Oh shit! Are we going to make this deadline for completion?!

[ThisMustBeMyDream]

Agreed my purchase back last May. My house sold 4 (!) times from march-late August eventually being bought by a main with no chain. In mid Oct my vendors found their onward purchase which was chain free with probate granted. So 3 of us in the chain, and finally complete.
Initially when I'd put the house up for sale I was happy to pay early repayment on my mortgage. As time has crept on though due to waiting for my vendor to find onward purchase, and then my buyer having a lower mortgage offer I made it clear I wouldn't move before 1st Feb. My vendor completely fine with this. My buyer less keen, but accepted eventually.
My buyer is ready for exchange. I'm almost ready for exchange, searches back, enquiries answered but just need reviewing - shouldn't be any further issues though as I've already seen the responses. However my vendor hasn't received their searches back - according to her (we are in contact) her solicitor said they will be back today or tomorrow. Then it is enquiries. Then will be ready for exchange.
Today we found out that my buyers mortgage offer expires on 6th Feb. Now me and my vendor are like, "shit! Is this all going to fall apart at the last minute?!". We are both hassling the solicitors daily currently to speed things up as there have been "communication difficulties" 🙄. There are only 2 solicitors firms involved too, so shouldn't be this hard! My buyer and my vendor are using same local sols and I'm using another local firm.
Please tell me your similar stories where all came good?! 🥴 Or should I just unpack the boxes now and take up alcohol at the grand age of 38?!

It will most likely all go through just fine. That’s a good amount of time for them since the wheels are in motion. You could suggest the delayed parties explores with their solicitor if there is an expedition fee they can pay or something to prioritise their work but honestly given the solicitors are doing 2/3 the chain they will sort it. Hope you settle in to your new home soon

I suppose what I'm saying is this is all in the solicitors financial interest to get to completion, right?! Especially the other firm given they have 2 out of the 3 transactions with them! Has anyone had their mortgage offer expire because solicitors fucked around and couldn't get their act together? Sellers sols took 3 weeks to ask their client for responses to enquiries - on the day they shut for Christmas! So they weren't received by my sols until today, 5 weeks since they were sent! 😱

Thank you @Potatomashed. I was reasonably optimistic this morning, but the panicked texts from my vendor who is incredibly anxious has somewhat sent my mind in to overdrive.
I'm channeling my inner calm now!!

I’m in a similar situation, top of a chain of 3 as we are moving into rental. I was assured exchange next week at the latest before Christmas so secured a rental and have organised removals for 2 weeks time. Now it transpires searches are not back and enquiries unanswered from my buyer’s sale. For some reason he is using 2 different solicitors for sale and purchase. I’ve been told it could still happen in that timeframe so would think you should be fine by the end of the month.
Problem for us is we are moving 250 miles away and if we haven’t exchanged I’ll need to leave some stuff here as the house will have to be habitable if it falls through and I have to re market as I’ll have to be up and down.

I’ve heard of 2 sales recently which completed in this situation- one on the day the offer expired. Hold your nerve OP, you can do very little to affect this other than regular check ins. Don’t ruin your last weeks in your house taking in your vendors stress!

We completed the day everyone shut for Christmas- they got the managing solicitor to cover ours work!

It is sometimes possible to have an extension added to the mortgage offer, that might be worth exploring?

@Karmatime we were selling and moving 200 miles into rental. We moved everything out, did a deep clean and left house on a management contract with the estate agent (essentially paying a slightly higher % fee for the sale). Couldn't be bothered with the hassle of moving in bits and having to keep going back to check on it. It was also cheaper than moving in bits and having to do repeated trips.

That’s a good shout @RidingMyBike . I’ll definitely ask the agent about that if I need to. I suppose I’m nervous because in the last couple of months since the sale was agreed I’ve had a leak and a break in. All fixed and repaired now but I’m waiting for the third thing!

It is totally doable, but also depends totally on the solicitors and the three in the chain being committed to it. You will need to chase everyday!

The one with the mortgage expiry issue was a mortgage advisor in his previous career so I'm sure he would do that if possible. However lots of lenders won't extend now as the rates are so much higher than when the deals were agreed. I know mine won't 🙄.
This has just been the most stressful thing I've ever known. How people move regularly is beyond me. I've been here for 15 years. I never ever ever want to move again! I put my house up for sale last March. Between the 4 sales that fell through meaning endless viewings for months on end, the mortgage that caused nothing but problems, the vendors taking 5 months to find somewhere... I'm just done in with it all!

You really couldn't write this shit.
I am sat here in tears, surrounded by boxes of my life neatly packaged up.
My solicitor dropped a bombshell this afternoon. My vendors property didn't have probate granted.
No one knew.
I immediately rang my vendor who was aghast and who then fired off rounds of calls to her sols, estate agents etc. who confirmed that no, probate had not been granted.
How the fuck does one get days away from exchange without knowing this information? Who exactly has dropped a metaphorical bollock here?
My vendor is a lovely, lovely lady (well, couple, but it is her I'm in contact with). She has said she is going to break the chain and move to family or rent. So I am hoping that this will still all pull through. I have the contracts here, my son is coming to sign his bit tomorrow (as an adult away at uni - for the mortgage company's assurance). So we can exchange next week if they agree.
But I feel dreadful both at the thought of them having all this extra upset and hassle and also in case it all falls apart at the 11th hour. 75% of my sodding house is packed up as we didn't know how long it would take so we started 11 days ago and are apparently pretty efficient packers.
Never have I wished more that I was terribly inefficient at something.
Not sure why I'm even posting. Maybe hoping to hear from other people with house move disasters come good?

I thought our last house move would go to shit right at the last minute but our vendors suddenly magicked £500k from down the back of the sofa and broke the chain this saving the day. I assume it was family money pooled but still. We made it.

💐
Hope it comes through for you.

Thank you, I am just clinging on to the dream. If this falls through we are stuck for a good few years. My mortgage isn't able to be used on a different property so I can't even look at something else.
This is a moonshot basically.

I think it should be fine if your vendor is willing to break the chain. When we moved last year we completed the day before our buyer's mortgage offer expired and just 4 weeks after engaging a new solicitor after our previous one became critically ill. It was the most stressful experience of my life, but it all worked out in the nick of time!

It's been another morning of extreme highs and extreme lows.
My buyer has found out about the probate issue and proactively offered to find out about a mortgage extension which was obviously a massive relief. No idea if he can or not, but at least he didn't threaten to pull out when he found out.
Then on the flip side when I rang my vendor to give her that little bit of good news, she said she has found out that probate has only been applied for TODAY!!!!!!!!! There was a dispute. But apparently now resolved 🤷‍♀️. So now she has a new issue which is that she was porting her mortgage which could be an issue as she isn't moving in straight away. She is now waiting on her mortgage advisor coming back to her.
In the meanwhile I did some searching and found that her lender (she told me who she was with) do seem to allow this break between properties and will refund the ERC if completed within 180 days which if it is the case will be fine.
Just...... ARRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
So... who fucking knows anymore 🤷‍♀️. Might happen. Might not.

@ThisMustBeMyDream that sounds incredibly stressful and I am sorry things have taken so long. We have been in our current house for 20 years and I have vowed never to move again because this whole process is so stressful.

do they know how long the probate will take? At least your vendor has offered to break the chain. Really hope you get some positive news
soom