buyers' mortgage provider needs to approve retention

[TremoloGreen]

Does anyone have any experience of this?

We're selling a leasehold property that will need ~£5k of work doing under the freehold agreement. We offered to drop the price by this amount, but our buyers preferred for us to put up a retainer to be released to the freehold company when the work was done (I guess they don't have much upfront capital - 1st time buyers).

However, their lender (Nationwide) needs to approve mortgaging a property with this in place and we have been waiting for over a week now for them to get this confirmation. Why is it taking so long?? Is this normal? Is it just a box ticking exercise or could they refuse?

We've had an absolute nightmare trying to sell/buy, we've had two purchases fall through, so now we're just planning to sell and move into a rental. I'm also pregnant and the thought of moving twice this year and having a new baby is starting to fill me with dread, so I'm getting colder and colder feet with every day this drags on. Should I go back to the EA and say we need to set a time limit on this or they need to agree to a price reduction?

Oh, I meant to say, we are just waiting for this then we can exchange.

It's perfectly normal for the buyer's solicitor to ask for a retention on planned works. Once they agree the amount, this will be held on account until the works are done, then the cost will paid out of the retention and the balance (if any) returned to you. Your buyer's lender merely wants assurance that money is in the pot to cover planned works so shouldn't be a problem but they need to be aware. It takes so long because a series of letters are sent between the various parties asking for agreement and confirmation of the retention. Emailing would obviously be quicker, but some solicitors still send letters through the post.