House Chain - first time buyers

[Samg1993]

Hi everyone

Just wanting a bit of advice as to whether I’m being unreasonable with our house move or whether I’m well within my rights.

We had our offer accepted on our dream house in mid-October and 16 weeks later we’re still no closer to having a completion date. We are first time buyers and took a risk with this house knowing that we may be in a chain however it was the first one both me and my partner finally agreed on and we both fell in love with it as soon as we stepped through the door! It’s true what they say, when you’ve found the one, you know as soon as you see it.

Everything was going fine, mortgage agreement in place, solicitor paper work sorted quickly, we signed our contracts at the end of November assuming we would be completing fairly soon. December came and the solicitor told us a date in January. We were so excited and given this was our first home, we ordered our furniture to be delivered a few days after we would collect the keys. Christmas passed and we received a phone call out of the blue to say the date we were told was never confirmed (if this was the case why were we told a specific date? - also no mention that this was not confirmed as I spoke to my solicitors secretary in person who told me this date), and that my solicitor will suggest the following week. No response. 5 weeks on from our original (never actually confirmed) completion date and many phone calls later, we seem no closer to having a completion date. Everyone in the chain is apparently itching to complete but whoever is holding us up apparently keeps saying ‘they won’t be ready’... whatever that means?!

Subsequently, I now have large, heavy kitchen and lounge furniture stored all over town.. at work, my parents house, in my grandparents garage, etc, which I now feel I shouldn’t have ordered, however as I said, there was no mention that the initial date we were told was not confirmed so there was no reason to wait.

I’m considering ringing my solicitor tomorrow and saying we want to be completed in three weeks time. Am I being unreasonable or should I wait longer. I am aware completion is on average 12 weeks which we are well over! I don’t want to pull out because we love the property but we are quickly nearing the end of our tether with this!

Thanks

[stopbeingabloodyvictim]

I wonder if you are in the same chain as another poster on here.

[TheChineseChicken]

If you're thinking of my thread, I'm pretty sure this isn't my buyer

[TheChineseChicken]

And I'm sorry I can't offer any advice as we are stuck as well

[Samg1993]

I read your thread before I posted and agree, I don’t think we are linked. It’s so frustrating isn’t it. I didn’t know if I was expecting too much but what has rubbed salt into the wound is that my friend accepted an offer on her house on 20th December and is completing next week

[stopbeingabloodyvictim]

Maybe the two of you could share tactics

Many years ago I was in a similar position selling my flat to a btl landlord who were in no hurry so no pressure. I found a house I wanted put in an offer that was accepted with s promise we would all move quickly. My sellers kept moving the goalposts so I started looking again. A house came on the market in the same road at the same price but end terrace rather than mid terrace which I put on offer in on and moved in 2 weeks later as we were all ready to go. Original sellers got the hump said if you had told us we could have moved out..... I had been telling them for 8 bloody weeks..... it took them another 6 months to sell. Quite awkward living opposite them but I did what I did for me😬. I think you do have to be quite selfish when buying homes as there is always someone who will try to take the piss. I've always been honest and not made any suggestions I was not willing to carry through. But was also aware there is always another house

Years later we had a buyer try to drop the price by £20k the day before exchange because I had naively told here the date we were moving into our new home.... we told her to do one and when she came back and said ok just s £5k drop we still refused to sell to her.... she didn't realise we didn't need to sell to move, took another couple of months to sell but quite satisfying that the CF lost a huge amount of money on fees and full surveys on an 18th century cottage.

[specialsubject]

You need to get on the phone to the solicitor and find out what is preventing exchange. You pay the solicitor to help you.

Committing to anything without exchange was not smart and a decent solicitor would have explained.

[Samg1993]

Your right, I should have asked for confirmation whether the contracts were exchanged, not just take their word that the date they gave us was confirmed because the contracts had been exchanged. Rookie mistake, I know. I will ring tomorrow and put my foot down and make them get this sorted!

[hlr1987]

As long as your sure it's not the owners of the house your buying, then what you need to do is get their estate agent to start nagging. Solicitors won't talk to each other, so if one person in the chain is waiting for a document, or having mortgage problems, they won't know or care. They won't chase, it's not their job to, it's the estate agent. One estate agent willing to ring every estate agent in the chain because they're worried the chain is falling apart can move mountains. The only way we knew anything was by having the agents call each and every agent in the chain personally to ask what was going on.

[Doje]

Unfortunately, it can depend a bit on how big the chain is and how complicated it gets in terms of surveys and searches etc.

However, as the bottom of the chain, everyone is desperate to keep you, so you can get a bit more demanding. Tell everyone you want to exchange/complete by x date, let them all know you are getting antsy, and if it carries on without progress you will start looking at other houses. That might put a bit of fear into everyone.

Otherwise, you just have to keep hassling people daily - your solicitor to speak to the solicitor in the chain above you, and your estate agent to chase the estate agent above you in the chain.

[TheChineseChicken]

It is hugely frustrating and having to communicate via so many third parties is awful. You are in a good position though so start to make some noise. If you were to pull out the whole thing would fall apart.

[OakFlooring]

Have you definitely exchanged contracts? We signed our contracts weeks before we actually exchanged. And we couldn’t exchange until we all agreed on a date.

I agree with pp about getting the estate agent to ring round.

[specialsubject]

Decent non idle solicitors keep you informed and also triple check before exchange as it commits you. They also make it clear that signing contracts is not exchange.

[fromtheshires]

This also sounds like my chain although I am in the middle. Chain complete mid oct with an aim for the week before chrismtas. Useless solicitors at the top (im second from the top) so the person im buying off and myself ended up basically micro managing that purchase. My buyer ready since november but the bottom of the chains solcitors (4 people in total) were equally useless it sounds as they asked yet more questions a week ago! Luckily we should be exchaning this week as the last but was returned on friday and will be on the phone to my solicitor at 9am pushing for everyone to confirm a completion date as i cant wait to move!

It never used to be this hard! Slow solicitors who never respond to each other, micro managing estate agents and solicitors providing them with the answers they asked each other to provide by googling for planning permissions etc myself to get the job done and silly questions being asked when the PIF answers it. I am never moving again!