How long to wait?

[cakesandphotos]

DH and I are in the process of buying a house for my parents. At this point I actually can’t remember when we put the offer in, it was possibly May? Our solicitor sent their solicitor enquiries in mid June and we still haven’t had three of the responses back. Our solicitor has chased every day this week and the estate agent has left 4 messages with the vendors solicitor since Tuesday. Nothing has changed. My parents sold their house months ago and have been living in rented. They deliberately rented a cheap place but as a result it has damp and it’s tiny. It was only meant to be a very temporary situation but it’s really dragging.
We’ve threatened to pull out and it makes no difference. Who knows if we’ve missed any other properties in the meanwhile!

I suppose my question is at what point do we say enough is enough? They’re royally taking the piss and we just need a decision!

I’d tell them exchange is in two weeks or you’re pulling out. I’d also tell them you’re viewing other houses, which you maybe should. Hope it all works out.

Anyone else got any ideas?

Tbh I'd look for another property. They obviously don't really want to sell!

Has your solicitor told you what the enquiries are? Could you find out? Then you can decide whether they are too important not to ignore or instruct your solicitor to proceed without the responses.

Find out what enquiries are outstanding. I noticed in our “report on title” that some of the questions asked by our solicitor were a bit pointless (e.g. planning approvals from 1960’s, which we didn’t need). Then set an exchange deadline of a couple of weeks and walk away. I surprised the EA isn’t more proactive!

They vendor is stalling by the sounds of it. Definitely start looking for another house

They (the vendor) might be delaying because they have nowhere to move to.

If they’ve not responded to your previous threats about pulling out they won’t take you very seriously I’m afraid.
You need to look for another property ASAP, they sound like they’re not bothered.
If you can’t find somewhere else in the next 2/3 weeks ask your parents if they would be ok moving to a better rental. If they are then pull out of the purchase, this will either result in them being able to miraculously exchange or worse case it doesn’t work and your parents can move into a nicer rental over the winter.