delayed house exchange, pregnant and extreemly stressed - WWYD?

[alliwant]

Well the title says it all! I'll try and be brief....

DH has new job in neighbouring county. He starts in Sept. We put our house on the market in April, offer accepted within a week, a good one too. Wow I thought, we can complete late July and move and i'll have the baby in our new area...(also have a nearly 2yo and a 3 and a half yo)

Its a small chain, just ftb, our buyers and us. We are buying too but are prepared to go into rented if it all falls through, so effectively we end the chain.

The ftb have pushed from the beginning to have an early exchange (early June) and thats always been fine. We have been ready since the middle of June. Since then we have been waiting and waiting for the exchange to happen and have been told we are waiting on a last certificate the nhbc (it only has 5 months till it runs out anyway) for the house of our buyers.

First there was a massive stand off as to who was going to pay for it (£45 ffs ). Now it seems the house was not originally signed off as it should have been and the mortgage company will not proceed with the ftb's until they have it. I have been told today it will take 2 - 3 weeks for the original certificate to be issued!!!!!! That is about the same time as completion. I have a baby a week later (know my date, ELCS - another story). That is only if this latest peice of information is correct! I am now losing hope and feel that this could in reality go on and on and on..... No one seems to know what is going on and I just keep being told "any day now" I have been told by all parties that moneis are in place and it only paperwork we are waiting for. But it seems to me that if the certificate was never issued then the house would have to be inspected and investigated. That could take alot longer than 2 weeks. Also our buyers solicitor has gone on annual leave.....

I am beginning to think of our options, here goes:

1. Keep waiting, sit tight and trust the reassurance I am getting that it will all go through on our agreed date at the end of July.

1. Start allowing viewings again, but tell our buyers if they can sort it out it is still theirs.

1. Keep waiting but change the completion date until AFTER the baby comes, if they can't sort it out by this Friday.

The added complication is that we have found a place to buy, a couple who have both been made redundant (poor people) and they are moving in with parents. However, if we put it back on the market, we will have to tell them as we have managed to match our purchase price to our sale price within 1k. We are not having to change our mortgage atall.. However if we put it back on the market and get a new seller for say 5K less, we could not honour our offer to them, that would have to drop by 5K too. so in reality if we told them we were putting our house back on the market, they would too and we would very likely go into rented. This would be a pain, but the pay off could be getting a similar house (or even the same one!) in 6 months time for less money if the market continues to be slow and with us as chain free buyers.

Sorry its been so long, I phoned the estate agent today at lunchtime in tears and still they have not got back to me.... All I want to do is nest!!!!!

Anyone been through anything similar?? What should we do?

Thanks in advance x

Could you organise to exchange and complete very close together, even on the same day? It doesn't have to be a couple of weeks later.

Is your solicitor good? Can they chase up with the people responsible for reissuing the certificate and find out directly what it involves and timescales? Explain the urgency, the pregnancy, see if they can prioritise it.

I can understand the frustration - we are due to complete this Thursday - at the random bits of paperwork that hold things up, but it seems if this one thing comes through you are sorted for the sale and the new purchase? Worth some chasing and checking - is one of the estate agents involved able to do that? In our purchase the vendors estate agent has acted as an intermediary a lot and chased solicitors on both sides when things slowed.

Now our solicitor has said up to 6 weeks.....

I just can't be left up here on my own with 3 small kids.

But could this not work out in your favour? You can now coincide your sale with your purchase which will be sooo much easier all round surely?

I realise its not ideal to be on your own with 3 small kids, but its only a short while, & the light is at the end of the tunnel. You'll get through it. :)

Do you have any family or friends who might come for a few days each to help you out? Can you afford to pay for some extra childcare, cleaner etc to give you some more rest?

Where is your husband going to stay if it doesn't happen in time?

I would still go ahead with the sale. You would be on your own anyway if your husband is at work once you have had the baby? Get a relative to come and stay with you.