In a pickle over a tricky decision

[ALbigbump]

At a point where we can exchange on our purchase, seller would break the chain but is instead listening to her solicitor who’s advising against it. Her seller’s solicitor is uncontactable, so god knows how long they’ll take. Apparently everyone in chain is desperate to move but this shit solicitor is holding everything up. Our seller’s son wants her to put it back on mkt as he knows she’ll get much more than the offer she’s accepted from us. There’s another house 3 doors away which is not as big, has a tiny garden but we could move in imminently as a rental if we committed to buying it, it’s 47k less and it’s a compromise. DH is having the mother of all tantrums as I want to wait for original house. He can’t see beyond having a home before Xmas. The one we’re waiting for is still a possibility but he wants us to pull out now and go for lesser one. We stand to lose c£6k in sunk costs if we do too but we’re homeless at the moment. Please help me decide. Our solicitor even got the contracts ready on her day off to help things along!

The owner of the other house will be advised by their solicitor not to rent it to you, but instead wait until you have exchanged and completed.

Does that tip the balance,

The owner of the other house is prepared to let it to us

It was previously a rental

what have pickles got to do with this

@lucascriesalot

what have pickles got to do with this

There's a pickle farm next door.

Thanks for the advice!

I would stick to your guns @ALbigbump A smaller garden is something you may regret. Unless there's land behind that you could buy with the saved cash?

@GrannytoaUnicorn no land behind sadly. I could lose my marriage if I stick to my guns though, but if we pull out and that house sells again then I’ll resent him for it

I totally sympathise. I'm 3 months in with the conveyancing & have recently found out that a) my solicitor is part time! Works 5hrs a day. I only found out by chance when I scrolled down to the bottom of the email to open attachments & saw her working hours.
b) my seller has put the sale of the property in the hands of an executor & changed Solicitors.. I have no idea why. Again I found out from the estate agent representing my seller, not my actual solicitor. I have absolutely no idea how this is going to end. All my Christmas decs are in a lockup near the new property because we thought we'd be moved by now.
Absolutely draining... 🤦🏼‍♀️

I would stick with the original house.
Can you talk to vendor and son and try and solve/move it on

Would it really end your marriage????

Well OP, 47K less is considerable. Do you hate the cheaper house?

I'd not worry about Christmas as such, don't bank on being in the rental by Christmas either, lots can take a bit longer than expected.

@chilled, I don’t hate it but the garden is tiny plus with it being a few doors down I’d be reminded about what we could have one on a daily basis

What is wrong with your solicitor being part time duchess? And you can't say she hid the info.

@Duchess379 it’s painful isn’t it. Where are you living at the moment?

@Totalwasteofpaper the way he’s behaving yes, he’s making life hell and hates me right now

oh gosh
I think moving house can really escalate things.

I purposefully didn't buy a "less good" house opposite our "dream" house (the dra house owners were holding out for more than we could pay/it was worth and we couldn't close the gap (£200k diff!!)
I am so happy we didn't buy the less good house... we did end up buying one a road over and I am not salty about dream house now but I know if we'd bought the less good house I def would be...

A hone is for life, not just for Christmas! Tell your husband to chill out!

@Totalwasteofpaper how long did it take you to find the hose a road over?

House sorry! Can’t see what I’m typing!

[quote ALbigbump]@Duchess379 it’s painful isn’t it. Where are you living at the moment?[/quote]
West Sussex. Not moving too far, just into a bungalow. 🤦🏼‍♀️

@whyohwhyohwhyohwhywhy

What is wrong with your solicitor being part time duchess? And you can't say she hid the info.

Because she only works 25hrs a week! I'll reply to her email but she's left for the day. She comes back in, gets around to my email, sends it on to my buyers solicitor & goes home again! One query takes a whole week. Utterly ridiculous!

@Duchess379 if you feel she doesn’t do much work for your case that’s not necessarily because she works part time. I feel the same about my solicitor and he works full time but always seems to be in meetings or out of the office.
Maybe they just get allocated too many cases to deal with efficiently, I don’t know but many solicitor are frustrating (not all).

[quote Twiglets1]@Duchess379 if you feel she doesn’t do much work for your case that’s not necessarily because she works part time. I feel the same about my solicitor and he works full time but always seems to be in meetings or out of the office.
Maybe they just get allocated too many cases to deal with efficiently, I don’t know but many solicitor are frustrating (not all).[/quote]

Possibly. I've just got so much going on at the moment & seldom get an update from my solicitor. I've found out several things from the estate agents before my solicitor told me. I felt like replying 'I know, so & so told me days ago'. I think I'm just tired & grumpy. Xmas is postponed because all the decs are in a lockup up 20 miles away. My mum is in hospital (different thread. V long story) Bah humbug!

Can you go away for a short break? You can stay in email contact. Might do you both good.

I mean both of you going away together.