WIBU to ask for completion from seller before their house is finished

[Katlow]

I'm a first time buyer so I'm completely new to all this!

So, we put an offer in on a house, no mention of the fact that the sellers were looking at moving into a new build property. Fair do's, we should have asked.
Offered full price, accepted, all hunky dory.
I emailed the estate agent asking what sort of time scale we were looking at and she's let me know that they were putting an offer in on a new build property, so I asked her whether they were built or still under construction. After some chasing she let me know that they were still under construction and they were at roof stage due to be finished at the end of January.
However, I know that this probably won't be the case.
WIBU to say we want to complete at the end of January or beforehand or we'll be dropping out?
I feel bad because I know the reason that they're moving is because she's pregnant and I don't want to stress her out more than I need to!
The reason I want to get this through ASAP is because my DH hates his job and wants a new one which we obviously can't do until completion without taking a massive risk on the mortgage.

I'm not sure what the right thing to do is when buying a house as I've absolutely zero experience.

Anything to do with conveyancing takes for-bleeding-ever. So as the others have said you'll be lucky to complete by end Jan whatever route you go.

I’d relax a bit!

As others have said, you’ll be looking at around 12 weeks and with Christmas & New Year holidays I would imagine around 14. We bought an empty property and had nothing to sell, ours took just over 12.

It can be quicker, but having bought and sold several houses over the years, it never has been for me!

Thanks all!
I don't want to put them in a difficult situation, like I say she's pregnant and want her moving into her new house a pleasant experience too.
We're in rental so I did have in the back of my mind that it would be a bit selfish to push things when we have an understanding landlord who will allow us a lot of leeway with our notice period.

When we last moved, we offered on our house at start of November and moved in end of January. TBH it felt like it dragged on! Christmas was a hindrance but without that would have been done and dusted much quicker. It can be done!

It's amazing how long property sales are now taking complete - especially the chain free ones. It used to be 6 to 8 weeks.
My ex & I had our offer accepted on the Monday and we exchanged on the Friday with a delayed completion. We were cash buyers & they were leaving the country and they had a couple of months of commitments here otherwise we would have completed on the Friday too.

You could certainly ask them to nail down an exchange date, then it's up to them / the builder to deal with the interim if build overruns? Friend of mine had similar but were the seller and the builder had to fund a rental property for 2 months till the build was ready as they went past agreed completion date. Certainly worth asking for a date anyway (would be the case if you were in a chain yourself) , although Jan prob a sensible completion timescale xx

You can always ask. We had our offer on our house accepted and we completed exactly 6 weeks later. No rush on our part but our conveyancer suggested the date so we went with it and all went without a hitch.

The sellers as it happened were buying a new build which wouldn’t be ready for another 3 months after completion. First we heard of it was when we picked up the keys from them on completion day.

They moved in with family until their house was ready. We would have been flexible if they’d asked as we were in rented but they possibly didn’t want to lose us as the house had been on for a while.

You are right notwiththeseknees, it absolutely used to be turned around in 6-8 weeks. Unfortunately, especially in the last five years, the lists of things we must check/do have grown and grown. Anti Money Laundering takes an age, breaches of cml guidelines need to be reported etc etc and that’s before you even get on to the legal title! The moves that have been made to streamline the process have only created more work for those on the ground.