House buying stress...please help!

[MummyTyler]

Hi,

Im hoping some of you will be able to give me some help/advice.
We are in the process of buying a house, we are first time buyers in rented so no chain behind us...we are ready to exchange/complete and so our seller.

We have been told all along that the couple our seller is buying her house from (the top of the chain) are able to move in with family if they haven't found anywhere to live...and they haven't found anywhere so far.

We have put forward suggested completion dates over a week ago and it seems we are being ignored. Apparently they have been chased but we keep being told that our sellers solicitor hasn't heard anything back? BUT we have heard that they have been to view 2 houses in the past 2 days...which is obviously panicked me as now I'm thinking that they aren't moving in with family and have decided to look for a house to move into?! But the most frustrating part is we seem unable to get a clear answer about what the hell they are doing and what their intentions are!!

I have chased this with our solicitor (he is as much use as a chocolate tea pot and says our sellers solicitor is still waiting and to try the estate agents to chase) went into estate agents today and explained the situation and she was great, chased our sellers solicitor and apparently they couldnt get hold of them but have asked their estate agents to chase them about a date/whats going on!

Our seller is going into her solicitors tomorrow and she hopes to have more answers then...but the pessimist in me just tells me that it'll be the same old...STILL NO DATE!!

SO please does anyone have any advice? I know we don't have much sway as they can basically do what they want as we haven't exchanged contracts but any advice would be greatly appreciated. My estate agent is back in on Friday and she is so pushy and will be calling again from me if she has no answers....

The other stress is i am 31 weeks pregnant due at the end of July and wanted to be moved before then, also our mortgage offer expires end of July too...

So upset and stressed :-(

The only thing you can do is keep chasing the chain and generally be a pain in the neck for everyone until they get it sorted.

The problem is nobody can force the hand of the people at the top of the chain, the only way to do it is to threaten the collapse of the whole chain. The Solicitors won't be bothered because they get paid no matter what, but all of the EA's will be in a cold sweat at the thought of losing their comms so maybe that will gee it up a bit.

Perhaps try getting in touch with the EA at the top of the chain to push them into action? Your EA will have all the details.

If none of that works, then it may just be a waiting game and things may not go perfectly to plan, so think about contingencies. Best of luck.

Tell the agent (and others) that you would like to view other properties, and do it, even if you don't want to look for another one. Seller needs to know this and if they seriously want to sell the property they might communicate rather than lose the sale.

You might find a house you like better if you start looking again, or one that is actually easier to buy.

I would say that they have definitely changed their minds about moving in with family; maybe they now can't face moving twice or the family have withdrawn their offer of accommodation.

There is hardly anything you can do; you could look again, or your sellers could start looking again, but then the whole process starts again.

Sorry OP, it must be very frustrating.