Owning your own home

I assume that's so they can lock in a rate?

Never heard of it but I would be asking your solicitor what the risks are ASAP.

If you do this you would want a proper tenancy agreement that puts some parameters about how long you can stay in the house you have just sold for and in what circumstances you can be evicted.

However, I suspect insisting to that will put your buyers off the arrangement.

I looked at this but the opposite way (I'd be moving early before selling), seemed like a whole load of hassle as ideally you want a rental contract in place, issues around insurance and obviously the major issue of ending up homeless.

If you have exchanged on the other deal then it may be worth risking. I wouldn't do it otherwise.

A mate of mine did this recently, only stayed in the old house for a week or two I think. There was some bizarre arrangement where he had to pay a peppercorn rent. TBH the whole thing sounded very weird but I think it worked out for him OK in the end.

We did something similar where the folks we were buying from wanted to wait until the new tax year, really late in the process - a week before exchange if I recall. It was our first home so we had no chain.

We ended up signing a rental agreement to stay in "our" house for a pound a month, when we exchanged. It turned out well for us as we got to assess all the things we would do without using in and saved two months rent.

Our buyer has asked if we're willing to complete with them alone, before our vendor is ready, but we can stay in the house till our vendor can complete.

Just tell them what would have to be true for you accept this, i.e. duration, rent (£1 or whatever like above), terms for leaving, who provides insurance, maintenance etc. You might find your solicitors can draw up and agreement that satisfies you and gets the buyer what they want, which is I assume a cheap mortgage.

Guess it's all moot if you are a zillion miles from exchanging on the place you are buying.