Bottom of chain - how long do I wait?

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we’re first time buyers and had our offer accepted back in June! We’ve finished everything we need to do, and asked the vendor for a completion date. They replied to our solicitor saying they have no date in mind yet, as they’re waiting on their sale to progress further. What would you do?

It's always frustrating when you are the first in the chain to be ready.

What's the expiry date on your mortgage offer? I'm guessing December some time?

Are you confident the chain above is complete (as in, everyone has a property to buy and the work is underway)?

What's the estate agent saying?

@HettySunshine Very frustrating :( expiry date is march 2023. Not sure on any of the progress ahead. I will definitely find out though - we spoke to the estate agent and asked if they could move into rented for the time being and they just replied with no they can’t do that.

which I was surprised at, because don’t they want to make their commission on this sale and keep us happy?

Bump

I'd be asking questions via the solicitors at this point, we pulled out of a sale a while back because the vendor was really dragging their heels. The house then didn't sell, it wasn't about money she just didn't want to move.
A solid mortgage offer and first time buyer status means you ought to be a very attractive prospect to a vendor. I would absolutely be questioning your vendor's commitment to the process.

It isn't up to the estate agents whether the vendors move into rented, of course they want their commission but few people are actually in a position to move into rented accommodation if they haven't found a property to buy or if their purchase is not progressing as they wish. Having said that, I am really surprised that you seem to be unaware of how long the chain is or what is happening above you. You need to speak to the agents and find out exactly why your vendors are seemingly finding it so difficult to find somewhere to move to. Then you have to decide if you are in a position to be able to wait for an indeterminate time or if you wish to impose a deadline by which time you will withdraw your offer.

June! They need their cage rattling, and you need to begin quietly looking on Rightmove to see what's on the market in terms of alternatives.
Given that they are the problem here, they should be giving you and your solicitor full and honest details of exactly where they are in their purchase/ongoing chain. If they are dragging their feet, you may need to give them a timescale to put the wind up them a bit, beyond which you will be viewing other properties.
They even may have decided to wait to see if prices fall, which is very unfair to you- locking you in to a price while they wait for prices to drop for their purchase. If that's so, they need a rocket up their behinds to get them moving.

We had this offered in December and then our vendors just didn’t budge or do anything for weeks and didn’t want to go into rented. We (and our lovely buyers) patiently waited for 4 months having done surveys and searches etc and still no movement or plans for them to break chain and just very vague updates on where they were at. At that point we decided to recommence the search and lined something else up first before pulling out. Only then did the agent and vendor start panicking and offering to look at rentals, pleading us to wait a while longer etc etc, but it was too little too late as we had moral duty to our buyers too - who I hasten to add we kept fully appraised throughout.

We were done and dusted on new purchase just over 2 months later whilst the original house languished for another 6 months at least, not even sure they ever sold it in the end.

In short, start looking elsewhere. Some people are just time wasters and will spend months if not years searching for the perfect house that doesn’t exist whilst everyone’s else’s lives are put on hold and money wasted.