waiting for top of chain, grrrr

[thatcrazycatwoman]

Hi all,

we are FTB, mortgage secured 9.5 weeks in, searches done and signed contracts, chain of 3 houses, we have been told we are good to go this side and the people in the middle, it is just the top of chain is selling 2 houses, 2 weeks ago there were enquiries when I spoke to solicitor last Thurs she said they are resolved they are just waiting for feedback to see where they are & discuss exchange dates. solicitors have chased them & not heard back in over a week, Today EA has emailed to say that they have sent another email today, I said if we dont hear back this wee then what, they said they will then instruct solicitor to chase, I am so confused who is holding things up the sellers solicitor at the top or the actual seller, I know we are only at 9.5 weeks and timescale we are given is 12, Yes I know it can take a lot longer than this, but if we are still at the same position not hearing from top of chain by end of this month are we able to say to our solicitor that we want to put pressure on to get some dates discussed?

all new to us so any advice is appreciated x

bumping x

9.5 weeks is nothing, I'm afraid, especially with the top of your chain selling two houses ( so a chain of four)
The average time from offer to completion is 5 months at present, so it's a case of being patient. I expect it's further enquiries somewhere.

Sorry to say there was only 3 in our chain,it took 6 months .

If the top of the chain is selling 2 houses you aren’t really in a chain of 3 are you? Who is buying their second house and how advanced is that ?

We have a split chain. We are the top. Our buyers are a couple and her parents. The couple have a first time buyer but the parent’s buyer also has a buyer who is a FTB, so we have a split chain with 2 FTB at end. Today is day 2 of failed exchange. Incredibly frustrating and we just have to hold our nerve, there’s a lot of that.

These things take ages these days! When we bought our first place six years ago it took 4 months with no chain. Now we were in a chain of 4 and it was closer to 7 months. There never seems to be one specific thing holding it up but rather lots of little bits and every single email or call back takes a lifetime. Hope it starts moving again soon.

Hate to say this but we were in a chain of two earlier this year and it still took 4 months!

Unfortunately different things hold up property chains every single week. We're currently in a chain of 4, 2 parties have signed contracts and have been ready to exchange for over a month. The middle of our chain is being held up because our buyer's solicitor is refusing to answer any enquiries due to their current backlog of work.

We're 6 months in, and exchange has been dangled in front of us for weeks!

Every extra day it takes for someone to sign something, every missed call, every extra enquiry, they all take time unfortunately. And since you're in a split chain as people have said, it might complicate things further.

Don't sweat about your timescales unless you have an urgent need to complete within 12 weeks, I've never heard of any of my friends/family taking less than 6 months to complete a house purchase.