At what point do we pull out of house purchase?

[Sparrow91]

We’re 11 weeks in to purchasing a house and finding it impossible to get any information as to whether our vendor has had an offer accepted on a house or even whether the chain is now complete.

We have a really lovely buyer of our current home and I’m starting to get worried we’re going to lose him if it turns out our vendor hasn’t actually found anywhere.

Our estate agents have been chasing, we’ve tried contacting the vendor with little or no response and no actual firm answer to our questions. I’m struggling to get in touch with my solicitor due to workload so I’ve no idea if she knows either. I’ve also tried purple bricks who are selling the house, who have similarly tried to contact him, and he has ignored their calls. The last thing any of us heard was about 6-7 weeks ago where he said he had made an offer, but never heard whether this was accepted. Anything else we ask about just seems to get excuses or ‘it’s with my solicitors’.

Me and DP have started to talk about whether we possibly should be looking elsewhere and ultimately pull out of the purchase to save our own house sale. We can’t rent or break the chain ourselves as we’re porting a mortgage.

Anyone had anything similar or any advice as to what else we can do?

Currently drafting an ultimatum email to send onwards to our solicitor but considering one last ditch attempt to contact the vendor directly
I'm not sure why you have to 'officially' pull out. Ask your solicitor not to incur any more time / money on this purchase and leave it in abeyance. Start looking for Plan B house, and find that before you think about ditching Plan A.

I would definitely be looking at other houses OP.

Hang on
Where he goes to live isn’t really that much of a concern. Not everyone needs/wants to link up in the chain. He can go and live on the street.

What matters is how your purchase is progressing. You are buying his house. How are the responses from his solicitor regarding your enquiries, do you have fixtures and fittings list completed. Any response to queries, have you raised any queries?
You need to insist that your solicitor confirms that your purchase is not in danger. The pertinent question is not where he is going.
I’d phone his solicitor direct if you have no joy

Morning everyone - we made a last ditch attempt to message him directly last night and actually got a response. He is much earlier in the conveyancing process then we thought which is disappointing but has indicated he is willing to move into rented accommodation to complete the sale.

From our side, we’ve found out we’re actually only waiting on some service charge information from a third party and then we’re ready to sign contracts and talk exchange dates.

Not going to get my hopes up but feel a bit relieved that we at least know where we stand finally. I don’t think we’d pull out at this point given we have answers now and we’re so far in... I did lol when my solicitor said she nicknames purple bricks’ conveyancers ‘poor performance’ rather than ‘premier’ 😂😂

From your update OP I would start looking for another house, "willing to go into rental" means very little and usually it's a lie, he has been poor at communicating and by the sounds of it, remains very unmotivated while you are almost at exchange.

I fear he could keep you dragging along for weeks more and you could lose your buyer. I'd find another house ASAP with serious, motivated sellers.

I had this when I moving to a new area as well with kids school places depending on the move etc. I looked elsewhere and when I found somewhere and had an offer accepted I immediately phoned the first estate agent and pulled out of the sale that was going no where. I happen to know the people in that original house are still living there 6 years later having never committed to moving, so I definitely did the right thing!

I’m struggling to get in touch with my solicitor due to workload so I’ve no idea if she knows either.

Eh?  She works for you. 

Email her, explain the situation, and ask her to formally contact the sellers' solicitor to get an answer ASAP. Then you would like her to call you to discuss next step.