Long story short... Our sale fell through in May '20, due to our buyer being furloughed so not being able to get the mortgage. We stayed put.
We got 2 offers when we relisted, for the same amount, on the same day. Our EA recommended that we go with someone that they'd sold to before, and as the chain on the house we wanted to offer on was ready, we went with them.
They have been SLOW. Despite us asking a few times, the EA wasn't sure how they were financing the house, the buyer didn't instruct their solicitor for ages, they didn't put searches in... It came to a bit of a head last week when the rest of the chain complained that they were constantly being told contradictory information. We were all told that the mortgage valuation was being done the week just gone, and searches due back Friday.
We heard from our seller's EA on Friday that according to our EA, we are "weeks away" from exchange. It seems something has gone wrong with the mortgage valuation on the other property, so they now need to do one here, which doesn't seem to be booked in yet. The estate agents agreed to pass that information up the chain, which has resulted in the second house in the chain saying they no longer want to proceed. Our seller is considering his options.
I am annoyed that all of this has happened without the EA talking to us, and that the EA keeps telling us that it'll take as long as it takes, and we need to wait. It's not even just about the stamp duty holiday - I'm pregnant, which they know, and we want to be settled. Our EA says our buyer also wants to make the SDLT holiday, but its "out of his hands". They've been telling us that his survey will be "next week" for four weeks now.
We'll be okay if we need to be here, but we'd much rather be in the house.
Do we push the EA here? Is it worth it? They are supposed to act for us, but also work with him, so I think we're getting the short end of the stick...
I don't think I can live in limbo for the rest of the month, if we're going to have the baby here, I need to get ready, we need a washing machine and to do some redesigning etc.
Our solicitor maintains that she's heard nothing from his, other than the enquiries that we answered, but that the mortgage is the EA's responsibility.
Our sale is now ready to exchange, like the rest of the chain. I do appreciate the buyer can't do anything about mortgage times but ours took four days to come through six weeks ago.