be ready until September earliest.
We are first time buyers and ready to go with mortgage approval. Our solicitor has said the contracts will be ready anyway in 2-3 weeks.

Our current mortgage approval will run out end of June so would we need to reapply or if we have contracts signed would that be enough?

Only entertain this if the vendor is willing to shortly sign a contract which sets a latest completion date for the sale and strong penalties for not meeting that deadline. Be very clear with your solicitor that you are not ready to wait for months for the vendor to sign the contract (I had friends who signed contracts on their end but the vendor was not signing for months which was very frustrating because they were a bit in limbo as in they had committed to buying but the vendors was not willing to sign and eventually pulled-out).

Based one your story, there is a decent chance of them not willing to sign though as they might not want to commit to any deadline because of their own constraints. If that is the case, you can keep it as a potential option but don't count on getting this house too much and keep looking for other ones (if prices have increased in 6 months and they have made no legal commitment with you, they will try to get more either from you or from someone else so you'll be back to square one as if you previous sale agreement never happened, or who knows their new house might never materialise).

denismc

When we bought our house last year the bank stipulated that the house was vacated before final contracts were signed, so you maybe in a similar position. Even though the contracts maybe ready you may not be able to sign.

They really should have informed you of the daisy chain situation before going sale agreed .

buttercups88

Thanks everyone for input. Were going to try push for contracts to be signed by end of month. But keep looking in meantime. Our solicitor said contracts should be ready next week so hopefully they wont mess about.

When we first went to see house we were told they wantrd quick sale and accepted our first offer which was under asking price straight away. The delay seems to be coming from their vendors vendor, solicitor is trying to figure out what the delay actually is.

Grawns

Only guessing but I imagine they have purchased a new build from plans which will be completed in September.

daheff

you could agree to close now & sign docs etc exchange money and also start off a rental agreement with them until sept. Start clawing back some money off them!

the_syco

daheff wrote: »

you could agree to close now & sign docs etc exchange money and also start off a rental agreement with them until sept. Start clawing back some money off them!

Messy as fcuk, as no guarantee that that they'll leave.

Cash_Q

daheff wrote:

you could agree to close now & sign docs etc exchange money and also start off a rental agreement with them until sept. Start clawing back some money off them!

Bank would not allow this. If mortgage is being issued for owner/occupier, the property must be vacant before the mortgage can be drawn down.

buttercups88

daheff wrote: »

you could agree to close now & sign docs etc exchange money and also start off a rental agreement with them until sept. Start clawing back some money off them!

Thanks for that,but weI did think of that but as other posters said the bank wouldn't agree to it.