My girlfriend and I have had an offer accepted on a house where we knew the sellers were buying a new build. Part of our offer was that we’re currently renting and were flexible with when we completed. The initial target for completion was April (and we had no indication that it was going to be later) but not it’s moved to the end of May, with an exchange date of late January!

This week we’ve heard some horror stories of new builds taking months longer than expected to be finished so we’re concerned that we’d be tied into this house and renting for months more.

Any thoughts? Sack this one off or just trust in fate and stick with it?

When we bought our current house the vendors were moving into a new build.

We exchanged on the basis that we would complete withing three months of exchanging contracts with 4 weeks notice.

Our buyers were happy as they were not moving in straight away.

I’d set a time limit. Then they can move out and into rented accommodation if needed.

How badly do you want the house? Nothing to stop you continuing to look, you can pull out at any time up to exchange if somethign else comes up.

After exchange – you’re broadly speaking committed. But can you put a clause in so that if you do end up extending your renting beyond an agreed date then they become liable for the rent payments?

Only anecdotes but we’ve had two recent incidents with new builds being delayed within our circle. One a family member who has to move all their stuff into storage and are staying with another family member for a month or so. Also a friend who nearly lost her mortgage offer due to delays and wouldn’t get another one due to a job change. No way would I assume it was all going to go as planned. I’d either make the offer subject to the vendors moving out on a specific date or keep looking.

From a slightly different angle we had a long delay between offer acceptance/last viewing and actually moving in and it was clear they stopped cleaning/doing any sort of maintenance in that period – if I was ever in that position again I’d do another viewing when the end was in sight to chase up all the issues that in retrospect we encountered when moving in that weren’t there when we last saw the house.

Good ideas. Those back up the thoughts that we had. The problem is that I understand that mortgage offers are only valid for 6 months so it wouldn’t take long for our mortgage offer to expire, which just complicates things. I’m not anticipating any material changes in our position between now and then but you never know.

Oh and wrong forum, sorry!

As above once exchanges have occurred you are contracted to buy the house and they are contracted to sell within the agreed date. There will be a clause built into the exchange that will financially penalise whoever pulls out or causes the completion date to be missed, it’s pretty standard but worth checking with your solicitors. I think on my house it was 10% of the value of the sale price.

I would keep looking if you’re in doubt it’ll all go through in a reasonable time. My house purchase dragged on last year and it was difficult as I’d spent money and really wanted the house but had nothing legally binding until exchange and the sellers solicitors faffed about for three months after I was ready to buy

Just moved a couple of weeks ago, our sellers bought a new build. Offer accepted in June, original completion date August. Then October, then end November. Exchange only happened 2 weeks before move date – between acceptance and exchange, the pendulum of jitteriness swung decisively from us to them.

I trusted our solicitor to keep on top of it, in the end it was exchange on our sale that took the time – had to issue a pulling-out threat to get our buyers’ solicitor moving (a threat I was expecting to come our way from our sellers).

In a situation like yours, there’ll be long periods of inactivity – you just need to keep on top of the solicitor and ensure they regularly seek comfort from your sellers that all is going to plan. As soon as you exchange, you can just about relax.

You’re already alert to mortgage offers expiring – home reports also have a limited shelf life. If that has to be renewed, watch out for your sellers’ solicitor attempting to push the cost onto you.

I’d say you need to work out how much you want the house. We really wanted our place, so were content to suffer the wait.

We bought a house 2 yrs ago and the sellers were going into a new build. Builder was a numpty to say the least and for instance hadn’t told Transco that the house would need to be connected and thought he only needed to give them a couple of days notice. Anyway the long and short of it was that it took 3 months longer than it should.

What I would do is agree a date that they have to move out and agree that they will move into rented accommodation if they pass this date. There is no reason why they can’t get a short term let and it wont cost them any more as they wont being paying there mortgage. Get something in writing between the solicitors, not word of mouth from the estate agent. Turned out the estate agent was lying through his teeth about all matter of things and of course they did not have phone records.