AIBU- house buyers

[Fishingforhapiness]

We put out house on the market mid September and accepted a slightly under value offer early October. Our buyers were "sold" to us as first time buyers without a chain who had a 2 month notice on their flat, but could move in with their parents locally until we found. We found our house quickly, that has no chain. We are ready to move early Jan. Our buyers came round to measure up last week and mentioned they still haven't handed in their rental notice. I asked when they would consider doing this, "after all surveys are complete"... then they mention that they haven't chased their solicitor and have no idea when these will be completed. Im furious and worried we may miss our stamp duty window. I'm also 15 weeks pregnant and know moving will be more stressful the bigger i am. Is this normal? Or AIBU?

Btw, we took 3.5 months which according to our solicitor was the fastest of his 2020 clients

You make it sound as if you were misinformed about them, or as if they've been dishonest - but they haven't?

You admit their offer was barely under asking price; I can't see why they'd feel keen to do you a favour when the stakes are so high. So it could be that some complication has come up and they're simply working through it - and while that's horrible for you, I doubt it has to do with them being renters.

It sounds incredibly stressful, though! I agree with others saying it'd be a good idea to talk to them and see what their plans are.

We didn't hand in our notice until after we exchanged. So we had 2 places for about a month which gave us time to work on and decorate the house we bought and move in when it suited us. They will probably be thinking of doing similar. We also had a very short chain (us as ftb, our vendors buying no chain house) and it took about 3.5 months for us, so I would expect more time than that now due to covid too.

Thank you all. I think im just getting a little fed up.

For a little more context, we told all viewings we wanted to move quickly. We turned down a on asking price offer who had a longer chain by one. They knew that we went with them as they said at the viewing that they were handing in their notice straight away to move in with their parents until we were ready. But clearly now this isn't the case. But I do understand situations change. Its just frustrating we have only just been notified of this and their intentions seem to be to exhange only once their rental is up. And sorry in my initial post I meant searches not surveys (its been a long week!) And that they have only been requested this week and knowing there is understandably long delays with covid. I feel that these should have been requested weeks ago. I just feel that we may not make march as such little progress has been made up to this point. I think its just all a bit stressful.

I suspect it's the conveyancer not the buyer that's slow.
Handing in notice on a tenancy has no bearing on their ability to proceed. As long as they don't have a house to sell they can complete without giving up the tenancy.

@Phyzzy

I suspect it's the conveyancer not the buyer that's slow. Handing in notice on a tenancy has no bearing on their ability to proceed. As long as they don't have a house to sell they can complete without giving up the tenancy.

Well it does have bearing depending on their financial situation. Not everyone can afford to pay rent and a mortgage at the same time.

You can ask your solicitor how long searches are taking in your area .
Ours are taking 11 days at the moment which is good .
I do agree that I also wouldn’t have given notice until I was sure we had progressed considerably as we had even gone past all that and the house we were buying still pulled out so I will always be cautious.
They really should be pressing their solicitors for updates though or they will take their sweet ass time ..

Remover that a lot of first time buyers don’t really understand how much pestering of the solicitor is required. I know that we didn’t when we were first time buyers.

@movingonup20 Did it from viewing and making the offer to completion in three months exactly. My solicitor was a bit terse at times . . .