How long should I give the other side before pulling out?

Yep, you have my sympathy OP, but sadly, it seems to be par for the course. My last two conveyancing experiences (in the last 3 years) took 6 months and about 5 months.
It's hellish and beyond stressful.

We brought in 2016, chain free as we were first time buyers and the house we brought was owned by a developer. I think it still took about 4 months

I just sold a house.
No upward chain.
Buyers sold theirs to ftb
Buyers had already agreed sale to ftb when they put offer in on my house.
So a very small chain
But it still took 5 months.
What would you gain by pulling out if you have no other property to go for?

Wow your tone is so abrasive - if you were ringing me with this kind of attitude then I’d not exactly be falling over myself to prioritise. Have you got contact details for the sellers ? If so then maybe work together - it’s often the conveyancer that is the issue as they are dealing with lots of cases simultaneously

They are probably waiting for the management pack, it can take an age. You need to keep pestering the estate agents - they will want their commission and have contacts across the conveyancing process so they can help get things moving

"It's absolutely not normal which has already been confirmed by the solicitor and EA (you know, professionals, unlike yourself)"

Why? What is it I do for a living?

I think you sound too impatient.

You sound oddly aggressive and impatient!
People don't need to be professionals to have experience of what you are asking.
For what it's worth my chain/purchase recently completed after 26 weeks, things have been moving slowly fir a while.

Wahahahahahaha so did I!

It took 7 months for our first house purchase. 9 weeks is nothing. Chase your solicitor and the estate agent regularly. You wouldn’t find another house and complete in the same time so I don’t see why you would pull out tbh.

I have just completed. 2 weeks for contract and then further 20 with no chain either side!

Welcome to house buying in England. It takes months and months... no idea why.

If you need a management pack then allow 3 months for that alone.

"Apparently it should have been done within the first couple of weeks and considering I managed to sort my mortgage and survey out in that time"

You made 2 phone calls, hardly brain surgery. Honestly, it's normal, it'll fall into place, just be patient

Tbh I was hoping this was a sex thread 🤣

Conveyancers are overworked and underpaid. Because there has been a race to the bottom on fees this is what you get I'm afraid.

Agree with PP that they all blame each other. We were supposed to complete last July at the latest (process started in March) and ended up moving end of Sept. If they said 13 weeks add 6 on and hope for the best. It's SO frustrating, having bought and sold a good few houses now I can confirm it gets no less annoying and thankfully you're not in a chain 🥴

9 weeks is not that long. Also, assume that everybody will blame each other for delays.

Our estate agents were blaming our buyers for delays but when we spoke direct to them, it wasn't true.
They all seemed to blame each other so take the excuses with a pinch of salt and keep nagging them all.

@prettyperfect

9 weeks isn't that long, in this process, unfortunately.

there isn't much you can do except keep friendly communication up with your solicitor🤷🏻‍♀️

but if there's nothing else on the market you're interested in. What's the point in pulling out??

even if you found a property tomorrow, it would take you weeks to get back to this stage.

is there an actual reason you have to get moved assp or just because you want to?

Just a thought - I have a friend who is a conveyencer and she is fed up with things only being sent for her attention when they are ridiculously overdue. It should have settled by now, but I wonder if the solicitors are part of the problem?

I completed on a sale and purchase within that time frame during lockdown. You need to set expectations from the start. Did you agree a rough date via the Estate Agent when you offered? I’d go back now if you haven’t. Unfortunately, if you’ve not discussed this with any party then you’ll just be left in the queue waiting for the wheels to turn. I’d get on the phone if I was you.

If I couldn’t find another property I liked, then I wouldn’t pull out. Even if another property does come onto the market soon, there’s a high chance it’ll be part of a chain and you’ll just swap one set of frustrating delays for another.

9 weeks isn’t that long in conveyancing. The conveyancing for our first house which was also chain free was 3.5 months and that was prior to the delays in the system now. Your solicitor can also raise queries without the draft contract.

Sometimes it’s also not the seller not doing something, when we sold we were waiting on other people to get back to us (a surveyor, the heating installer who had installed the boiler). We also had some documents from our purchase but our solicitor had to go through them to make sure they answered the question our buyer’s solicitors were asking.

However, if there is nothing else on the market then you just have to wait it out. It’s frustrating.