Is it usual for the vendor to have calls with the buyer and estate agent to ‘assess progress’ and ‘move things along’?

[MovingDrama]

The sale is not proceeding as quickly as the vendor would like, we are all a bit fed up with the delays in with the survey.

The agent asked me to attend a call with the vendor on Monday which which i attended however the vendor was very frustrated and direct with me. They have asked for another call on Friday to discuss my solictor who they also beleive is too slow.

Im unable to make Fridays call however the estate agent has asked me to reconsider. I feel quite backed into a corner on a call myself with 2 vendors and the agent
are these calls usual?

@Mildura

Why do people keep saying this? The buyer doesn't pay the vendors EA

A not insignificant number of people who offer advice through their comments on here have very little idea of what they are talking about!!

It appears so!

Buying a house always takes longer than you think it should.
In my experience, delays are caused by your solicitor asking the vendor (via his solicitor) questions about the house, such as building regulations or indemnity insurance for that removed chimney, etc.
However, the biggest delays seem to be caused by the mortgage company. Even though you have a mortgage in principle, it still seems to take ages for the mortgage to be agreed, especially if the mortgage is agreed at a much lower amount, because the mortgage brokers do not understand normal payslips, resulting in a lot of tooing and froing, before the required sum is agreed.
These two examples above happened to my DS within the last 2 years!

Without meaning to go off on a tangent too much, many of the delays in the house buying process can be significantly reduced if only people were better prepared.

House buying today is a great big long papertrail, everything seems to need a certificate of some description.
*If you've had structural work carried out make sure you dig out the building regs certificates.
*If you've had an extension get the planning documents out as well as building regs.
*If you've replaced any windows or doors, get the FENSA paperwork out.
*GasSafe for the the boiler,
*NICEIC for electrics.

As the seller have all of the abover available, then fill out the Sellers Property Information Form and Fixtures and Fittings form. (TA6 & TA10) If the local authority is taking a long time to return local searches it is well worth considering applying for the searches for your property that you can then sell to a buyer at a later date.

Then on the day you agree a sale your solicitor can send a lovely comprehensive pack over to the buyer's solicitor.

As the buyer instruct your solicitor promptly. This almost always means signing their terms and paying a sum upfront to cover searches etc, rarely more than £500.

Get any mortgage application in without delay. Yes lenders are slower than usual, so the sooner an application is in the sooner it's going to be dealt with. Don't rely much on an AIP, it's barely worth the paper it's written on.

The period of time between exchange and completion can be made much shorter if all of those involved are organised and responsive.

7 weeks is really not long at the moment! If the solicitor is being crap that's another matter, but all you can do is as them to process it as quickly as they can!

Surely this is exactly why you pay and EA and solicitor- so that they have all the calls with the other party, keep things moving as they should, protect your interests and keep you out of any discussions that involve the other party getting frustrated etc

Unless you're doing something that goes against their advice then I think it's highly unprofessional for them to ask you to get directly involved, especially when it's clear that the other party is being difficult.

FWIW, when I last bought a house our seller was slow to respond to everything etc (I later found out they had pulled out of the house they were planning to buy so were letting things slide until they found another- but didn't want to tell us in case we pulled out as we had made it clear we were looking for a quick move). I had quite a few discussions with their estate agent but no one ever suggested direct discussions with them.

I have never spoken to a buyer or vendor myself. Very common and normal for the EA to act as a go between (ours is having to lots as our buyers solicitor is useless) but not normal for the 3 to have a group convo.