Are we about to be gazzumped?

[houseargh]

In the process of trying to buy our first house. The sellers proposed a completion date next week and last week we were being chased daily or twice daily by the estate agents (we assumed at the sellers behest!) to exchange asap. Turned everything around as quick as poss and pushed our solicitors to act quickly so we were in a position to exchange today. Our solicitor then says he's heard from the vendors solicitor that they're still waiting on an enquiry for the place they're buying....

Wtf!? Is there any plausible scenario in which they'd be pressuring us to exchange and setting a completion date so soon when they haven't finished enquiries yet? Or are they in negotiations with another buyer?

The only (non-gazzumping) explanations I can think of are some combination of a) the estate agents were pushing on their own initiative, b) they set that date to try and pressure their own sellers into getting a move on or c) they had a last minute enquiry for some reason.

Anyone had an experience like this that didn't end badly?

I wouldn't panic quite yet. It's in the estate agents' interest for it all to go through quickly, because then they get their percentage. It's not uncommon to have to tie up loose ends, eg with one or two enquiries that haven't yet been answered. Hopefully you just have to hold your nerve for a few more days.

Best of luck, and I hope your sale goes through.

I would go back to the EA and tell them what the solicitors have said. Also tell them you would appreciate if they didn't keep on calling you up. Tell them their clients need to get their ducks in order too.
I doubt you are being gazumped here.

Thanks, I'm glad that's not anyone's first reaction. We emailed the EA last night so will be interested to hear what they say this morning! Hopefully they were just being over-zealous and the vendors are just sorting some (non-problematic) last bits.

We had this issue. It was just a case of a missing bit of paperwork they only noticed at the last minute 🙄

Enquiries can pop up even last minute. It’s not necessarily anything for you to worry about and I hope you Exchange soon

So as of Tues, the EA said that it was confusion on the seller's solicitors part - a temp stand-in thought they were in a chain and they're not, and she confirmed they should go ahead and exchange that day, though follow-up discussion between solicitors suggests EA and vendors solicitors are definitely not on the same page regarding the chain thing. Heard nothing since then and EA has replied today to say she doesn't know what's happening and is also awaiting an update. If the EA is also in the dark I can't help but fear the worst, but hopefully that's just paranoia stemming from a previous purchase falling through. God this process is so unnecessarily stressful.

PITA. I reckon it's a glitch that the stand in solicitor doesn't know how to handle. Hopefully the vendor's solicitor will be back from holiday on Monday. Can you call your solicitor and ask them to talk to the vendor's solicitor?
Mind you, a fair few solicitors seem to be allergic to phones.

Still no progress. We're now past the completion date the sellers had asked for and haven't had a straight answer as to why - the EA insists we're not in a chain but their solicitors seem to think otherwise. I no longer think we're being gazzumped but I do think it's quite possible they're having second thoughts about their onward purchase and maybe don't want to move into rental indefinitely while they start hunting again. Just really, really hoping if that's the case they don't withdraw completely - we wouldn't actually mind a delay if we knew why. Had a place fall through last year, if this happens again we will have lost many thousands and I just don't know how I could go this process a third time - surely we can't be that unlucky?!